Tom "Mank" Mankiewicz boasts no less distinguished career as a screenwriter. Son of legendary director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the younger "Mank" first came to the attention of most moviegoers after adapting three of the biggest James Bond films of the 70's: Diamonds Are Forever, Live And Let Die and The Man With The Golden Gun. Mankiewicz would then go on to write such screenplays as The Eagle Has Landed, The Cassandra Crossing, and the highly entertaining Mother, Jugs & Speed. Though credited as "Creative Consultant" on Superman: The Movie, Mankiewicz is largely considered to be the film's screenwriter, and would later work with Donner on the director's 1985 adventure Ladyhawke. Mankiewicz made his directorial debut with the 1987 remake of Dragnet, starring Tom Hanks, and most recently contributed to the commentary on the Fox Home Video DVD release of Cleopatra, directed by his father.

Bounding into the Wetherly Room at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, California to greet a roundtable of reporters - just fashionably late enough to make a suitably grand entrance, - Donner greets us with the same voice that greeted Mankiewicz over twenty years before, when he initially got the call to work on the Superman project. "That booming voice of Dick Donner's that you can never mistake for anybody else!" Mankiewicz would tell us. With a nonchalant wave of the hand, Donner's introduction is so low-key it is almost humorous ("Hi, I'm Dick Donner.") Then the cake is cut (appropriately enough, the roundtable takes place on April 24^th, Donner's birthday) and we all sit down for an hour and a half of entertaining tales of Superman lore, production stories, strife and struggle. And though Mankiewicz warns us upfront that Donner "Calls everyone kid," both have such boundless energy (and Mankiewicz an impeccable memory), I start to think perhaps we should be calling them "Kids" instead!

With the production of Superman: The Movie already a Hollywood legend, just how did the whole project come about, and how did Donner and Mankiewicz come on board? The story is long, convoluted but never less than riveting. After the "infamous" father and son team of Alexander and Ilya Salkind bought the rights from DC Comics, they convinced Warner to distribute their epic as a " negative pickup" (essentially meaning the Salkinds would produce and fund the picture independently.) But the duo still had to secure two of the most elusive of Hollywood commodities...stars and funding.

Judging by Donner and Mankiewicz's mix of laughter and resignation when recollecting their memories of making Superman, the Salkinds may have been the last of a dying breed: grand showman more than actual producers. According to Mankiewicz, "Warner thought it might be a bad idea to do Superman, but they were going to wind up distributing it, so they said OK." Then Alexander Salkind (or "the old man," as Mankiewicz is fond of calling him!) went about attracting big names to help secure funding. Added Mank "The old man, all he wanted to do was get big names attached to get the money to do this thing. So they got Mario Puzo to write a first draft, Marlon Brando to appear, and they hired Guy Hamilton to direct it." (Rather ironic, as Hamilton directed some of the Bond films Mankiewicz would adapt from Ian Fleming's novels, though Mank was not actually attached to the project at this early stage)

To help drum up money, the Salkinds often resorted to pretty outlandish tactics - conjuring up some pretty no-holds-barred publicity stunts. Mank: "I think the Salkinds were one of the early practitioners of this style of fundraising. Which is to say, they would hire helicopters to fly over the Cannes Film Festival, saying "SUPERMAN!" But they didn't have a script, they only had Marlon Brando for a three-week window as the father. But that was their way of raising money - getting big names attached so they could say, 'OK, Germany will kick in this, France will kick in that!'" Eventually, however, by the time filming got underway, Warner liked enough of what they saw and contributed to the budget as well, thought the financial woes would continue.

With start dates already locked in place for Hackman and Brando and shooting set to start by March of 1977, according to Donner the production still "had no cast, no Superman, no Lois." Then there was another snafu. According to Mankiewicz, the Salkinds panned "to shoot in Italy at the time, and then suddenly the Italian Lyra shot up in value and the British Pound collapsed, so the Salkinds said 'Let's go to England!'" But that only added more problems. Hamilton, due to work visa issues, could only film in England for one month out of the year, so by moving base camp, the Salkinds lost their director. So in came Donner. Mank: "Dick had just done The Omen, which was a huge hit, so I guess that's why they got him on board."

And it was a dream come true for Donner, a comic book aficionado. As a kid, "I loved Superman, I loved Captain Marvel, I loved them all," though he added, "I think Archie was my favorite. I always wanted to make Archie, though I think it might be passé now. He get busted every week, I'm sure!" Donner then paused a bit here to reflect on his younger days, perhaps a bit sadly. Following the release of Superman, "My father died quite a few years back, and we lived on a farm, and my mother sold the farm and moved. But I got there too late, she had given away boxes and boxes of every comic book from the black and whites onward. But I loved comics."

So with Donner in place, it was time for "The Call." Mankiewicz received an early 5:30am ring from an excited Donner in early 1977. "'Get up! Get up! You're rewriting Superman!" he told Mankiewicz, who replied "'What the hell is Superman!?" But despite the lack of recognition, the call would eventually change Mankiewicz's life. Donner remembers telling Mankiewicz "I'm with these people called the Salkinds, and there is a woman on the way to your house right now with the script, and I know you're a really nice guy and you're not going to fall back asleep, you're going to wait up for her!" What greeted Mankiewicz at that door were "two of the biggest scripts I ever saw in my life. I think the two scripts together had to total at least four or five hundred pages! I put them down in the hall and went back up to bed." But Donner was persistent. "The phone rings again and it is Donner from Paris, and he says 'Are you reading?' I said, 'They're too heavy, I couldn't get 'em up the stairs!'"

Mankiewicz eventually relented, despite his grueling schedule over the previous few years working on the Bond films. And along with Donner, he also felt the script needed a change in focus and direction. Mank recalled that "I read it - and there were some very talented writers involved - but it was done in a very consciously campy style. So I said to Dick, 'I think I'm gonna pass.'" But Donner convinced him to come over to discuss it - with a little surprise waiting. "I went over to his house, he answered the door - and was dressed in the Superman outfit. I just started laughing and said, 'Okay, when do we start?'"

After screenwriters David and Leslie Newman took a crack at Mario Puzo's original story treatment - which neither Donner nor Mankiewicz claim to have even seen - Mankiewicz sat down to "break the back" of the script and get it into strong enough shape to shoot. Except it might have been more than the screenwriter had bargained for. "When I got this 560-page script, I said "It's six movies!" But the Salkinds had other ideas; namely, two movies to be filmed back to back...

Donner explained the story behind the rumors and the infamous "Salkind Clause" that is now standard issue in SAG contracts. The story actually dates back to a prior Salkind production, The Three Musketeers, produced in 1973, and directed by Richard Lester (who went on to co-direct Superman II and all of Superman III...but more on that later.) According to Donner "There is now a clause in the SAG contract called the "Salkind Clause," because they did Three Musketeers and they only paid the actors for one movie, but obviously shot a script that was so fat and so long, they had enough footage for two movies! And they went to release the second movie without paying the actors." Of course, eventually, the Salkinds were eventually sued, and forced to pay the actors.

To prevent the same abuse on the Superman project, the Salkinds (and any other filmmakers producing more than one film back-to-back) had to "declare" the number of movies they intended to make, and despite the considerable heft of that 560-page screenplay sitting on Mankiewicz's lap, the Salkinds declared only two. Though the Newmans had already rewritten the script, Mankiewicz claims there was no bad blood or jealously between any of the writers involved. "When I came onboard, I called the David (Newman) and I said 'Do you mind if I go on this picture?' and he said 'No, please, we left such a mess!'" So with no writer issues, how to explain Mankiewicz's ultimate "Creative Consultant" credit?

One of the most oft-discussed aspects of the whole Superman production is just what material was and wasn't in Mankewicz's ultimate draft of the screenplay, and why Mankiewicz's credit on the film ultimately reads "Creative Consultant" (as opposed to the typical "Written By.") According to Mank, it was only after he and Donner went "through hell and back" during production that he decided to go for a consultant credit. "I could have gotten a writing credit on the picture, but I really wanted a writing credit that more accurately reflected what I'd done throughout the length of the picture." This eventually led to a jury hearing with the WGA (Writer's Guild of America), who eventually awarded him the credit, a first in American cinema.

But not without controversy. Donner: "They didn't want to give it (the credit) to us, and no one has ever gotten it since. But it was going on there, no matter what." Though, he added, "It really should have been 'Written by Tom Mankiewicz.'" But the controversial choice of Mankiewicz's was not without sacrifices. "I was told at the time by the WGA that was I was sacrificing all my residuals by taking the Creative Consultant credit. And the WGA, where I am dearly loved today, " he added with a sarcastic laugh, "hated me for inventing that credit because since then a lot of people tried to use it!"

So with Donner and Mankiewicz now fully on board, the edict was to fashion two movies out of this big, raw lump, Mankiewicz and Donner sat down to figure out how to retool Superman for the 70's, but retain the integrity of the character and the story. Luckily for fans, Donner's love for the comics he read as a kid meshed with Mankiewicz's desire to avoid a campy tone. Mankiewicz: "Everybody has their own concept of Superman, and thank god Dick and I agreed on how we wanted to do it." But the filmmakers were not unaware of the pitfalls. Mank remembers telling Donner "Well, if we're wrong, it is like flying across the Pacific and missing Hawaii...you just sink. But this is how we see it. Humor so you could laugh with the characters, not at the characters."

In fact, Mankiewicz likens the task to his work on the James Bond films. "I've found whether it is James Bond or Superman, or any iconoclastic character, if you write self-conscious humor - and I think the tendency for a writer is to show everybody that you, the writer, are smarter than the material - it will be too self conscious. Stuff like 'Superman slips on a banana peel' or whatever. And I think that is the wrong way to go. I think Bond worked best when you really were scared that something was going to happen to him, when there was real suspense and it wasn't just camp."

So the pair decided to take Superman as a story in a somewhat surprising direction: turning it into, ultimately, a love story between Superman and Lois Lane (with, of course a little adventure along the way.) Explained Mankiewicz, "We decided to write three movies. The first part is up in Krypton, and the writing is very stilted, and there is kind of a religious allegory there that I kind of wanted, with God sending his son to Earth to save mankind. Then you hit young Clark growing up in Smallville, and that is all Andrew Wyeth-esque, and the dialogue is written very "Ma and Pa." Then, all of a sudden, he hits Metropolis, and BANG! The colors are bright, people talk very fast, and suddenly you're there."

This carried over to the intended look of the film. Donner intended it to be somewhat obvious "It was very consciously written, and shot, three ways. On Krypton there is a fog filter that is used a lot. In Canada, where we shot all the wheat fields for the Smallville scenes, it is photographed like an Andrew Wyeth painting. Then when we get to Metropolis, there's the reds, the blues, and its bold." But even with a script finally done and the approach Donner would take to shoot the picture solidified (or pictures, since at that point Donner was still expecting to complete both Superman and Superman II), the trials and tribulations were just beginning. The focus now shifted to casting, but you can't make audiences believe a many can fly with...no Superman. Enter Christopher Reeve.

Donner's first impression of Reeve were enthusiastic, if a bit cautious. "When I met Chris, I was seeing a bunch of other actors that day, and he came up to the hotel. He had kind of honey blonde hair, very skinny. He had this massive sweater on, with like four sweaters underneath it. He's sitting in my hotel room sweating like a pig. He apologized for being so uncomfortable, and starting taking off the sweaters, and he just made me laugh. I just thought this was the perfect kid." Just to be sure, Donner removed the horn-rimmed glasses he wore at the time, and "I put them on Chris. And he laughed, and I asked 'Could you bulk up?' because honestly, Superman is Superman! And he replied 'I was a jock. I can do this.'"

Sure enough, and despite some hesitation on the part of the producers, the "kid was perfect," and they few Reeve over to England to screen test for casting director Lynn Stalmaster, who also agreed Reeve was right for the part. As Donner recollected, a little help was needed for the transformation "We used black shoe polish to darken his hair, and he was so skinny, his cheeks were drawn, big balls of sweat under his arms..." Mankiewicz cuts in to add "We just thought 'maxi pads!' But we he came over, he did such a charming test, then Dick called Terry Semel and Bob Daly (the heads of Warner) and said "You gotta see this test." And thank god, they loved it!"

To help Reeve bulk up, they assigned him an Olympic trainer (Darth Vader himself, David Prowse!) and as production progressed, "You could see the difference." Donner remembers. "The costume started to blossom. At one point, we were even thinking of putting plastics under the costume that we could inflate, but in the end we didn't need to. He literally grew into Superman."

So with their new Superman in place, along with Brando, Hackman and then virtual-unknown Margot Kidder cast as Lois Lane, and it was time to begin production. But with the pressure of Brando and Hackman's ironclad "start dates" in place and unmovable, the tension mounted. Especially since the Salkinds had underestimated the budget that would be required (at that time around $17 million.) Tempers flared...

Recalls Mankiewicz, shaking his head, "There were times in the beginning, when nobody believed in it. Everyone thought that this was just going to be a disaster." And industry pundits were already lying in wait to predict the picture a failure before it even began shooting. Donner remembered the bad buzz. "They'd say, 'Oh, they got Brando and Hackman, they're overpaying, this is gonna be a joke.'" Yet, perhaps surprisingly, Donner didn't lose his cool. "We were younger then, and there wasn't seventeen assistant executives in Armani suits at Warner telling us what to do, they just let us do the picture." But there were still tense moments according to Mankiewicz. "At one point, when we couldn't find a Superman, and a new Lois was being tested every Saturday, we got so desperate we tested the producer's wife's dentist! Actually, we flew him over to London...and he wasn't bad!"

But the chemistry between Reeve and Kidder was crucial to the ultimate success of the film. Said Mankiewicz, "For me, there was a spine to this movie, and it was a love story between two young kids (Superman and Lois Lane.) And I think some of the best things about the picture are because of the very touching relationship between Chris and Margot."

A key scene was the first encounter on the terrace. For Mank, "It is really just two kids talking to each other. They're sexually attracted to each other, they're embarrassed but they don't want to say it." The original version of the scene was only two pages long and played for laughs, but Mankiewicz expanded it. "I changed it to about five or six pages, and it became the test scene for all the screen tests for Lois. And the obvious thing that I added was that he takes her flying, which would be every woman's fantasy - to fly with Superman." But Donner is quick to give the other elements of the picture credit as well. "Gene (Hackman) is very funny, and Ned (Beatty) is very funny." Yet, he agrees with Mankiewicz that it still is essentially a love story. "You could write those comedic lines, you can get all the adventure situations, but that is the glue that holds the picture together."