If the rumours are to be believed, Warner Bros and Ilya Salkind have negotiated a deal to do the long desired Directors Cut of Superman II with Richard Donner’s footage, for a Special Edition DVD next year.
http://www.supermancinema.co.uk/daily_planet/news/index.shtml
Also, if anyone’s wondering what Donner’s original version would have been like, there’s a good screenplay here…
At least it’s the best WOTW version… ever, if watched in this edited form :D…
“I am very concerned about our national heritage, and I am very concerned that the films that I watched when I was young and the films that I watched throughout my life are preserved, so that my children can see them. — George Lucas, speaking out against the colorization of black and white films “
Funny that, when George doesn’t want anyone to see his own films as they were released at the cinema and on video for a decade.
More here, with a petition to sign:
Ever fantasised about Leia in that slave girl bikini? Remember that episode of Friends?
Well it seems a lot of people do too, enough for a whole site of fans in metal bikinis, including instructions on how to make the bikini…
When Richard Donner shot Superman, he was also shooting Superman II at the same time. For various reasons the shooting of Superman II was at some point delayed until the completion of Superman. However after the completion of Superman Richard Donner was promptly fired, the studio got Richard Lester in to complete the scenes Donner hadn’t, and then proceeded to reshoot a large amount of Donner’s footage just to ensure Donner didn’t get a credit on the movie.
As a result of all the key Marlon Brando scenes were dumped and Gene Hackman refused to return for reshoots resulting in body doubles being used.
All of this was shocking news to me as I love Superman and used to quite like Superman II although I did feel something wasn’t quite right with the second film. Now I know the truth I wondered if there was ever a chance of seeing all this missing footage.
Well, it turns out there is a campaign to get Warner Brothers to release a ‘Donner Cut’ of Superman II in some form. Richard Donner has expressed some interest and so have Warner themselves to a degree. The various legal issues behind it are mostly cleared up, so it’s just down to convincing the powers that be that it’s worth the effort.
For further information, take a look at the campaign here
There’s an excellent new book which is a visual document on the films of Stanley Kubrick and the creative process behind them. The book is split into two parts, the first documenting the films themselves and the second part comprises material from the Kubrick archives which illustrates the creative process behind the film making.
This is a monster book with a monster price at £100 RRP. Amazon UK have it for the bargain price of just £70! ;-), see here ($126 from Amazon.com here).
Have a look at this thread for some of the content of this book. Nice 🙂