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 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