Superman is soaring back to the forefront. A new iteration of the Man of Steel is coming from Warner Bros, which made a splashy acquisition at Sundance of the documentary Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story. That tells the story of moviedom’s first Man of Steel, and how he found his real superpowers in becoming an activist after suffering an equestrian accident that left him paralyzed.
On the heels of that comes an auction by Peter Harrington Rare Books of storyboards that Ivor Beddoes drew for the original Superman, the 1978 blockbuster directed by Richard Donner, with script by Mario Puzo and David Newman, with John Williams score. The film starred Reeve, Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, Glen Ford, Ned Beatty and Terence Stamp. They’ve allowed Deadline readers and Superman fans to take a trip down memory lane and see how the film was structured visually. The most expensive film made for its time, the film became a blockbuster and won a Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects. It also became a template for Hollywood’s continuing obsession with superhero film franchises. The auction started today and runs through Feb. 11 at Pier 27, The Embarcadero in San Francisco.
Scroll down to check out the storyboards (images courtesy Peter Harrington Rare Books):