After Superman and Superman II, things were about to get very different with 1983’s Superman III. Here’s the story. Plus: bonus James Spader! After the success of Superman: The Movie and Superman II, producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind were quick to promote Superman III – or Superman vs Superman as they originally wanted to call ... Podcast | Superman III (1983), the tonal shift, plus a conversation with James Spader
After Superman and Superman II, things were about to get very different with 1983’s Superman III. Here’s the story. Plus: bonus James Spader!
After the success of Superman: The Movie and Superman II, producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind were quick to promote Superman III – or Superman vs Superman as they originally wanted to call it. But this time around, there’d be problems again, and no shortage of them. Christopher Reeve was rumoured to have had enough, Gene Hackman was outraged at the treatment of director Richard Donner on the previous movies, and a possible plot involving the character of Brainiac was nixed too.
The turning point? An appearance by Richard Pryor on a television show, that led to Superman III being a very different beast to the first two – and a film not without a childhood nightmare with it.
For the second part of this episode, Simon is joined by legendary actor James Spader. He’s reprising his role of Ultron from Avengers: Age Of Ultron in Marvel’s now-streaming VisionQuest series. And they get into a bit of Crash and Wolf as well…
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