One of the fascinating pieces of trivia below is true*, the other is false. Do YOU know which is which?
Superman (1978)
1) The Mario Puzo screenplay that Richard Donner inherited (and quickly rewrote) included one infamous camp moment where Lex Luthor encountered Telly Savalas playing Kojak in a railway station. Kojak then offered Luthor a lollipop and asked him his trademark line, “Who loves ya, baby?”
2) Filming actually began six times with a different actor playing Superman each time, but five of them succumbed to various injuries of broken bones, fractured skulls and internal bleeding. Eventually, the filmmakers decided to change their technique of having Superman fly by hurling the lead actor out of a trebuchet 200 feet in the air, and went with a complex rig of wires instead. Christopher Reeve was finally cast in the part, but his flying scenes had to be heavily edited and carefully shot because he violently defecated out of sheer nervousness every time he was hoisted into the air. Diapers were tried, but he blasted through them with ease. Incidentally, the sixth of the original actors cast as Superman actually could fly, but after filming began he demanded an inordinate increase in pay and that Ned Beatty be buried neck deep in the ground with his tongue stapled to the floor during the filming of their scenes together. Although never confirmed, that actor is widely believed to have been Nick Nolte.
You said “trebuchet” – heh heh heh heh
Giggity!!
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That Telly Savalas bit is still less terrible than anything that happened in Man of Steel.
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And Reeve would continue to blast through the diapers well into old age. Statement of fact, or inappropriate joke? You decide!
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Faster than a speeding bullet!
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