Steven Spielberg was offered an opportunity to launch a superhero cinema with Superman

At the end of 1974, Ilya Salkind, his father Alexander Salkind, and their business partner Pierre Spengler bought the movie rights to “Superman.” The number of filmmakers linked to direct the project included Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin, Sam Peckinpah, George Lucas, Richard Lester (which would direct the following two sequences), and, of course, Steven Spielberg.

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At that time, Steven Spielberg was busy with “Jaws,” which became the moment of Lynchpin in cinematic history and a popular sweeping cinema. Ilya Salkind revealed in an interview with Superman’s home page Not only did he look to Spielberg to be at the helm of bringing America’s original superhero to the big screen, but that Spielberg himself wanted to make the film as well.

“Spielberg was actually in the beginning,” Salkind said. “He absolutely wanted to make the movie (…) at the time, Spielberg was still working on 1975 ‘Jaws’ and was largely unknown. His representation called Salkind repeatedly in Paris.” According to Salkind, they told him:

“We have this child who wants to direct ‘Superman’, he loves Superman, that’s his kind of things and he wants to do it. And I went to my dad, and said ‘Look at the guy.’ “

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Hot off the critical and commercial success with “Jaws,” Superman Producers “offered Steven Spielberg the direct job. Unfortunately, this was not supposed to be, because Spielberg was already committed to the 1977 Sci-Fi film, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Eventually, Richard Donner was employed to steer “Superman: The Movie,” and the rest is Hollywood’s history.