The Salkind Clause
This essay was originally posted to Twitter between April 28, 2021 and May 1, 2021. It was composed of 919 words across 20 tweets.
Prior to the first two SUPERMAN movies, father/son producing duo Alexander and Ilya Salkind worked on The Three Musketeers (Lester, 1973) and The Four Musketeers (Lester, 1974). Like SUPERMAN, the Musketeer movies were shot together as one long production.
Unlike the SUPERMAN movies, this was not the intention from the start of the project. Originally, the producers, along with director Richard Lester, envisioned The Three Musketeers as epic in both length and scope, intended to clock in at over three hours with an intermission.
Production on The Three Musketeers ran over schedule. The Salkinds, reasoning that they would miss their release date at the rate the work was being done, elected to cut the story in half at the point of intermission. The cast and crew would focus on the first portion.
The first part of the story would be released on time. They would then complete the second part, which would be released as The Four Musketeers the following year. Some members of the cast and crew only found out about the change by attending the premiere of The Three Musketeers.
Their contracts stipulated that they were being paid for one movie, with no indication that it would be released in two parts. By being split in two, the Musketeer movies could make twice the ticket sales, while paying out one movie's worth of compensation to many of its makers.
It may be worth mentioning that similar scheduling and budget overruns plagued the back-to-back production of the first two SUPERMAN movies. And, similarly, the producers elected to put the second half of the story on hold so that the first could be finished by its release date.
There was no double-dipping with SUPERMAN as there had been with The Three Musketeers. It was intended as two movies from the start. It should seem odd that, even though they were prepared this time for a long production and a two movie release, it still went over schedule.
Though it could be a matter of documentation, there doesn't appear to be another movie in Richard Donner's filmography that was dogged by this kind of problem. His other movies, like The Omen and Lethal Weapon, appear to have been finished more or less on time and on budget.
Also--and, again, this could be a matter of documentation--among cast and crew members who have worked with him, Donner has a reputation for expecting a lot from his team, but otherwise treating people with decency and crafting a healthy creative environment when making movies.
Margot Kidder, for example, had said (while excoriating a friend who had made a negative remark), "Richard treated his crew and his actors with dignity... I loved working with him." The maligned Mel Gibson, too, is effusive: "No matter what you say about Dick, it underrates him."
The Salkinds, along with fellow producer Pierre Spengler, criticized Donner relentlessly during the production of SUPERMAN for being over budget and over schedule--though, according to creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz, Donner had never been provided with a budget or a schedule.
Donner insulated his cast and crew from his behind-the-scenes difficulties with the producers, opting to preserve the creative sanctity of the set for the duration of his time on the production. Many of them had no idea until after the fact that there had even been a problem.
There is nothing in Donner's history to suggest an inattentiveness to budget or schedule, or a habit of exploitative or abusive behavior towards the people working on his movies. Had he been guilty of the producers' accusations, it would have been utterly out of character.
For that matter, there doesn't appear to be anything in Richard Lester's history to put him at fault for the scheduling problems on The Three Musketeers. Not only would it be out of character, but it seems doubtful that the producers would hire him again for SUPERMAN II.
By contrast, there is significant reason to believe that the Salkinds (and Spengler) had a habit of mismanaging productions and unprofessional behavior. They are the common linkage that explains the recurring problems between the Musketeer movies and the SUPERMAN movies.
If it sounds like I'm placing the blame for the problems on SUPERMAN on the shoulders of the producers, if it sounds like I'm taking Donner's side unequivocally in the battle between them, it's because I am. Sometimes, the only two sides are the right one and the wrong one.
Likewise, the Salkinds are ineluctably at fault for the double dipping and undercompensation of the cast and crew of the Musketeer movies. Many people had to file lawsuits in order to receive their full agreed-upon salaries for their work on The Four Musketeers.
Putting it bluntly, the Salkinds and Pierre Spengler sound like absolute hell to work with. The fact that Richard Donner was able to preserve sanity on the set of SUPERMAN, and that SUPERMAN came out as well as it did despite the producers' interference, is a small miracle.
Despite the Salkinds' malfeasance, their legacy is assured. After the Musketeer fiasco, the Screen Actors Guild stipulated that a single production can't be split into multiple installments without prior contractual agreement.
The name of this stipulation: the Salkind Clause.
When the Salkinds fired Richard Donner and brought in Richard Lester to finish SUPERMAN II, Lester took the job reluctantly. He wasn't eager to work with them again. But, he reasoned, maybe they would finally pay him in full for his work on the Musketeer movies.
Previous: The Last Days of Krypton
Next: Super Powers
Back to contents.
Published 3/9/2024
"365 Days of SUPERMAN"
site and contents
© 2024 Ken Alleman.