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Woochifer
01-27-2006, 07:25 PM
This is wonderful news coming from the Salkind family! The rumors were posted on a different thread a few months ago (linked below), and the short of it is that Richard Donner is on board to help create a new (some would say restored) version of Superman II for DVD release later this year!

http://forums.audioreview.com/showthread.php?t=13861

The background to this story involves original director Richard Donner who directed Superman: The Movie. He was actually filming two movies at the same time when he made the original movie. But, as the release date approached, he was forced to suspend filming and go immediately into post-production on the first film and pick up the remaining scenes needed for Superman II later on. The first Superman movie was released and became a huge hit. But, as Donner prepared to film the remaining scenes for Superman II he was fired. Rumor has it that most of Superman II was already completed when Donner was fired. The new director came in and tossed out more than half of the footage that Donner had already shot.

In general, I think that the first Superman movie has held up far better than the sequel has over time, so I am very curious as to whether Donner vision for Superman II could have made for a better movie.

The other side of this story is that ALL FOUR of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies will get new two-disc DVD releases! This will be in conjunction with the 2006 release of Superman Returns. Warner released the Superman quadrilogy in 2001, but only Superman: The Movie got the full special edition treatment with the bonus features, documentaries, commentaries, and 5.1 audio. The other Superman movies were only issued with 2.0 soundtracks (which made no sense to me because Superman II and III both came out in selected theaters with 70mm six-track prints, so a multichannel mix was already done at some point). If this reissue is anything like the Batman Anthology set, then this will definitely be added to my collection!

http://www.supermanhomepage.com/movies/movies.php?topic=interview-salkind-SE

Kam
01-27-2006, 08:42 PM
This is wonderful news coming from the Salkind family! The rumors were posted on a different thread a few months ago (linked below), and the short of it is that Richard Donner is on board to help create a new (some would say restored) version of Superman II for DVD release later this year!

http://forums.audioreview.com/showthread.php?t=13861

The background to this story involves original director Richard Donner who directed Superman: The Movie. He was actually filming two movies at the same time when he made the original movie. But, as the release date approached, he was forced to suspend filming and go immediately into post-production on the first film and pick up the remaining scenes needed for Superman II later on. The first Superman movie was released and became a huge hit. But, as Donner prepared to film the remaining scenes for Superman II he was fired. Rumor has it that most of Superman II was already completed when Donner was fired. The new director came in and tossed out more than half of the footage that Donner had already shot.

In general, I think that the first Superman movie has held up far better than the sequel has over time, so I am very curious as to whether Donner vision for Superman II could have made for a better movie.

The other side of this story is that ALL FOUR of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies will get new two-disc DVD releases! This will be in conjunction with the 2006 release of Superman Returns. Warner released the Superman quadrilogy in 2001, but only Superman: The Movie got the full special edition treatment with the bonus features, documentaries, commentaries, and 5.1 audio. The other Superman movies were only issued with 2.0 soundtracks (which made no sense to me because Superman II and III both came out in selected theaters with 70mm six-track prints, so a multichannel mix was already done at some point). If this reissue is anything like the Batman Anthology set, then this will definitely be added to my collection!

http://www.supermanhomepage.com/movies/movies.php?topic=interview-salkind-SE

wow very cool! i'm especially curious to see it now since Bryan Singer is using the brando footage that donner shot for the second one in his movie. that's the best part of the trailer, the original superman music and brando's voice over, gave me chills. :)

Woochifer
01-28-2006, 07:23 PM
wow very cool! i'm especially curious to see it now since Bryan Singer is using the brando footage that donner shot for the second one in his movie. that's the best part of the trailer, the original superman music and brando's voice over, gave me chills. :)

The trailer is awesome! Gave me the chills as well. IMO, the original Superman soundtrack is John Williams' best score. I read in an interview that the guy doing the score for Superman Returns is going to use the Williams themes in the new score. He said he found it bizarre whenever someone new is brought in to do the score for a sequel, and the new guy feels like he has to rewrite everything. He said he wants to do the score his way, but he knows that the main theme is something that worked, so why mess with it. I agree, Superman III went totally wrong from the outset, when it completely did away with the Williams main theme. The Schumacher Batman sequels did away with Danny Elfman's themes, and it just sounded wrong. Even the new Harry Potter sequel had the nerve to get rid of the John Williams theme that was used in the first three movies.