Mank
This essay was originally posted to Twitter between July 3, 2021 and July 14, 2021. It was composed of 1,143 words across 25 tweets.
"[Richard Donner] said, 'You're gonna do SUPERMAN.' And I said, 'Oh no I'm not.' I'd been rewriting a lot of pictures, and I didn't want to do it anymore."
- Tom Mankiewicz
"He said, 'Oh, I don't know.' I said, 'Come on over. Let's talk.'"
- Richard Donner
The screenplay for SUPERMAN passed through the hands of several writers before it arrived at its final destination before shooting: the desk of screenwriter and script doctor Tom Mankiewicz. Director Richard Donner had found the previous drafts of the script to be unworkable.
Mankiewicz's father, Joseph Mankiewicz, was a prolific screenwriter, as well as a director and producer. His cousin, Ben Mankiewicz, is a critic and frequent host for Turner Classic Movies. His uncle, Herman Mankiewicz, was the legendary cowriter of Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941).
Mankiewicz himself had authored several original screenplays by the time he came to work on SUPERMAN, but he was also a prolific script doctor by that point. A script doctor is a screenwriter whose job is specifically to rewrite or polish a previously existing screenplay.
Per Writers Guild of America rules, screenwriters must contribute over half of an original screenplay, or over a third of an adapted screenplay, to be credited. For this reason, script doctors are generally not credited for their work, nor are they eligible for many awards.
Donner felt that Mankiewicz's contribution to SUPERMAN was significant enough that he chose to credit him as "creative consultant." The WGA objected, given that Donner's decision was unilateral, and that Mankiewicz's credit appears in the movie after the credited screenwriters.
(In the opening titles of a movie, the more "important" credits come later. In the closing titles, the reverse is true.)
The WGA sued; the court found in Mankiewicz's favor. His credit appears in the opening titles after the screenplay credits and before the producer credits.
Guy Hamilton was originally set to direct.
Mankiewicz: "The picture was originally supposed to be shot in Italy... Then [they found out that they would save millions by going to England.] And Guy said, '[I can only spend 30 days a year in England] because I'm a tax exile."
During Hamilton's brief tenure, Mario Puzo had toured the archives at DC Comics and put together a story based on various elements from Superman comic books. He wrote an initial draft of the screenplay, which was then revised by Robert Benton and David and Leslie Newman.
When Donner came on, he was appalled by the tone and length of the screenplay.
Donner: "I called [Tom Mankiewicz]. I said, 'Mank, I just got this 500 page script that the Salkinds sent me on SUPERMAN.'"
In movies, one page of script equals roughly one minute of screentime.
Mankiewicz: "The script... just from the sheer length situation, had to be cut in half. Also, there had to be a radical change in tone to do it the way Dick wanted to do it."
Donner: "They had a different approach to Superman than I did. Their approach was [a parody]."
By coincidence, Hamilton and Mankiewicz had collaborated previously on several 007 movies, though they did not cross paths on SUPERMAN.
The best that can be said about Mankiewicz's contributions to 007 is that he rose or fell to the level that his director requested of him.
Aside from retaining the combination of story elements selected by Puzo, Mankiewicz effectively started over with a blank page.
Donner: "They had prepared the picture for a year and not one bit was useful to me."
Mankiewicz: "Not a word from the Puzo script was used."
Donner: "It was Americana... so Mank and I kind of eliminated everything that had been put in that [didn't work for the new approach]. And then Tom really wrote some wonderful original characters, and he brought them to life in a much greater way."
Mankiewicz: "We wanted to have the love affair, the romance between Lois and Superman, the relationship between Clark and Lois, to be so central so that [at] the end, when she [dies] and he's turning the world backwards, you really feel there's something there."
SUPERMAN ended up shooting in the United States and Canada, rather than England, rendering the sacrifice of Hamilton's directorship pointless, but nevertheless advantageous. Even if SUPERMAN had still had Mankiewicz, it would have failed without Donner as its steward.
When Donner was fired during the interim between SUPERMAN and SUPERMAN II, Mankiewicz was asked to return for rewrites, but refused. He was replaced by David and Leslie Newman, two of his predecessors from the script from the first SUPERMAN. They rewrote SUPERMAN II considerably.
Mankiewicz nevertheless retains his credit as creative consultant on SUPERMAN II--though, per the WGA's wishes, it was moved to a more traditional place in the opening titles. It follows Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's creator credit, and precedes Mario Puzo's story credit.
Following SUPERMAN, Mankiewicz went on to a prolific career "fixing" scripts, first for Warner Bros., then for Universal. In the mid-'80s, he signed on to rewrite an adaptation of Dragnet (Mankiewicz, 1987), and got along with the producers so well that they hired him to direct.
He would come to regret the trajectory of his career, saying, "It's been my fault, really. Perhaps in the beginning, I was intimidated by my family and its reputation... I think I've done good, solid work. I don't apologize for anything I've done. But I wonder if I've aimed."
Mankiewicz's work tapered off in the 1990s. He left Creative Artists Agency, who had represented him up to that point. His final credit is Till Death Do Us Hart (Mankiewicz, 1996), the TV movie finale of the five year series Hart To Hart, which had given him consistent work.
In 2006, he would have another opportunity to work on Superman. Film editor Michael Thau made an agreement with Richard Donner to reconstruct, as closely as possible, the version of SUPERMAN II that Donner would have directed. They enlisted Mankiewicz to help supervise.
The resulting film is less a finished movie than a high quality proof of concept. It consists mostly of footage shot by Donner and written by Mankiewicz, cut from original negatives. The rest is footage from Richard Lester's theatrical cut and other assorted odds and ends.
Mankiewicz appears throughout behind-the-scenes materials for the 2006 SUPERMAN box set, which includes SUPERMAN II: THE RICHARD DONNER CUT (Donner, 2006). He and Donner, jocular and thick as thieves, share commentary on the movie, as well as on the 2001 SUPERMAN special edition.
Outside of filmmaking, Mankiewicz was a wildlife conservationist, maintaining a home in Kenya and serving on the board of directors of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation.
In later years, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which ultimately took his life in 2010.
Previous: At The Movies
Next: R.I.P. Richard Donner
Back to contents.
Published 3/9/2024
"365 Days of SUPERMAN"
site and contents
© 2024 Ken Alleman.