Superman III is a 1983 superhero film based on the DC Comics character Superman, portrayed by Christopher Reeve. It is the third installment in the Superman film series and the sequel to Superman II (1980). Directed by Richard Lester and written by David and Leslie Newman, the film stars Reeve, Richard Pryor, Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure, Annette O'Toole, Annie Ross, Pamela Stephenson, Robert Vaughn, and Margot Kidder. In the film, Superman battles Ross Webster, a corrupt businessman who has constructed a powerful supercomputer to kill him.
Superman III was released in the United States on June 17, 1983. The film proved less successful than its predecessors, both critically and financially, grossing $80.2 million worldwide. A sequel, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, was released in 1987.
Plot
The conglomerate Webscoe Industries hires computer programmer Gus Gorman, who secretly embezzles $85,000 from the company payroll. He comes to the attention of Webscoe's CEO, Ross Webster. A cunning billionaire fixated on using technology for financial domination, Webster sees Gus's skills as a valuable asset. With the help of his stern sister, Vera, and his mistress Lorelei Ambrosia, he blackmails Gus into aiding his schemes.
Clark Kent, accompanied by Jimmy Olsen, returns to Smallville for his high school reunion. Along the way Clark—as Superman—extinguishes a fire in a chemical plant. Jimmy is injured during the fire and is taken to hopsital. In Smallville, Clark reconnects with childhood friend Lana Lang, who has a young son named Ricky. Superman later saves the boy from a combine harvester during a picnic with Lana.
Webster orders Gus to use the weather satellite 'Vulcan' to create a storm that destroys coffee crops in Colombia, aiming to corner the market. Gus complies, but Superman neutralizes the storm. Recognizing the hero as a threat, Webster orders Gus to synthesize Kryptonite. When the computer fails to recognize the total chemical composition, he substitutes tar for the unknown elements. Lana invites Superman to Ricky's birthday party. Gus and Vera infiltrate the party, giving Superman the synthetic Kryptonite, which leaves him unharmed, to their confusion. Instead, he gradually becomes corrupted after exposure to it, committing sophomoric acts such as straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa and blowing out the Olympic Flame.
Gus proposes building a supercomputer for Webster in exchange for creating an energy crisis by redirecting oil tankers. Lorelei seduces Superman and manipulates him into causing an oil spill. Superman suffers a nervous breakdown and splits into two beings: the corrupted Superman and Clark Kent. The two fight, and Clark defeats his corrupted counterpart by strangling him to death. The renewed Superman then repairs the damage from the oil spill. After surviving exploding rockets and a missile, Superman confronts Webster, Vera, and Lorelei in the supercomputer. The computer becomes self-aware and defends itself against attempts to disable it as it transforms Vera into a cyborg. Vera then attacks Webster and Lorelei with energy beams that immobilize them. Superman retrieves a can of acid from the chemical plant and uses it to destroy the computer. Superman hands Webster, Vera and Lorelei to the authorities. Gus starts anew in West Virginia.
Meanwhile, Clark visits Lana in Metropolis, where she begins working as a secretary for Perry White. Lois Lane returns from Bermuda with an exposé on corruption, and Superman restores the Leaning Tower of Pisa before flying into space.
Cast Christopher Reeve as Clark Kent / Superman: After discovering his origins, he makes it his mission to help the Earth. Superman battles megalomaniac Ross Webster, who attempts to control the global coffee and oil supply. Richard Pryor as Gus Gorman: A bumbling computer genius who works for Ross Webster and becomes linked with his plan to destroy Superman. Jackie Cooper as Perry White: The editor of the Daily Planet. Marc McClure as Jimmy Olsen: A photographer for the Daily Planet. Annette O'Toole as Lana Lang: Clark's high school friend who reconciles with Clark during their high school reunion. O'Toole later portrayed Martha Kent on the television series Smallville. Paul Kaethler as Ricky, Lana's son. Annie Ross as Vera Webster: Sister and partner of Ross in his company and plans. Pamela Stephenson as Lorelei Ambrosia: Ross's assistant and mistress/girlfriend. Lorelei is skilled in computers but hides her intelligence from Ross and Vera. As part of Ross's plan, she seduces Superman. Robert Vaughn as Ross Webster: A villainous, wealthy industrialist and philanthropist. After Superman prevents him from taking over the world's coffee supply, Ross is determined to destroy Superman before he can stop his plan to control the world's oil supply. He is an original character created for the film. Margot Kidder as Lois Lane: A reporter at the Daily Planet who has history with both Clark Kent and Superman. She is on vacation in Bermuda. Gavan O'Herlihy as Brad Wilson: Lana's ex-boyfriend and Clark's high school bully; now an alcoholic security guard.
Shane Rimmer appears as a state police officer. Pamela Mandell appears as the hapless wife of a Daily Planet sweepstakes winner. Aaron Smolinski, who played young Clark Kent in Superman, appears as the boy next to the photo booth that Clark uses to change into Superman.
Production
Development Richard Donner confirmed that he had been interested in writing at least two more Superman films, which he intended Tom Mankiewicz to direct, and use Brainiac as the villain of the third film. Donner departed the series during the production of Superman II. The film was announced at the 33rd Cannes Film Festival in May 1980. In December 1980, producer Ilya Salkind wrote a treatment for this film that included Brainiac, Mister Mxyzptlk and Supergirl.Ilya Salkind commentary, Superman III DVD, 2006 version The treatment was released online in 2007. The Mister Mxyzptlk portrayed in the outline varies from his comic counterpart as he uses his abilities to cause chaos. Dudley Moore was the first choice to play the role.Salkind, Ilya. Story Outline for Superman III; (PDF file); Accessed September 4, 2010 In the treatment, Brainiac was from Colu and had discovered Supergirl in the same way that Superman was found by Jonathan and Martha Kent. Brainiac is portrayed as a surrogate father to Supergirl and eventually fell in love with his "daughter," who did not reciprocate his feelings, as she had fallen in love with Superman. Brainiac retaliates by using a personality machine to corrupt and manipulate Superman. The climax of the film would have seen Superman, Supergirl, Jimmy Olsen, Lana Lang and Brainiac time travel to the Middle Ages for a final battle against Brainiac. After defeating him and leaving Brainiac behind, Superman and Supergirl would have married at the end of Superman III or in Superman IV. The treatment was rejected as being too complex and expensive to shoot. Because of the high budgets required for the series, the Salkinds considered selling the rights to the series to Dino De Laurentiis. The significance of computers, the corruption of Superman, and the splitting of Superman into good and evil would be used in the final film. The film was originally intended to be titled Superman vs. Superman, but was retitled after the producers of Kramer vs. Kramer threatened a lawsuit.
Casting Both Gene Hackman and Margot Kidder are said to have been angry with the way Ilya and Alexander Salkind treated Superman director Donner, with Hackman retaliating by refusing to reprise the role of Lex Luthor. After Kidder publicly criticized the Salkinds for their treatment of Donner, the producers reportedly punished Kidder by reducing her role in Superman III to a brief appearance. Hackman later denied such claims, stating that he had been busy with other movies and that making Luthor a constant villain would be similar to horror movie sequels where a serial killer keeps coming back. Hackman would reprise his role as Lex Luthor in Superman IV, which the Salkinds had no involvement in. In the commentary for the 2006 DVD release of Superman III, Ilya Salkind denied any negative feelings between Kidder and his production team and denied the claim that her part was cut for retaliation. Instead, he said the creative team decided to pursue a different direction for a love interest for Superman, believing the Lois Lane and Clark Kent relationship had been overdone in the first two films. With the choice to give a more prominent role to Lana Lang, the role of Lois was reduced for story reasons. Salkind also denied the reports about Hackman being upset with him, stating that he was unable to return because of other film commitments.
Though Christopher Reeve had been contracted for seven films as Superman, he engaged a lawyer to renegotiate his contract prior to production. Producer Pierre Spengler described the process of securing Reeve's return as contentious, though Ilya Salkind recalls that Reeve approved of the Superman III script and was more than willing to reprise his role.
After an appearance by Richard Pryor on The Tonight Show, telling Johnny Carson how much he enjoyed seeing Superman and Superman II, and Pryor jokingly stated his desire to appear in a future Superman installment, the Salkinds were eager to cast him in a prominent role in the third film, using the success of Pryor in the films Silver Streak, Stir Crazy and The Toy. Pryor accepted a $5 million salary. Following the release of the film, Pryor signed a five-year contract with Columbia Pictures for $40 million.
Filming Principal photography began on June 21, 1982. Most of the interior scenes were shot at Pinewood Studios outside London. The junkyard scene was filmed on the backlot of Pinewood. The coal mine scene was filmed at Battersea Power Station. Most exteriors were filmed in Calgary because of tax breaks for film companies. Superman's drinking was filmed at the St. Louis Hotel in Downtown East Village, Calgary, while other scenes such as the slapstick comedy opening were shot several blocks to the west. While the supercomputer set was created on the 007 Stage, exteriors were shot at Glen Canyon in Utah.
Effects and animation The film includes the same special effects team from the first two films. To create the video game computer animation for the missile scene, Time Warner's CEO at the time, Steve Ross, contacted Ray Kassar, the CEO of its subsidiary Atari. Kassar assigned the task to Steve Wright, head of Atari's special project department. Wright worked with Pat Cole and Paul Hughett among others to complete the project. Rather than create high-resolution, realistic computer graphics, they aimed to depict a "video game of the future". The project cost around US$120,000, with between US$95,000–US$100,000 going towards technology hardware. Before the request, Wright had developed a high-end graphics system to quickly create video game prototypes at Atari, which allowed them to create the footage faster than traditional programming in assembly language at the time. The system was a Lisp machine with a Symbolics microprocessor connected to an Ikonus framebuffer, which acted as the graphics chip. The system's software included a paint and animation program to create the graphics and a program to create the scripts that dictate movement and interaction. To complete the setup for the film project, Atari purchased Wright a Matrix film recorder with an Acme 35mm animation camera. Wright approached Carl Rosendahl from computer animation studio PDI to set up and calibrate the newly created recording system.