Welcome To The Family..?
When the Salkinds struck their historic deal with DC Comics way back in 1973, the character of Superman was, of course, the prize. Much to the Salkinds delight, however, the rights didn’t just extend to The Man Of Steel, but now the entire Superman family was at their disposal. As their primary focus was going to be developing the movie to make audiences believe a man could fly (which would take another five years), and with the ultimate vision of creating an ongoing series of pictures ‘much like the Bond saga’, the chances of any of these lower-tier comic-book creations ever being exposed to celluloid were slim. Until the unthinkable happened.
Though the first Superman movie and its sequel had been a critical and commercial success, by 1983, the third in the series had not fared as well in either department. This, plus the reluctance of the leading man to continue in the role had prompted the Salkinds to regroup and consider the alternatives. Remembering that there was a whole back-catalogue of as-yet unexploited members of the Super-family from which to choose, Ilya Salkind announced Supergirl was in in pre-production faster than a speeding bullet.
With the cultural phenomenon status that the Superman films had enjoyed, it seemed inconceivable that both part three and now Supergirl (on its release in 1984) had failed to reach similar heights. But fall they did and so the Salkinds, burned by the experience financially and fearing the era of the superhero movie was coming to an end, opted for an equally iconic character for their next project. When Santa Claus: The Movie (1985) also failed to deliver the Salkinds needed a quick solution to recoup their debts. Superman was now up for sale.
In a meeting at Cannes in 1985, the rights to Superman were hurriedly snapped up by producers Menachem Golan and Yorum Globus of the Cannon Group Inc. Cannon Films, despite their well-earned reputation for churning out low budget, straight to video fare , were nothing if not ambitious and were looking to expand into the mainstream (whatever the cost). Golan & Globus methods were simple -acquire the rights to as many properties as possible, (Captain America, Spider-Man, Masters Of The Universe for example) announce they were all in ‘pre-production’ (without so much as a script in place) create the hype, gain the finance and shoot the picture quickly on as low a budget as possible.
This was all set to change as Golan & Globus promised to usher in a new era with the announcement of Superman IV, shooting in 1986. The fledgeling producers had one major problem, however, that they knew had to be overcome before anybody would take the project seriously. And so, after much negotiation and showing just how much they were committed to invest in the Superman series, Christopher Reeve was lured into the ‘Cannon Family’ (top pic, from the pages of Variety) with the ecstatic producers proclaiming that they had managed to secure him by ‘Giving him the picture he wanted, and one that the world wanted’. With Reeve’s personal project (contemporary thriller Street Smart) instantly greenlighted and creative control (to include writing and second unit direction) on the latest Super adventure, Reeve would become a willing Cannon ambassador (even making a personal appearance for the opening of a Cannon Multiplex cinema in Salford Quays, Manchester.)
The infatuation with their new adoptive son would be short-lived, however, and Reeve would soon become the black sheep of the Cannon family. In an amazing show of foresight, during the filming of Street Smart, Reeve challenged an outraged Menachem Golan by demanding another 1.5 million to shoot on location in New York, stating ‘If you don’t have the money to do this, how do I know you have the 30 Million to do Superman IV?’ (See video)
Of course, history now tells us just how well-founded these concerns were, as by January of 1987 Screen International covered the story of Cannon’s bailing out by Warner Brothers (second pic) but such was the extent of the company’s losses that it collapsed altogether the following year, having slashed Superman IV (now subtitled ‘The Quest For Peace’) ‘s budget and forcing Director Gary Goddard to fund the closing scenes of Masters Of The Universe out of his own pocket.
It was a debacle that the Superman series, and ultimately Reeve’s career would sadly not recover from. The Salkinds, meanwhile, Clinging on steadfastly to whatever DC Comics properties they had left, had decided to venture into television with Superboy (1988) which, while not a patch on its predecessors, had been a modest success, proving audiences were still interested in the genre. After the debacle of Superman IV, and incensed by the treatment of their most beloved and successful property, the Salkinds immediately moved to reacquire the rights from Cannon during their liquidation and move forward on a project with the working title of ‘Superman – The New Movie’…
