Superman (1978 film) finish writing duties. George MacDonald Fraser was later hired to do some work on the script, but he says he did little. Their script was submitted in July 1976, and carried a camp tone, including a cameo appearance by Telly Savalas as his "Kojak" character. The scripts for "Superman" and "Superman II" were now at over 400 pages combined. Pre-production started at Cinecittà Studios in Rome, with sets starting construction and flying tests being unsuccessfully experimented. "In Italy," producer Ilya Salkind remembered, "we lost about $2 million [on flying tests]." Marlon Brando found out he could not film in Italy
Superman (1978 film) release also includes a standard Blu-Ray of the theatrical cut, plus select bonus features carried over from previous video releases, and digital copies of both the theatrical and three-hour TV versions. "Superman" was nominated for three Academy Awards (Best Film Editing – (Stuart Baird), Best Original Score – (John Williams) and Best Sound – (Gordon K. McCallum, Graham V. Hartstone, Nicolas Le Messurier and Roy Charman)) and received a Special Achievement Academy Award for its visual effects. Donner publicly expressed disgust that production designer John Barry and cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth had not been recognized by the Academy. "Superman" was successful