on casting Jor-El and Lex Luthor and save Superman for later. Hoffman was then offered the role of Luthor, and although he was interested, he turned it down. Marlon Brando would eventually be cast as Jor-El, causing Gene Hackman to be cast as Luthor as he wanted desperately to work with Brando. Impressed by the producers' ability to cast famous actors in respective roles, Warner Bros. decided to distribute the film internationally, rather than simply domestically. Sets were then being initiated in Rome, Italy, as well as having flying tests experimented. Brando however, could not go to Rome as there was still a warrant out for his arrest due to the sexual obscenity of his role in Last Tango in Paris. It was decided to move the production to England but Hamilton himself was a tax exile from his native country, which only allowed him to spend 60 days or less a year. The director was forced to drop out because of Brando's actions and by this time six million dollars had already been spent on the production. Mark Robson was then in negotiations to direct after Salkind was impressed with his work on Earthquake. However, after viewing Richard Donner's The Omen, Donner was chosen. Post-Superman career The Salkinds' last journey into film fantasy was 1985's Santa Claus: The Movie. That same year, DC Comics named Salkind as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great for his work on the Superman film franchise. The Salkinds returned to the Superman mythology again in 1988, this time as a TV series, with Superboy, starring John Haymes Newton in the title role during its first year, Gerard Christopher as the Boy of Steel for the remainder of the show's existence, and Stacy Haiduk as Lana Lang, lasted four seasons, running for 100 episodes. Following the team's last film, Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992), Ilya and his then-wife, Jane Chaplin (daughter of Charlie Chaplin) settled in Orlando, Florida, where much of the Superboy series had been filmed. There, Ilya and Jane took a sabbatical and devoted their time to raising their two sons. In 1999, the couple amicably separated. Ilya Salkind Company Returning to Los Angeles in 2003, the producer launched the Ilya Salkind Company in the late summer of that year. The company's first project, Young Alexander the Great, was shot on location in Greece