Upon the release of Superman II in theaters in December 1980 and throughout the first half of 1981, the first thing that we noticed in the end credits was the title card “Coming Soon – Superman III”. It was a foregone conclusion that a third film was happening right from the start, and in one quick interview before a premiere Christopher Reeve himself confirmed that he would in fact return for a third film.

But the road to Superman III was an interesting one, to say the least, and the one person who was going to creatively steer the film to development was none other than the series’ executive producer himself, Ilya Salkind.

As early as the Cannes Film Festival in May 1980, Ilya Salkind announced that pre-production had begun on Superman III, and he began to write a story treatment for what he saw Superman III to be about. His first treatment, dated 7 November 1980, focused first on the removal of Lois Lane from the story altogether. This was a foregone conclusion, as he, Alexander Salkind, and Pierre Spengler had problems with the late Margot Kidder through production of II. In an interview with Time Out in April 1981, shortly before the film’s premiere in England, Kidder aired a lot of dirty laundry over the Salkinds’ treatment and firing of director Richard Donner in March 1979 and over her reduced salary from the film. She eventually sued the Salkinds for one million dollars and won the lawsuit, but this caused the Salkinds to consider removing her from the overall story for III. There’s a familiar quote about being careful not to bite the hand that feeds you.

Salkind’s treatment begins in 1981 with Clark Kent receiving a letter from Lois in which she states that she’s been transferred to a foreign office of the Daily Planet in Hong Kong. She confesses her love for Superman, but she’s unable to stand the pressure of being in continual danger in Metropolis, which spurs her decision to leave. Clark is hurt by her words because he is secretly Superman, and he realizes that there are some things in the world that he cannot fix with a memory loss kiss or by turning back the world. Eventually a new reporter joins the Daily Planet: Lana Lang, one of his old high school friends from Smallville, and they begin to take a liking to one another.

Meanwhile, we see that there was another survivor from the destruction of Krypton: Kal-El’s cousin Kara, who would become known to the world as Supergirl. Instead of arriving on Earth, her ship landed on an alien planet and found by the super computer alien known as Brainiac, whom he raises as an adoptive daughter at first. But his feelings turned into affection over time, and once she grew up, Brainiac asked Supergirl to marry him, and she rejected him. She escaped Brainiac’s planet and arrived on Earth, where she assumed an identity as a gym teacher at a local high school, hoping to escape detection by Brainiac. Ultimately, she performs a heroic rescue in which she has no choice but to use her Kryptonian powers, and she is revealed to the world as Supergirl.

Wanting to know more about her intentions, Superman poses as a petty criminal in order to meet this new arrival. When they encounter each other, he finds out that Supergirl is indeed there for good. They eventually spend time together asking questions and learning about each other, and before long, they fall in love.

Brainiac soon arrives on Earth and begins transforming stones into gold to obtain wealth and power, which he uses to establish his headquarters in a European castle to build up his weaponry, and it is there that he discovers that both Supergirl and Superman are on Earth. He soon develops a weapon that alters Superman’s emotions, which also affects Clark Kent as well. Clark soon turns moody and violent, slapping his editor Perry White over a typographical error in one of his articles. Later, while making love during a fire, Superman turns violent and destroys everything around him. This leads everyone in the world that only Supergirl can stop Superman, and it’s at this time that Brainiac offers Supergirl a deal: marry him, and Superman would be spared. Spur him, and Superman would suffer even more. Playing along with Brainiac so she can discover his weakness, Supergirl goes with him to his castle.

Once Superman is freed and returns to his normal self, he begins searching for Supergirl but ultimately encounters the mischievous Mr. Mxyzptlk, a being from the fifth dimension. (Salkind had written the part of Mr. Mxyzptlk with the intention of casting comedian Dudley Moore in the role.) Mxyzptlk soon causes destruction around the world with his form of practical jokes. Back in Metropolis, Perry sends Lana and Jimmy Olsen to Europe to track down Superman’s whereabouts. Ultimately, Superman returns Mr. Mxyzptlk to his own dimension by forcing him to say his name backwards. One enemy down, one to go.

Superman soon tracks down Brainiac and fights him, but Brainiac soon traps Superman and overpowers him. He then takes Supergirl with him to the Middle Ages and exerts his influence over her and the serfs and noblemen of the time, reminding her that if she does not willingly obey him, he will still destroy Superman. Jimmy and Lana soon rescue Superman from Brainiac’s trap, and he takes them under his cape (apparently Superman’s cape was super stretchy enough to cover two fully grown people at the same time!) and goes back into the past. They soon learn more about Brainiac’s reign of terror and arrive at Brainiac’s castle (apparently the same castle as in the present), where Brainiac again uses his weapons to try to stop Superman. Ultimately, Superman escapes and returns to the future to seek help from Mr. Mxyzptlk, who sends the entire town into another dimension where Superman, Supergirl, and Brainiac have no powers at all. The Kryptonians don medieval armor, defeat Brainiac, and trap him in the otherworldly dimension.

But Mr. Mxyzptlk is not done yet. He goes back on his deal with Superman and transforms Metropolis into a giant jigsaw puzzle. Superman and Supergirl have only sixty seconds to solve the puzzle before millions of people die, and they succeed, sending Mxyzptlk back to his own dimension. The end of the story would have seen Superman and Supergirl getting married either at the end of Superman III or at some point in Superman IV.

Ilya Salkind would submit a second revised treatment of his story to Warner Bros. executives on 27 March 1981, but the treatment was ultimately rejected, as it was deemed too expensive to produce. Elements of the story – including a super computer, the introduction of Lana Lang into the film, and Superman’s alternating mood swings – would carry over into the final film in 1983, and the character of Supergirl would get her own spinoff film in 1984 with Helen Slater in the title role. Salkind stated in the audio commentary on the Superman III DVD that releasing Margot Kidder from the overall story was not due to retaliation for her lawsuit but due to their decision to go in a different creative direction. Pick your side, either argument fits. The character of Brainiac would later appear in the Superman ‘78 comic series, with the idea of writer Robert Venditti and artist Wilfredo Torres to show what it would have looked like if David Bowie had been cast in the part.

In April 2022 Neuverse Creative produced an audio recording of Salkind’s Superman III treatment, which was released on their Spotify channel. I happened to come across this 15-minute audio recording, which is more of a brief narration of the treatment than an audio adaptation. It contains only two voice actors for Lois Lane and Brainiac, and a brief reprise of John Williams’ Superman theme is heard at the end of the audio narration. Look it up on Spotify.

Are you as intrigued, or surprised, or disappointed, as I was? Give it a listen and let me know your thoughts.