Christopher Reeve lamented Superman IV’s low budget
The modern era of superhero movies really starts with Christopher Reeve’s portrayal of Superman in 1978, and he would play the DC flagship character in four total films. Reeve’s swan song as the Man of Steel came in 1987’s “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace,” with the actor having more creative control than its predecessors. Among Reeve’s contributions was the movie’s central message advocating for global nuclear disarmament, with Superman announcing his plan to completely eliminate nuclear weapons to the United Nations. Among the biggest problems that hindered “Superman IV,” however, is that the production studio, The Cannon Group, essentially ran out of money during filming.
One key scene in “Superman IV” has the hero deliver a rousing speech in front of the United Nations headquarters to motivate the public to pursue world peace. Because of budget cuts, the scene was filmed in the industrial English city of Milton Keynes rather than New York City. Reeve singled out the scene as a clear indicator of the movie’s poor quality in his autobiography “Still Me,” blasting Cannon’s excessive cost-cutting. In a separate interview, co-star Jon Cryer recalled Reeve informing him that “Superman IV” was going to be terrible, and Cryer agreed with Reeve’s assessment of the low budget.
Peegyn
