Below is a very cool video that features detailed before and after comparisons of the former location of the Kent Farm from 'Superman: The Movie' as it was in the film, and as it is now.UPDATED: News has just come through that screenwriter/director/producer and 'Superman' creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz has passed away.
(1942-2010)In 1977, director Richard Donner was hired to direct Superman: The Movie and Superman II back to back. At the time the Mario Puzo script drafts combined were more than four hundred pages long (an impossible length to shoot) and Donner felt the script was too bloated, campy and more like a novel than a script. He brought Mankiewicz aboard to do a complete overhaul in terms of length, dialogue and tone. Mankiewicz stayed on the production for more than a year, assisting Donner in other departments as well. Donner gave Mankiewicz a separate credit in the main title: “Creative Consultant.” The Writer’s Guild strenuously objected on two grounds; first, that the traditional script arbitration process was being bypassed and second, that Mankiewicz’s credit came after the original screenwriters and not before them, implying that his contribution was more important. The dispute went to a legal hearing which Mankiewicz won.
Tribute To Tom Mankiewicz
