CBR: R.I.P. "Superman" Screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz

[CBR News]

The screenwriter who became Richard Donner's closest collaborator on the first two "Superman" films as well as a driving force behind the '70s Jame Bond franchise passed away at the age of 68.


Full article here.

[Teal_Lantern]

I'm very sorry to hear that, condolences to his family.

[Schluffy]

Wow, thats such a shame, I hope his family is coping well. RIP.

[The Gorn Identity]

Damn. The man had an amazing writing talent. If Richard Donner was the brains behind Superman: The Movie, then Tom was its heart.

[Comicbookfan]

Sad news. heck of a writer and he pulled off one heck of a fix on Superman. Mario Puzo was not the right man for the job and this man did a great job with the script. R.I.P

[TradePaperbackTraitor]

Isn't Mankiewicz the other guy on the director's commentary with Richard Donner for the first film? If so, he had a lot of great comments about the movie. He really opened my eyes to how groundbreaking that movie was for it's time. You usually think of Star Wars, but Superman which followed the year later also had a heck of a lot of impressive F/X that had never been seen before.

I remember Donner mentioning that the first script he ever read for Superman had an "Adam West Batman style" to it that he couldn't stand. Was Puzo the one who wrote that treatment?

[Lt. Clutch]

A huge loss. Tom was such a prolific individual. His work on the Bond franchise defined the 70's Roger Moore era for 007 fans everywhere. Peter Falk asked Universal to hire Tom so he would offer advice on Falk's Columbo scripts. He was highly instrumental, if not responsible, for making the first two Superman films so great and he even helped Richard Donner revise Donner's cut decades after the fact. The man was born for this stuff! It's a shame that he never wrote for the comics industry as most Hollywood writers do nowadays.

If you look at Tom's lengthy resume, there was a point where everyone in Tinseltown was giving him work. He will be missed. My thoughts are with the entire Mankiewicz family at this time.

[fitnessphp]

I'm just catching up on the internet news today, so I'm being a real slowpoke on this one, but RIP Mr. Mankiewicz. You are a true legend in my book.