Duel and The Sugarland Express, though his father was skeptical, feeling that Spielberg was not famous enough and claimed they needed to wait until "that fish movie of his" was released. Jaws was released with unanimous success, though by this time it was too late as Spielberg opted to do Close Encounters of the Third Kind instead. Peter Yates was interested in directing, and was briefly involved in negotiations, though the deal collapsed. Both William Friedkin and Sam Peckinpah were also offered the chance to direct. Friedkin turned down the offer outright, while Peckinpah dropped out of the running when he produced a gun during a meeting with Salkind. Richard Lester, Guy Hamilton, George Lucas, John Guillermin and Ronald Neame were then considered, though Lucas was dropped as Salkind found out he was too committed on Star Wars (A New Hope). It was decided to go with Hamilton, in light of the fact that Salkind was impressed with Hamilton's work as director of, among other projects, Goldfinger and Battle of Britain. Salkind originally recommended Mario Puzo to write the script as a serious science fiction epic. Although Puzo did impress him with certain aspects, Salkind felt the script remained intact with being overall campy, as did Guy Hamilton. In addition they cited too much "Greek tragedy and Shakespearean" elements. A fourth villain sentenced to the Phantom Zone named Zak-Ur appeared as a comedic henchman. By this time, Puzo felt he "could do all he could," turning in two drafts, and David Newman and Robert Benton were hired for rewrite work, as a means to delete objectionable material concerning an excessive amount of comedic scenes. Leslie Newman was brought in once Benton left to direct The Late Show. Casting started to take place, and Alexander Salkind wanted a famous actor in the role of Superman. Dustin Hoffman was once again highly considered though the idea was dropped. Robert Redford was offered the part, but he felt he was too famous and was not right for the role, as did Burt Reynolds. After the success of Rocky, Sylvester Stallone lobbied hard for the role but was ignored. Paul Newman was offered all three roles of Superman, Jor-El and Lex Luthor to his choosing though he did not accept any of them, for a salary of $4 million. Nick Nolte and Rex Harrison would both turn it down. It was decided to focus