Richard Donner has finally finished “Superman II” and it only took him a little over twenty-five years.
Do you recall all the turmoil that got Donner fired as the director of “Superman II”?
Ethan Sacks at the Daily News reveals all as the DVD prepares to be released this month.
Almost three decades later, director Richard Donner returns to ‘Superman’
In the movies and comic books, justice is served faster than a speeding
bullet. But as far as many Superman fans are concerned, it took 27 years.
That’s how long it’s been since Richard Donner was abruptly fired from
“Superman II” in a power struggle with producers Alexander and Ilya
Salkind, 12 months into shooting the sequel to the movie that the
director had turned into a box office hit one year earlier.
Now, in the same year that the Man of Steel made a triumphant comeback
to the big screen in Bryan Singer’s “Superman Returns,” Donner is
finally making his own homecoming to the superhero. Last week, the
76-year-old made his comic debut, co-writing a run on DC Comics’ “Action
Comics” with his former assistant Geoff Johns, now a popular comic creator.
On November 28, Warner Brothers, DC’s parent company, is releasing
“Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut” on DVD, a re-editing of the 1980
film, cobbling together unseen footage, screen tests and some CGI to
complete the director’s original vision.
"It was very discouraging that it would never see the light of day, but
I accepted it and that was it,” said Donner. “The fact that they turned
it around has taken a lot of the pain away and has brought a lot of joy
back into it and a good feeling of fulfillment.
"I am immersed in Supey and it’s a gas. It’s really quite interesting,
it’s very provocative. It’s brought back a lot of great nostalgia."
Until recently, Donner said it was difficult to look back at the
experience of making “Superman II,” since the producers replaced him
with journeyman director Richard Lester over whether financial
considerations trumped artistic ones. Ilya Salkind recently told
moviehole.net that a major sticking point was whether or not to include
scenes already shot of Marlon Brando who played Jor-El, Superman’s
father. The footage was considered essential by Donner, but the Salkinds
refused to agree to the actor’s demands for the same 11.75% of the gross
box office take he received for the first film.
"When you talk to most hardcore Superman fans, ‘Superman II’ is a movie
that has a lot of elements that fans like even better than the original,
but there’s other stuff that doesn’t seem to work,” said Harry Knowles,
founder of Ain’t It Cool News. “It always felt like it had a couple of
different hands in it.
"The idea that Richard Donner’s version is going to have its day is
pretty remarkable."
Donner and writer Tom Mankiewicz didn’t intend to stop at just two
movies, either. They had ideas for at least two more if the franchise
kept going up, up and away. And some of those cocktail napkin ideas are
going into Donner and Johns’ run on Action Comics, which is being drawn
by artist Adam Kubert.
From 1996 to 2001, Johns worked for Donner as an assistant on films like
“Conspiracy Theory” and “Lethal Weapon 4.” If he became Jimmy Olson to
Donner’s Clark Kent, it was no coincidence: Johns made the pilgrimage to
Hollywood from Detroit to seek out employment with the man who had made
his all-time favorite film “Superman."
In the past six years, Johns’ side gig dabbling in comic book writing
for DC Comics ballooned into a full-time job. The 33-year-old has become
one of the most popular and prolific scribes in the business.
Two years ago, Johns started recruiting his former boss to join him in
writing the character that had captivated both during their respective
childhoods. Donner was eight in 1938 when Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s
refugee from the doomed planet Krypton made his debut in the very first
issue of Action Comics. 843 issues later, Donner gets to learn on the
job from his former pupil.
"I regress a lot when with him,” said Johns. “I’m always in awe of
everything he has. His story instincts are so dynamite.
"When we first wrote the first issue, the last page was this reveal of
this boy in a rocket, and he said, ‘Well, that’s the real story, it
should be page eight. Let’s get this thing going.’"
Donner has a different take.
"I’m not working with him, I’m working for him, he’s my boss,” he said,
laughing. “Man, it’s a role reversal, but it’s a great one and I’m
learning from him."
Two things both of them can agree on: they will continue their run
indefinitely, as long as their schedules will allow it, and the details
of their devious schemes for Superman are not for the ears of a snooping
reporter from the Daily News. What can be divulged is that the first
storyline involves a mysterious alien boy in the aforementioned rocket
ship who crash-lands in Superman’s hometown of Metropolis and may or may
not be a second survivor from Krypton.
Future issues will feature incursions by Bizarro, the equally powerful
photonegative of Superman, and Brainiac, an evil artificial intelligence.
Computers of the less scheming, self-aware variety were instrumental in
bringing about the release of “Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut,” the
director said. Donner credits a groundswell of Internet chatter and
emails for convincing Warner Brothers to authorize the DVD.
Among the restorations are the 15 missing minutes of the late Brando’s
scenes. Gaps in the storyline were filled in by a combination of footage
shot from Richard Lester’s version, a little dash of CGI and original
screen tests of the movie’s stars, Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder.
Of course, it’s not completely seamless; Reeve packed on 25 pounds of
muscle for his role as Superman in the three months between screen tests.
"Yeah, if you really look you can see some of the cuts are quite
obviously on the wrong side of camera, and if you study Christopher, you
can really see the difference that three months makes of hard work and
good food,” said Donner. “But it seems to work it seems to play because
for a moment you forget that because you get caught up in the
characterizations."
Despite the popularity of Lester’s version of “Superman II,” fans have
been clamoring to see Donner’s take in whatever shape it’s in for years.
This month, that vision gets released from Hollywood’s equivalent of the
Phantom Zone the prison dimension where Kryptonian prisoners were banished.
And Donner has gotten a second chance at the hero of the radio serials
and funny books he relished growing up in the Bronx.
"He doesn’t need to be involved in comics, he doesn’t need to re-cut a
DVD, but he wants to do it for the love of the character and fans of the
character,” said Johns. “Now he’s going to tell stories that he would’ve
been able to tell for years if he had continued on the franchise and I
think that’s extremely rewarding for him.
"I don’t think he would’ve done it if he felt that there was no
unfinished business."