Christopher Reeve episode of Biography

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[Kamdan]

Good stuff! I’ve told people for years that Treat Williams told Reeve he shouldn’t play the role of Superman thanks to his interview in this. As we saw in The Phantom (“X-A-N-D-E-R-D-R-A-X. Both beings and ends with ‘X.’”), he treated comic book material with a very hammy approach. Personally, I think him and William Hurt were just jealous that they didn’t get the part as I’m sure they were among the types suited for the role at the time.

The bit about Michael O'Keefe wanting the role of Jimmy Olsen and was how Reeve first heard about Superman is a tidbit that doesn’t get shared very often. Pretty sure his 6’1 height got him out of the runnings real quick.

I’d give anything to hear more from David Newman’s interview. I tried reaching out to Leslie Newman, but got nowhere. I’d really like to hear more from their involvement with the film aside from writing the Telly Savalas cameo. They essentially laid out the structure for the films as we know them and Mankiewicz did polish work which was how it was reflected in the credits.

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It’s funny how things work out isn’t it? A lot of those actors who seemed to loathe these kinds of roles and films ended up doing them. Treat Williams was pretty over the top in The Phantom. Almost the opposite of what most of the actors in STM did. That’s one of those movies where they couldn’t decide what they wanted it to be. It was that period after Batman where much like the period after Superman they wanted to replicate that kind of success but didn’t understand how.

And now John Hurt is a regular in the MCU. I wonder what Chris Reeve would think about that? He did recognize how his movie opened the door for other serious actors to do films like this. I’ve heard the Michael O’Keefe stuff before but it’s interesting to hear other well know actors talk about it and play connect the dots.

[Kamdan]

Joe Dante was originally going to direct The Phantom and he’s made the same criticisms about the film’s tone. When you think about Bruce Campbell almost getting the role, you really lament over the missed opportunity the film was.

Hurt (Not John, by the way) is definitely more comfortable in a dramatic leading role than attempting to do something fantasy driven. He was particularly a bore in Lost in Space, but he was suited well for General Ross to help deliver the gravity of the situations at hand in those films. Plus, an actor’s life is not cheap and they gotta take parts that payoff big to pay off living expenses, agents and all.

Actors like Reeve, Williams, Hurt and Jeff Daniels (who was mentioned being in the same play with Reeve) come from families with money and when they’re young, they desperately want to make big bucks so that they’re not having to ask their parents for it all the time since they probably paid for their education. I figure the actors that fit that type for Superman were eager to do it for the paycheck since they knew Brando and Hackman we’re apart of it. It’s very competitive and an actor’s weakness is doubt and fellow actors are known to put it into the minds of other actors that they shouldn’t take a role, even though they want it for themselves. Good thing Reeve didn’t listen to them and the rest is history!

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Sorry I meant WILLIAM Hurt. Must have gotten my wires crossed. That’s true about so many actors especially from that era coming from pretty well off or well to do families. Chevy Chase was another one and I was just reading about one of Reeve’s other collaborators Glenn Close coming from a pretty affluent background. Some of them want to make it on their own and don’t want people to know about their backgrounds while others use it. I know Reeve said he didn’t want to live off his stepfathers money but even his fathers family was pretty well connected.

Hurts a fine actor but he’s never been particularly suited to genre stuff. You’d think there’d be an element of “told you so” if Reeve were still alive. Talks one thing but like you said they gotta pay the bills and any number of them would take those kinds of roles if the check was big enough. I remember John Malkovich saying years ago he wasn’t interested in that kind of stuff and yet here we are where he’s done Transformers and all kinds of other genre stuff that’s been crap.

As for the Phantom not only were there behind the scenes problems but after hits like Superman and Batman studios were buying up rights to comic strip and pulp characters that hadn’t been kept relevant for decades. That was a big difference been a Superman and stuff like The Phantom, The Shadow, Flash Gordon, etc. Back then they automatically thought being kind of character automatically meant a hit much like today when so many studios think shared universes automatically guarantee success.

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A different version of this episode of Biography.