For a movie over 30 years old and generally reviled by fans and critics alike, its amazing how Superman IV: The Quest for Peace still solicits such in-depth analysis to this day.
Indeed, few other motion pictures historically have spawned so such controversy over their shooting locations – mostly attributed to the fact the movie was shot in its entirety in the UK and budget restrictions did little or nothing to disguise the fact. As unlikely now as it was at the time, the majority of exteriors doubling for New York clone Metropolis were found in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.
In fairness to Production Designer Graham Easton, there would be very little viable alternative finding a city in England with anything like the kind of architecture required to successfully convey any US city, let alone the Big Apricot. So in 1986, with the assurance anything above six storeys would be adapted into a convincing skyline with the addition of matte paintings (created by either Harrison or Peter Ellenshaw), The city of a thousand roundabouts with its glass & steel frontages must have seemed a safe bet.
With that in mind, please take the time to look at this awesome piece from the guys at Den Of Geek that revisits the locale as it stands today. Besides the fact very little has changed from then to now its remarkable how close in proximity all these filming sites were (The Metropolis Hotel, Museum and Daily Planet lobby are all the same building).
While this most recent pilgrimage is quite exhaustive, it should come as no surprise that SUPERMANIA had also visited more than a decade before (when the buildings were still open to the public) during an enjoyable excursion with the members of Dharmesh Chauhan’s Superman CINEMA message board back in the day, with pre-digital pics above revealing the sites to be in an even more pristine state, (including the infamous train station, top pic).
Further to the Den Of Geek rundown is the fact the Bannatyne gym beneath the Winter Gardens (third pic) was the Metropolis gym where Clark & Lacey’s workout was shot and just outside the Planet lobby doors was the location for the deleted scene of Lacey & Clark’s farewell in the taxi. (bottom pic) It should also be noted the Motorway used for Luthor’s attempted escape was a newly built stretch of the M25, not a Buckinghamshire road…
For even more illustrated history of the filming of Superman IV, (see the WEEKEND article quoted here) click on the post history tab on the right hand column of the page…
SUPERMANIA is proud once again to showcase the superlative works of SuperFan Jayce76 with all-new retro style ads for Superman IV: The Quest For Peace from his outstanding site Cinemazone Wallpapers.
For those of you with a fondness/guilty pleasure for output of the Cannon Group way back when, more fantastic pieces from Masters Of The Universe and the abandoned Spider-Man movie in similarly authentic style await…
SUPERMANIA is proud to present yet another rare vintage find with this excellent article from the short-lived LM magazine. This first of only four issues ever to hit shelves was a complimentary first edition and despite its sharp presentation (featuring art by Oliver Rey, top, under a plain black cover) and variety of pop-culture topics failed to find an audience.
While publisher Newsfield had already secured its demographic through monthlies devoted to computer gaming (Crash!, Zzap64) this obscure title (to date it is unknown what LM actually stood for though it does state ‘Leisure magazine’ on the first page) is still probably the last place you would expect to find a feature on the special effects of Superman IV: The Quest For Peace.
Indeed, Curtis Huchinson’s set visit (second and third pic, click for larger) is peppered with great little revelations, firstly from star Christopher Reeve but focusing mainly on the career and contribution of special effects supervisor Harrison Ellenshaw, (bottom pic) whose excellent pedigree was great assurance that the tradition of ground-breaking visuals set by the Superman series would continue.
For all the optimism expressed by Ellenshaw above at having been involved in the shoot from the outset, however, at the time of writing no-one could’ve foreseen the budget for the picture would be slashed considerably leaving Ellenshaw and his in-house team (OLW – Olsen, Lane & White) to make the best of what they had, which, as we all know, fell tragically short of the quality of previous works (Tron, Captain Eo) and was ultimately judged by many to be the worst of the series…
Head of Production for Cannon Films between 1982 and 1988, the late Michael J. Kagan – Executive producer of Superman IV: The Quest For Peace – gave his final thoughts on the movie in an interview with SFX magazine last year…
“We got off to a bad start on Superman IV. First of all we were meant to film at Pinewood Studios, which is where the previous three movies had been done. But Cannon had just bought EMI at that point. Elstree Studios was a part of EMI so we had to move the whole production there. Pinewood, however, were very upset about this. We had begun building a stage especially for Superman IV at Pinewood and that had to be cancelled. And they called me and gave me hell for it. They said ‘you will have to do all sorts of special effects on this movie which we are prepared for because we have done it three times already. But at Elstree you will not have that.’
Now I was a foreigner in London and I did not know what some of the things they were talking about even were. All I could do was say ‘We can get that done at Elstree’ but this was my first time dealing with any of this. Special effects were much more difficult to create back then…”
“The problems began with the script. The director, Sidney J. Furie, was a good choice and we had a great cast – I mean we even got Gene Hackman back – but the script was lacklustre. Anything you read about the shoot being tense or full of fighting or anything – none of that is true. There were some conflicts on Superman IV, sure, but nothing major. Sidney Furie could sometimes get a little overheated, and he would get into arguments with the actors, but otherwise the film was a friendly affair. Despite the problems with the budget and the effects everyone wanted Superman IV to work.”
“Christopher Reeve was quite a nice guy- he wanted to pilot his own plane over to London but the insurance company wouldn’t allow it – I remember that being quite a funny discussion. He was quite a modest celebrity – he was not into extravagance or anything. He believed in Superman IV and worked very hard on it. This is the problem – if it had been shot today it would’ve been a better movie. Today we could have made Superman fly, believably with blue screen and computers. But back then it took forever to do these visual effects and it did not look very good. Cannon was used to doing their lower budgeted movies and they simply took on more than they could handle. We set up a company in America for post-production effects where they were going to take out wires and everything. Well, right away that cost $3 million to do and Cannon was not prepared for these costs – which were essential for making it look good – so we could not do a lot of flying sequences. Then, most famously we had to make Milton Keynes look like New York, and I don’t think we convinced that many people. If I were to do it again, I would have insisted we at least had more time to develop the script.”
“Superman IV was a huge commitment for Cannon –I had done some other projects for Golan and Globus by that time and the intention was always to move on to bigger and better things. Unfortunately we took on too many other movies at that time and Superman got rushed along and lost in the pack. It deserved a lot more time and care. No-one wanted to make a bad movie – I look at the sequel, and many other Cannon productions and wish we could have slowed down and spent more time getting things right. Golan was a good man, and he remains my friend, but he had no control over himself. He loved the cinema and he would green-light movie after movie – giving work to a lot of people in the process – but the flip-side of it is that there was never enough money or time for things to be done properly. That was what hurt Superman IV…”
From the top – Excerpt from the UK TV show ‘Think it…Do it!’ (aired on BBC1 13/3/87) Hosted by Johnny Ball as he tours the Metropolis Street set at Elstree Studios before talking to storyboard artist Martin Asbury, Aerial shots of Elstree Studios of the site circa 1986 (illustrating where various scenes in the movie were staged) and bottom, the late Michael J. Kagan. Thanks to Superfan Tim Partridge for the vintage Elstree shots – For more on these sets go here and see them under construction here…
SUPERMANIA is proud to present this latest acquisition of promotional prints from Superman IV: The Quest For Peace. Pin sharp and measuring exactly 5×5″ – the purpose of these unusually small (but official) stills is unclear yet they are arguably the best representation of their respective flying scenes – indeed, somewhat better quality than the filmed sequences themselves.
Labelled DC Comics Inc. 1987 on the rear, though most of these shots were commonly used throughout publicity material for Superman IV, (with the exception of the fantastic unpublished shot, top) its worth noting that none of the foreground action and background plates match the scene as composited in the final film –
Photographed by Harrison Ellenshaw’s Special Effects team in 1986, an extensive library of background plates of New York City was collated for the many flying sequences/aerial battles scripted for the movie. Though Superman IV would benefit from the highest percentage of ‘live’ flying in the whole Super series, budget restrictions would reduce the process photography (so integral to maintaining the illusion) to almost pitiful standards.
Denied the use of Zoptics and lacking the quality of front projection, Superman IV’s flying unit would mostly be reliant on blue screen technique, (see here) prone to leaving hideous borders (or matte lines) around its subjects – perhaps tolerable on solid objects but inescapable on human subjects. This, combined with poor composition (bleaching out/making the actors transparent) reduce the wistful reprise of the original ‘Can you read my mind’ scenes, among countless others, to ‘B’ Movie status.
The full extent of the aforementioned sequence was not even available until the release of the the Deluxe Edition on DVD, where ‘going solo’ was established with more footage revealed in the deleted scenes. Implausible as Superman flinging Lois through the air at speed may be, there are nonetheless some charming elements and – like most of Superman IV – prime examples of what could be achieved with a tighter edit and digital upgrade…
