Superman III
Short description
Superman III continues the adventures of Clark Kent and his alter ego, who this time faces a threat engineered by a wealthy businessman, Ross Webster. Webster recruits Gus Gorman, a gifted but erratic computer programmer, to serve his plans for economic domination. When Superman intervenes, Webster turns to synthetic kryptonite, which affects the hero in ways nobody anticipated. Clark also returns to Smallville, where he reconnects with Lana Lang, his high-school girlfriend.
Richard Lester directed, following his work on Superman II. The screenplay is by David Newman and Leslie Newman, and Pierre Spengler produced. Christopher Reeve returns as Clark Kent and Superman, with Richard Pryor as Gus Gorman, Robert Vaughn as Ross Webster, Annette O'Toole as Lana Lang, Annie Ross as Vera Webster and Pamela Stephenson as Lorelei Ambrosia. The film is the twelfth of thirteen features Lester directed, between Superman II and The Return of the Musketeers.
Released in June 1983, the film had a budget of 39 million USD and took about 80 million USD worldwide, a modest return relative to its cost. On IMDb it holds 5 out of 10 from over 73,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 5.5 out of 10 from around 1,900 votes. A critics' rating of 4.5 out of 10 from 59 reviews places it below even the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Margot Kidder (who played Lois Lane) expressed her dissatisfaction to the film's producers, Alexander and Ilya Salkind, over the firing of Richard Pryor (who played Gus Gorman), after which her role in the movie was cut to 12 lines and less than 5 minutes of screen time.
- Christopher Reeve, who played Superman/Clark Kent, threatened to drop out of the project in protest of Richard Pryor's firing and because he disliked the script. Pre-production was already underway, and the producers had to urgently find an actor for the lead role. An offer was made to John Travolta, but he rejected it. Jeff Bridges and Kurt Russell were also approached, but they showed no interest. A few days before filming began, the producers decided to go with Tony Danza, but this idea horrified director Richard Lester. He rushed to beg Reeve to return to the franchise, and Reeve eventually agreed, but only on the condition that he be allowed to make some changes to the script. The producers did not object.
- When Richard Pryor's character enters coordinates to change the weather in a region, he specifies the coordinates of a region between Sri Lanka and the Maldives (75 degrees longitude and 5 degrees latitude). However, according to the plot, the hurricane occurs in Colombia (which corresponds to the coordinates -75 degrees longitude and 5 degrees latitude).
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