Scene of the Week: Superman, Cannon Style
1987 proved to be an ambitious year for Cannon Films. They paid Sylvester Stallone a ton of money to star in the arm wrestling themed Over the Top. They brought He-Man from the toy aisles and the cartoon world into the realm of live action cinema. And they produced what was to be their first of many superhero films… Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
To their credit Cannon was able to secure the on screen talents that made the 1978 Superman a blockbuster hit… Christopher Reeve returned to his dual role of Superman and Clark Kent. Gene Hackman, who was not a part of Superman III, was back as Lex Luthor. Margot Kidder and Jackie Cooper reprised their roles of Lois Lane and Perry White respectively, albeit with diminished screen time. But what should have been a sure fire money maker ended up being one of the nails in the coffin for Cannon Films, due in great part to them not spending the money behind the scenes to accommodate the high quality special effects that fans of the franchise had come to expect.
Still many fans have a soft spot for the red headed step child of the Superman movie franchise and I think one such fan is documentary filmmaker Oliver Harper. In this special edition of Scene of the Week, we will take a look at Harper’s Superman IV: The Man of Steel and Glass documentary. The doc takes an interesting behind the scenes look at the unique filming locations used in Cannon’s take on Superman…
For more of Oliver Harper’s documentaries and videos, be sure to visit Olivers-Retrospectives.com!
