Marlon Brando, a legend on the set of Superman
Neither Lois nor Clark were the main stars of the film. One name stood out in the cast above all others, that of the Oscar-winning Marlon Brando. A true legend of the golden age of Hollywood, the actor ended up in the Richard Donner film, after a series of arduous negotiations. Brando had starred in such legendary films as A Streetcar Named Desire, The Godfather, or Last Tango in Paris and was called to be the claim that dragged viewers to theaters.
Brando was a pioneer by being the first renowned actor to agree to participate in a superhero film. He did it for a stratospheric sum of money. To his base salary of 3.7 million dollars, a significant percentage of the box office income was added, which meant that, given the success in theaters, the actor pocketed more than 14 million for "two or three weeks of work". as he came to admit. This and other aspects of his behavior during filming outraged Donner, who considered the actor's salary an indecent amount and disproportionate to his appearance time on screen. Brando's final participation in the film is limited to just over ten minutes of footage.
The relationship between actor and director was not good. Marlon Brando was a veteran in the industry and wanted to establish the law of least effort for himself. Few know that the emotional speech given by his character Jor-El with his son in his arms was strategically placed at different points on the set and read by the actor after he refused to memorize his text.
Nicolas Cage, the Superman that never was
Marlon Brando's pay for just 13 days' work also outraged leading man Christopher Reeves, who in 1982 spoke unfriendly about the actor on the David Letterman show. With those 14 million dollars, Brando became one of the interpreters who have earned the most money for the least time worked, although he does not hold the record.
Years later, Nicolas Cage would charge $20 million for a movie never made. He did it under cover of a clause in the contract and it was precisely a project to reboot Superman. Only photos of a costume fitting came to light from that film. We got to see Cage dressed in the superhero suit, but we never got to see him flying over Metropolis under the direction of Tim Burton in this frustrating project.
