‘Superman’s’ real antecedents

GEOFF BOUCHER missed a key point in his dissection of the machinations against director Richard Donner by producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind on “Superman II” [“The Cape Crusader,” Nov. 26].

“The Godfather” films were not models that the Salkinds were looking at while deciding to film two Superman movies simultaneously. Rather, it was their “The Three Musketeers” and “The Four Musketeers,” both of which were filmed in 1973 as one long epic and later split into two films and released a year apart. The director of the “Musketeers” films? Richard Lester. Lester had also been the Salkinds’ first choice as director for the first “Superman,” but he turned it down. He did sign on as a producer (it was the only way he could recoup money owed him for the “Musketeers” films) and as such dealt directly with Donner. So instead of being “brought in,” Lester had been waiting in the wings all along.

MICHAEL MALLORY

Glendale