Ilya Juan Salkind Domínguez (; born July 27, 1947), usually known as Ilya Salkind, is a Mexican film and television producer, known for his contributions to three of the four live-action Superman films of the 1970s and 1980s alongside his father, Alexander Salkind. Early life and career Ilya Juan Salkind Dominguez was born July 27, 1947 in Mexico City, Mexico, the son of Berta Domínguez, a Mexican novelist, and Russian-Jewish producer Alexander Salkind. At the age of one, Salkind was photographed sitting on the lap of Zsa Zsa Gabor. His grandfather, Mikhail Salkind, was a pioneer of silent films and produced Joyless Street (1925), featuring then-relatively-unknown Greta Garbo in her first major role. Afterwards, Mikhail, along with Ilya's own father, Alexander Salkind, joined their forces to supervise many successful films, from Abel Gance's Austerlitz (1960) to Orson Welles' The Trial (1962). Beginning in 1969, Ilya Salkind became the third generation of his film-making family. He and Alexander made numerous films, starting with the international box office hits The Three Musketeers (1973) and its 1974 follow-up, The Four Musketeers films, the first instance of which a major motion picture and its immediate sequel were shot simultaneously. Salkind was of Russian-Jewish descent. Superman film series Ilya and Alexander, along with producing partner Pierre Spengler, purchased the film rights to the Superman property in August 1974. It was agreed that the Salkinds would produce and supervise filming on Superman and Superman II simultaneously, as had been the case with The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers. Securing the film rights from DC Comics (a subsidiary of Warner Bros.) was an unbearable experience for the producers, as Spengler was forced to spend two weeks in meetings with DC executives for the specific purpose of establishing an "Integrity of the character" clause. However, the producers did make sure DC approved of every aspect of the film (including dialogue). At this point in time Muhammad Ali, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, James Caan, Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen were being considered for the leading role of Superman. William Goldman was approached to write the script, but chose not to do so, as Ilya Salkind had personally cited certain creative differences with Goldman. Eventually, Ilya would hire Godfather author Mario Puzo. The desperate search for a director then took place. Steven Spielberg expressed interest and Salkind felt comfortable in hiring him upon being impressed with his work on