Christopher Reeve York in his own plane to shoot on location at the American Museum of Natural History. Also, in 1985, DC Comics named Reeve as one of the honorees in the company's 50th-anniversary publication "Fifty Who Made DC Great" for his work on the Superman film series. In 1986, he was still struggling to find scripts that he liked. A script named "Street Smart" had been lying in his house for years, and after re-reading it, he had Cannon Films green-light it. He starred opposite Morgan Freeman, who was nominated for his first Academy Award for the film. The film received
Superman in film (1980) simultaneously. Donner had already shot eighty percent of "Superman II" with Christopher Reeve before it was decided to finish shooting the first film. The Salkinds fired Donner after "Superman"s release and commissioned Richard Lester as the director to finish "Superman II". Lester also returned for "Superman III" (1983), and the Salkinds further produced the 1984 spin-off "Supergirl" before selling the rights to Cannon Films, resulting in the poorly reviewed "" (1987). Ilya Salkind commissioned a fifth "Superman" script before Warner Bros. acquired the rights entirely in 1993. Over the course of eleven years, Warner Bros. would develop and then