Hooray For Hollywood..?

One of the many choice exhibits in a waxwork museum which, to the best of my recollection, I discovered in Kissimmee’s Old Town, Orlando, Fl in the late nineties.

While its usually always a pleasure to see Christopher Reeve’s Superman represented in any form – this particular piece is more notable for its comedy value but given the resources its a pretty valiant attempt…

 

Turning Japanese…

Showcasing arguably the sharpest and most colourful photography available from the Movie series, these Japanese Programmes also contain Cast & Crew Bios along with the standard synopsis of each picture.

The first in a number of posts to come of Japanese printed matter including clippings with even more rare imagery..!

 

Behind The (Deleted) Scenes – Metropolis JFK…

Candid images from the set of Jeremy’s school from Superman IV: The Quest For Peace – In reality the Woughton Campus of the Sir Frank Markham Comprehensive School in Milton Keynes, UK, Circa 1986. Note veteran make-up artist Stuart Freeborn attending to Reeve’s sideburns – Freeborn was the Make-Up Supervisor on all four pictures;

From Starlog Magazine #119;
“It takes about an hour and a half to make Chris up as Superman, and about thirty minutes to do his Clark Kent makeup. Chris’ face is just about the same as it was ten years ago – I know makeup men are supposed to say that anyway, but in this case, its really true…”

 

A DC Movie Special..?

Once DC comics sold the rights to adapt Superman for the Silver Screen to European producer Alexander Salkind, among the mess of litigation that took almost thirty years to unravel was the ownership of the story.

Mario Puzo was credited as the writer of both Superman: The Movie and Superman II yet little of his work beyond concept and structure made the final cut. This is one theory as to why there was never a comic-book adaptation of the first two Superman Movies, The other is nobody at DC had thought of it yet.

Over the next decade the situation was rectified and adaptations of Superman’s III and IV took their rightful place on newsstands along with every major DC property to follow. Fans have longed for the set to be complete for decades along with Puzo’s original colossal volume. During the wait some visionary DC Writers and artists have taken it upon themselves to envision an origin story using the theme and tone of the movies as a major influence. The best of these is John Byrne’s Man Of Steel mini-series from 1986 and the bang-up-to-date Superman: Secret Origin series by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank.

From the top; French Superman No: 136 (Circa 1979 – Although the perfect cover for an adaptation sadly houses nothing more than a reprint of two silver-age adventures) Superman III Movie Special, Superman III 7Up Promotion Cover variant and Superman IV; The Quest For Peace Movie Special…