``Supergirl'' Why didn't Superman appear in ``Supergirl''? [That's when movies were born Vol.2]

Will Supergirl be Brooke Shields or Demi Moore?

While the script was being rewritten without Superman appearing, casting had begun. Alexander Salkind recommended Brooke Shields for the role of Supergirl, who was a former child actress and was attracting attention as a young actress at the time with successive hits such as " Blue Coral " (1980) and " Endless Love " (1981). was.

Shields, who was 17 years old at the time, was the most suitable for the role of Supergirl, as she later played the main character in the 1989 film adaptation of the newspaper comic book series Brenda Starr. So I thought. However, it was his son Ilya Salkind who opposed this selection. He insisted that new actors should be discovered instead of established actors, just as they discovered Christopher Reeve in `` Superman .''

Director Jannot Schwarz agreed with Ilya's idea. He believed that what was needed for Supergirl was someone who could fly gracefully, not an actor with a career. For this purpose, it was necessary to devote several months before filming to intense training, and because they were looking for an actor who could withstand it and not be selfish, they agreed to the idea of ​​an unknown newcomer. While auditions were held in London and Los Angeles, one of the people Schwartz first saw was Demi Moore. Due to her youth and outstanding voice, Moore said that even if she was unable to play the role of Supergirl, she wanted to cast her in the role of Roommate, but around the same time, Moore was selected for a major role in Stanley Donen's ``Aventure in Rio'' (1984) and was cast. It didn't come true.

Like Christopher Reeve, Helen Slater was discovered at an audition in New York. She graduated from a performing arts school and spends her days auditioning while appearing in chewing gum commercials, so her presence stood out during the judging process. At the audition, she was first shown her performance as Linda Lee, Supergirl's earthly name, but at that time, she performed without knowing that Linda was Supergirl. With her hair up and glasses on, she created an appearance based on her own image and took on the challenge of acting. Next, when she played the role of Supergirl, she put on a hastily purchased leotard and a cape, and both the producer and director were convinced that she had enough presence to believe that she was Supergirl. .

Helen Slater was selected from among 600 people to take on a test shoot at Pinewood Studios in England. It coincided with the filming of `` Superman III ,'' and I was able to meet Reeve. A test film taken at this time shows her wearing a Supergirl costume, wearing a red bandana, and the "S" symbol on her chest resembling an apron. This costume is in line with the original story from the 1980s, but it is an unofficial test costume that will ultimately be supervised by DC Comics and Warner Bros. to return to a style closer to when it first appeared in the comics. , and Supergirl with an orthodox costume was born.

"Supergirl" (c)Photofest / Getty Images

The test was completed successfully, and Slater was now waiting for filming to begin, but when he returned to New York, he was able to have a private meeting with Reeve, who had finished filming Superman III . As they sat on a bench in Central Park after lunch, police cars and fire trucks passed by with their sirens blaring. Slater still remembers Reeve whispering, "Superman and Supergirl are sitting here and we can't do anything."

Once the main character was decided, casting for the rest began, following the same method used for `` Superman ''. The main character is a newcomer, and his parents and antagonistic villains are played by famous actors. So they had to bring in big names like Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman. First of all, Peter O'Toole of " Lawrence of Arabia " (62) will be in the Marlon Brando slot. He plays Zaltar, a sculptor in Argo City, where the survivors of Krypton live. While creating a work of art using the Omegahedron, which is the source of sustaining this planet, Kara (Helen Slater) accidentally sends it to the other side of space, which prompts her to head to Earth to retrieve it. becomes. In the second half of the film, Supergirl is sent to the Phantom Zone, where villains are banished, and she reunites with Zaltar, who had come there to punish her, and they try to escape together.

Faye Dunaway plays Serena, a witch who plots to conquer the world in the Gene Hackman slot. Her appointment came as a surprise. This is because the Salkind family had the experience of being at the mercy of her while filming `` The Three Musketeers '' (1973) and `` The Four Musketeers '' (1973), both of which were directed by Richard Lester. Every day, Lester arrived at the set an hour late, and The Day After the makeup started, so even Lester, who shoots early, had a hard time. Even during filming, Dunaway displayed reckless behavior, including throwing her brawler Raquel Welch onto the marble floor. To begin with, it was unknown whether she would take on the role of the villain in ``Supergirl,'' but surprisingly, she readily agreed. Apparently she was inspired by Gene Hackman, who played Lex Luthor in Superman . ``Jean must have had so much fun acting,'' Dunaway said in the late July 1984 issue of Kinema Junpo, ``I wanted to capture that kind of fun way of acting.''

Supergirl's mother is played by Mia Farrow, who starred in Rosemary's Baby (1968) and The Chameleon Man (1983). Mark McClure, who plays Jimmy Olsen, makes his only appearance from the Superman series. In the original script, he was the first to see Supergirl. She looked a lot like Superman and was supposed to ask, ``Is she Superman's sister?'' However, in the end, Superman did not appear in the movie, and she played the role of connecting the two worlds. Jimmy's presence, which was supposed to have played a role, was only treated half-heartedly.

How to make Supergirl fly?