Launching a Superhero Genre Wasn’t His Intention, Says 'Superman' Director Donner (1 Viewer)

[smithb]

So if you use this logic then after it dies down a bit and 20 years from now the next crop are going to be giving credit to Singer and Nolan. Basically, it just comes down to who were the influences at the time in their earlier development.


Then you have to go back and say, well how do we know some of those involved in Superman the Movie weren't influenced by the Superman TV show from the early 50's, or the Superman serial that played in theaters in the late 40's.


The one thing we have from each era of superhero movies are technological advances that bring the same basic original stories back into the forefront because of new and more exciting ways to express them and make them real. Whether it is the capabilities of the 40's/50's, 70's/80's, or just in the last decade. Whether movie serials, TV shows, TV movies, or theatrical movies there has always been an interest because people grew up on the comics and in between the animated series. So the interest has always been there for green lighting such projects. That's why I give credit to the technology more then anything else for breathing new life into the genre from time to time.

 

[MattAlbie60]

Okay, lets approach this from a different angle.


What are some movies that you guys genuinely do think deserve credit for helping to kick-start a genre or a particular way of film making?

 

[smithb]

Well some times good ideas take time to mature, which can make it harder to pinpoint a single movie. Also, it takes time from the concept to actual having a film so ideas can be copied (case in point Wyatt Earp and Tombstone coming out so close together).


But to answer the question, many give credit to John Ford's 1939 "Stagecoach" for not only making a star out of John Wayne, but also giving legitimacy to the adult western. It won two oscars and was nominated for five more. I believe that same year it went up against "Gone with the Wind", "Wizard of Oz", "Mister Smith Goes to Washington", and "Huntchback of Notre Dame."


Before that many westerns were just "B" movies that kicked off a matinee. From 1934 to 1938 John Wayne was in almost ten "B" westerns a year with general the same troop of actors playing different parts. These were generally quick 50 to 70 minute quickies before the main feature.

 

[smithb]

Another set would be:


"With LITTLE CAESAR and PUBLIC ENEMY (1931) Warner Brothers established themselves as the Studio that could produce topnotch, gritty crime dramas. The reputation was well deserved and the films were appreciated by movie viewers already enthralled by the headline exploits of real life Depression desperadoes"


My understanding is that WB was a rather small studio at the time and took a chance on doing these films, which really paid off. The idea of doing movies mimicing what was really going on from a crime element standpoint was thought by other studio's to be too risky. These two movies kicked off the crime boss genre of movies.


"The Maltese Falcon" gets a lot of attention from the Film Noir standpoint, but I don't think it started it all.

 

[smithb]

I guess to bring things to more current day you have the original Star Trek TV series and the Star Wars movie. These can both be credited for changing the landscape technologically, but they also did more then that for how ScFi would be perceived going forward. Star Trek for its space exploration and Star Wars for it's space opera approach (I believe they say).

 

[Chuck Anstey]

Jaws for the beginning of the concept of the summer blockbuster.

 

[Will Krupp]

Originally Posted by TheBat /forum/thread/311940/launching-a-su...on-says-superman-director-donner#post_3825175