3. Superman: The Movie and Superman II
The problems encountered on the production of the first theatrical outings of Big Blue are are almost as legendary as the Man of Steel himself. The two films began shooting simultaneously in 1977, with Richard Donner at the helm. With a release date in sight and filming of Superman: The Movie not complete production of both movies was put on hold and Donner was ordered to focus on finishing the first film. In order to do this the ending of Superman II was used in place of the original planned ending for Superman as it had already been shot. Eventually Donner was removed from the production and Richard Lester was brought in by producers, Ilya and Alexander Salkind, to finish filming of the sequel, resulting in major tonal shifts throughout the film. Donner overspending was cited as a problem and to this day the events still hit a nerve for all involved. When it came to Lester completing Superman II and coming up with a new ending he had a problem in the form of Gene Hackman, who refused to return after what had happened with Donner -and thus a stunt double was used who's face you never quite see in those scenes in the Fortress of Solitude. Marlon Brando features for the first but not last time in this list; this time demanded an exorbitant amount of money to reprise his role as Jor-El for the sequel, and so the decision was made to replace him with his on-screen wife, Susannah York, for the necessary scenes. Despite all of this Superman: The Movie remains one of the greatest comic book movies in existence as well as a landmark moment in American cinema, and whilst Superman II is not quite the level of its predecessor it is a highly entertaining film that still works today. If you ignore the hokey special effects, that is.