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 in film Jimmy Olsen. Even though the film performed poorly at the box office, Helen Slater was nominated for a Saturn Award. Cannon Films picked up an option for a fourth Superman/Reeve film, with Reeve reprising the role due to his interest in the film's topic regarding nuclear weapons. However, Cannon decided to cut the budget of "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" from $35 million to $15 million, with poor special effects and heavy re-editing, which contributed to the film's poor reception. Warner Bros. decided to give the series a break following the negative reception of the last two Superman films.