February 4

I haven't taken much time with these posts lately, but I'm glad I did with this one. On my rush days, I usually pick some semi-obscure guy that I at least know I'll get a cool video to post for. But the more I read about David Newman, the more he felt like the kind of guy I'm looking to feature on this blog.
For example, why does a guy born in New York City (and died in New York City) go to school at the University of Michigan? I didn't find the information that explains that. But I did find out that he co-wrote the book for "It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman", Broadway's attempt to bring Superman to the stage. The play didn't exactly fly with the public, but Newman and co-writer Robert Benton had better luck with the screenplay that became the film classic "Bonnie and Clyde"
Newman got another crack at Superman, writing the 70's film version. He ended up co-writing Superman I, II, and III; his writing partner for the films was his wife Leslie. They met at the University of Michigan, and were married for 38 years, until his death. Besides the Superman screenplays, they also produced two kids.
See, that's the life I want.
Besides Superman, he also wrote a few cult classics (Santa Claus: The Movie, Sheena, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker). But I decided to go with this clip from the documentary of the Richard Donner cut of Superman II; jump to about 5:05 to skip the behind-the-scenes talk and see some Newman-written dialogue left on the cutting room floor.

The man wrote the lines, "Come to me, Son of Jor-El! Kneel before Zod!" That's good enough for a slice of cake to me...