Superman (1978 film) father on Earth. "Superman" was originally scheduled to be released in June 1978, the 40th anniversary of "Action Comics 1", which first introduced Superman, but the problems during filming pushed the film back by six months. Editor Stuart Baird reflected, "Filming was finished in October 1978 and it is a miracle we had the film released two months later. Big-budgeted films today tend to take six to eight months." Donner, for his part, wished that he had "had another six months; I would have perfected a lot of things. But at some point, you've gotta turn the picture over." Warner
Superman (1978 film) project. The release included making-of documentaries directed by Thau and eight minutes of restored footage. Thau explained, "I worked on "Ladyhawke" and that's how I really met Dick [Donner] and Tom Mankiewicz. I used to hear those wonderful stories in the cutting room that Tom and Dick and Stuart would tell about "Superman" and that's how I kind of got the ideas for the plots of 'Taking Flight' and 'Making Superman'". Donner commented, "There are a few shots where Chris [Reeve]'s costume looked green. We went in and cleaned that up, bringing the color back to where it should be."