With
Superman: The Motion Picture Anthology (1978-2006) being released by Warner Bros this June as a Blu - ray boxed set, Hero Complex' Geoff Boucher sat down with director Richard Donner to discuss the film. What followed was a very interesting conversation. Below is an excerpt pertaining to Donner's thoughts on the legendary Christopher Reeve.
It’s hard to describe how much Christopher Reeve meant to people in this role. I imagine you start thinking quite a bit about his life and his death when these revisitations to “Superman” come along.
More than that. Many years ago, when “Superman” came out, there was a half-body cut-out on the side of the sound stage up here [on the Warner lot in Burbank], and it had the logo and everything. Years later, I was over in either the sign shop or the prop shop, and I looked up and I saw it there. I said to the guy there, ”Can I have that?” and he’s says, “No, no, it belongs to the studio.” About two years later, Michael Riva, the production designer, was doing something, and I knew he was over in the prop shop and I told him, “Mike, just steal it, you’re a designer, nobody’s going to ask you, just take it.” So he took it down, he delivered to my house and put it up on the side of a hill next to my house. It looks like Chris is coming out of the hill. Shortly thereafter, Bob Daly, who was chairman of Warner, came for dinner at my house and saw it and said, “Where did you get that?” And I said, “You gave it to me, don’t you remember?” And he said, “Oh yeah, that’s right.” So I was good. But the point is I think of Chris all the time. This thing is right next to my pool, and I get in the pool a lot and I look up there and I think about him a lot. There’s nobody that could have played that role the way he played it. I don’t think anyone will ever come along and play it like he played it — others will have to play it different — and on top of that, he was a really special individual. A great kid, a great person, loving and devoted, a great sense of humor and the personification of a good friend. He also made my career. I think about him an awful lot.
Hawksblueyes: Be sure to click on the link below to read this interview in it's entirety at Hero Complex.
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