Originally posted by: Commander Courage
First off let me say I am a HUGE Superman fan. It's my 'thing' in my circle of friends. Almost all of us like Star Wars, so that goes without saying.

I'm of course excited about a new Superman film at last, but like everyone else, I have my reservations. As it stands now, the best things to come out of this will be the release of previously unseen Marlon Brando footage from Superman II. Most of you probably are not familiar with the history behind II; it's the ultimate lost superhero film, as the film we have now is NOT the way it was originally intended. If anyone's interested in in-depth detail on the subject, check out the Superman Cinema website. The hope is that the use of Brando will open all new possibilities for a much needed Special Edition of Superman II. So other than that, hearing John Williams' theme again, and Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor, there's not much to get excited about.

I hear you, CC. I too know the long sad history of Superman II - the producers of the first three Superman films, father and son team Alexander & Ilya Salkind, fired the original director Richard Donner (who had previously made "The Omen" and would later give us "Ladyhawke", "The Goonies", "Lethal Weapon 1-4", "Maverick" and "Conspiracy Theory"), who had shot roughly 80% of "Superman II" back to back with the first Superman film (possibly the first time such a tactic was ever used) before he could finish #2 over "creative differences", even though he had made the first movie a hit come classic.

In other words, the Salkinds wanted a goofier, sillier, funnier, campier approach to "Superman II", while Donner wanted to keep the proceedings for #2 reasonably serious. True there were some [unnecessary] camp-humor elements in the first movie in the form of Gene Hackman's slumming stand up comedian take on Lex Luthor, but at least when Donner was in charge there was some sense of restraint.

So the Salkinds replaced Donner with Richard Lester, primarily a director of comedies responsible for stuff like "Help!" and "A Hard Days Night". Lester shot the 12 minute Metropolis fight and reshot a bunch of footage so that the Salkinds could ensure he get credit over Donner, intending to reshoot the whole damn movie and then they ran out of money before they could finish their Lester reshoots, so they just spliced together some of Lester's reshots with Donner's previous footage, resulting in an entertaining but somewhat jarring and choppily edited film.

They say some franchises take a bad turn at #3, but in the case of the Superman franchise they took a bad turn at #2. 2 was still entertaining but then Lester shot the whole of "Superman III" and that pretty much nailed the coffin shut on the Superman movies (but not before "Supergirl" and "Superman 4" assured us the franchise was dead).

Richard Donner has estimated that he shot about 80% of #2 and saw only 50% of his work in the film. Some of his footage was seen in a couple of extended TV versions during the 1980s (I own a copy, which, sadly, is getting a little scratchy in the sound department). They say the best way to tell Donner's footage from Lester's is that Margot Kidder (who, I must admit, I never liked as Lois Lane) generally looks healthy and normal in Donner's footage and looks extremely gaunt and pale in Lester's footage. Also any shot that is an upclose shot of Gene Hackman is a Donner shot; Hackman did not return for the Lester reshoots, so any shot requiring Lex Luthor they used a body double facing away from the camera with a voice impersonator dubbing him*. They also say that Ursa's costume is sexier in Donner's footage than in Lester's. And overall there's just an overall more serious air to the Donner footage, most notably the scene where the depowered Superman is standing in the green lit Fortress of Solitude trying to get into a conversation with the ghosts of Krypton ("FATHER!!!!!").

*Gene Hackman was appalled when he heard about what the Salkinds did to Richard Donner, whom Hackman credited with being the main reason he was persuaded to do the movie, and in response he vehemently refused to appear in "Superman III" (a similar predicament came up regarding Margot Kidder). They must have offered him a lot of money for Superman 4.

Typing www.supermancinema.com should do the trick for enquiring minds.