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Steel
Steel is a 1997 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name. The film stars Shaquille O'Neal as John Henry Irons and his alter-ego Steel, Annabeth Gish as his wheelchair-using partner Susan Sparks, and Judd Nelson as their rival Nathaniel Burke. The plot centers on an accident caused by Burke which leaves Sparks paralyzed. The accident results in Irons quitting his job. Burke begins mass-producing weapons and selling them to criminals. In order to stop Burke, Irons and Sparks create a suit of armor that leads Irons to become the superhero Steel.
Written and directed by Kenneth Johnson, the film separates itself from the comic book series (and John Henry Irons' status as a supporting character of Superman) by using original protagonists and antagonists. On its initial release, Steel was a box office bomb and was panned by critics, who complained about the film's "cheesiness" and bad acting.
Production of the film Steel started with music producer Quincy Jones and his partner David Salzman. Both Jones and Salzman were fans of the Steel character, especially Jones, who found personal reasons to support the project. Jones stated that he found children's "perspective on the future has changed for the worse, and I hate seeing young people who don't believe in the future. Steel—and I don't want to use that word 'superhero,' because he doesn't fly or anything like that—represents a role model. Let's just call him a 'super human being.'"
Kenneth Johnson was originally uninterested in doing a superhero film, having previously turned down offers to film adaptations of The Bionic Woman, Alien Nation, and The Incredible Hulk. Film producer Joel Simon described Steel as being different, stating that he was "a knight in shining armor in a contemporary setting". Johnson removed Steel's cape from his costume to reflect this.
Johnson described Steel's persona as a "blue-collar Batman" and removed Steel from his comic book storyline and replaced it with protagonists and antagonists of his own invention. To aid with the urban aspects of the dialog Johnson took a copy of the script to South Central Los Angeles and spent a day with a group of kids to ensure that the language of some of the characters was more believable. Throughout the film and script, Johnson created several allusions to his previous television series Alien Nation.
The filming schedule consisted of fifty-one days with thirty-two full nights of shooting in downtown Los Angeles. The shooting schedule presented difficulties for the director due to the schedule of the star Shaquille O'Neal. O'Neal was already committed for playing in the 1996 Summer Olympics, and training at the Los Angeles Lakers' camp in Hawaii. This left Johnson with five weeks to complete filming all scenes with O'Neal. O'Neal had one read-through of the script before the Olympics and then worked with acting coach Ben Martin in between games to work on his character. When O'Neal returned to act with the rest of the cast, he had all his lines memorized.
