Superman II - 21 years later, I find out the truth

[orac]

At the age of 7, I had loved superman - the movie and then I saw superman II, i liked this one as well.

Now i have just read - for the first time (where have I been!) that the second film is not how it should of been, Richard Donnor shot 75% of the film - was fired and it was changed considerably.

Hopefully he will be able to recut the film for DVD.

I have just ordered Superman - the Movie (SE) on DVD which sounds very very good.

More Superman II info here (http://www.deceptions.net/superman/superman2/s2analysis.htm)

Comments from people please!

[Mr Flibble]

The Superman DVD is a great purchase :)

Watching the documentaries, Donner explains how they were shooting both movies back to back (or simultaneously, can't remember which)

Anyway, it turns out that budget and time constraints meant that Superman would be finished first, leaviung the sequal with a bit of work left to do to it. Nobody knew how the first movie would be received - but it was a huge success (as we all now know) and they went back to the sequel.

Donner was then given his marching orders though, and another director hired to complete the rest of the second movie.

[tj_director]

yep you've got something to look forward to -- the Superman disc is one of the best DVDs to come out of Warner Brothers, and that's saying something.

I don't think he will ever be able to re-release his version. I'm not too sure on this, but i think someone was actually suing WB or someone involved with the Superman 2 dvd, as it was going against the rights (original vision).. now don't quote me on that, all i know is that Superman 2 has some controversy about it :(

[Panavision]

About 80% of the Donner S2 is in the can,only stuff that wasnt done was the live action Metropolis battle and villains taking over the world.

[Steve1977]

One of the very few shots of the metropolis battle was when the villans fly into the planet and say

"our victory is complete, the son of jor-el has fled"

You can tell its Richard Donners filming because the sky is an apocalyptic orange rather than the blue from richard lesters version.

Lots of special effect seqeunces were completed for richard donners superman 2. Infact, the effects technicians once remarked that they had done more work on superman 2 than on superman 1. You know what makes you sick? This footage is locked in a studio because of legalities.

In the finished movie notice that lex takes the green crystal 'out' of the control panel and then puts it back in? Well thats because earlier in the film, clark finds the crystal and puts it in the control panel. Jor-El magically appears and basically, as creative consultant tom mankienwich says "it was the hand of god touching his son"
It fulfilled the kryptonian legacy that "the son becomes the father and the father....the son"

Richard Donners superman 2 would have been much more than a popcorn flick. We would have had villans who were much more menacing. (in the donner scenes general zod looks much more evil) We wouldnt have had any slapstick and it would have been one of the greatest movies of all time. Probably better than the first.

PLEASE voice your views here: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7361

Warner Brothers have apparently now sorted out the legal problems and are contemplating letting richard donner do his version of superman 2.
People say 80% of his version was complete but it could have been more like 90%. Only things which maybe were not done was the metropolis battle. CGI could make up for this as well as stand ins.
The villans taking over the world WAS completed (i believe) and is in a vault waiting to be released.


Imagine, after all this time, richard donner releases his own version complete with a brand new score by john williams. holy god! i and other superman fans would be so happy.

Please post here though: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7361

and make it happen. You might not think so, but WB is monitoring this thread and its very probably that a special edition of this film might come about. But it will only happen with your help. I implore you to do this!