Superman (Salkind films) adopted a high protein diet. He added of muscle to his thin frame. He later made even higher gains for "Superman III" (1983), though for "" (1987), he decided it would be healthier to focus more on cardiovascular workouts. One of the reasons Reeve could not work out as much for "" was an emergency appendectomy he had in June 1986. Reeve was never a Superman or comic book fan, though he had watched "Adventures of Superman" starring George Reeves. Reeve found the role offered a suitable challenge because it was a dual role. He said, "there must be some
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut me on the picture and my loyalty was with Dick and I couldn't believe that they fired him." David and Leslie Newman were then brought back to re-tool the script constructing a new opening and a ending. The new opening involved Superman thwarting the nuclear terrorists at the Eiffel Tower. The new ending involved Clark causing Lois to forget his secret identity through a hypnotic kiss. Additionally, Christopher Reeve had became unavailable as he accepted to star in the romantic fantasy film, "Somewhere in Time", five months into the production shutdown by which his contract to shoot both "Superman" films