Working with Christopher, he convinced me he could fly, and he's convinced me he's going to walk again.
— Richard Donner
When when my first feature opportunity came along, I wasn't prepared, but we did it in about 17 days.
Superman was never previewed because the producers didn't trust Warners with the film.
It's only been a couple of times in my life that I've really locked horns with actors. It did not hurt the films, it just hurt the moment of the filmmaking.
It was just the thrill of a lifetime. Brando and Hackman were two of my heroes.
If you had the opportunity and some talent, there was no way you couldn't progress, because it was an open market. There was the advertising world, and there was the documentary world.
I was very lucky. I started my own commercial company.
I was painting sets, working in editorial as an assistant, driving their trucks, lying that I knew how to drive a truck, and doing commercials and documentaries.
I realized what you could do in motion pictures by surrounding yourself with geniuses.
With The Omen, I really felt I wasn't in control. It was panic.
When I was doing half-hour shows, I loved it and was preparing myself for the hour shows. Then when I did the hour shows, I was preparing myself for the specials and features.
Soon it's all going to be digital anyway. It's all going to be saved on a little coin somewhere.
It's developing a relationship with actors that makes it work.
It was 1978 when Superman came out, and I kept thinking, Why don't they do something about it? They've done all these crappy attempts at comic book film adaptations. What can we do different? Why don't we just re-release this thing?
I've always wanted to do a Crichton book. I really love his writing.
I was tweaked by the idea of Superman immediately.
I was an actor... or, at least, I was trying to be an actor.
I had life threats, because people accused me of approaching Brando as God and his son was Jesus. I literally had people saying my blood would run in the streets for doing that.
When you make a film, you like to run it with an audience. They tell you you're narrow-minded or subjective, or that seems too long, or that doesn't work.
That's how you get a performance - they put trust in you.
People say, You paid your dues, but I never paid any dues. It's always been a great trip.
It was the beginning of film for television. So we had all of these great opportunities. Northwestern was probably the only major film school of its kind at the time that was graduating anybody important.
In motion pictures, the actor rules. The camera served the actor.
I'm open to comments. I'm open to objective points of view, because I've been very narrow and very subjective.
I was really disappointed that Warner Bros. didn't think highly enough of my film or my filmmaking to ask me to make the new Superman.
I think what some people are doing with effects is starting to get silly. It's overused.
How was I going to make a man fly? How was I going to convince the public that an actor could fly?
