The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

Will Nolan's hand in this (granted just a producer) make it a better film?  Worse?

DC execs evidently saw what he did with the Batman franchise.

This looks pretty damned good.

Are we going to be getting a new Superman reboot every 7 years or so?

Went to comic con and they talked about the movie.  They are trying to get Superman up with the batman movies.  DC knows that superman should be the biggest franchise they have but they haven't done it right yet.

I liked 300, thought everything past about minute 21 of Watchmen was junk.

Watchmen was way to slavish to the source material IMO. They tried so hard not to upset the rabid fans that they ruined the movie. It was very pretty though.

Watchmen was way to slavish to the source material IMO. They tried so hard not to upset the rabid fans that they ruined the movie. It was very pretty though.

Much like the "rabid fans" of Superman are whining about:

* No red underwear over the suit
* No spit curl
* Lois is a redhead
* No Lex Luthor

All I'm saying is that movie looks to do what "Returns" didn't...re-energize the casual fan to Superman to his appearance on-screen.

Much like what the Batman Trilogy did to wash out the taste George Clooney/Batman off the franchise.

You forgot batnipples
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Bdofi6eM3nk/T-Mt-JfZyfI/AAAAAAAAFYo/20FUeNsCiJQ/s1600/batman_and_robin_still.jpg)

And this:
(http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/s480x480/311503_10150992857356633_1252248890_n.jpg)

Much like what the Batman Trilogy did to wash out the taste George Clooney/Batman off the franchise.

The first Superman film started out with some beautiful storytelling, yet about 15 minutes in, it's as if they changed directors.
What was that about?

The filming of Superman II originally commenced in April 1977, shooting simultaneously with the first Superman movie, but due to the huge shooting schedule and production logistics, filming was halted in October 1977 for the original director, Richard Donner, to concentrate on finishing the first Superman instead. After the release and huge success of Superman, the decision was taken to complete Superman II but with Richard Lester as director. Lester, famous for The Beatles film A Hard Day's Night, had previously worked for the Salkinds prior to this production, directing such films as The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974), as well as serving as an uncredited Line Producer on the first Superman movie. The reason cited for the replacement was due to off-screen problems, between Donner and the Salkinds. Richard Donner had argued with the producers over their attempts to make the film "more campy", in his opinion, which led to his removal and replacement on the project by Richard Lester.

Another reason behind Richard Donner's removal may have been that the Salkinds were upset that Donner went over their originally planned budget for the movie. Warner Bros. ended up getting more and more involved in the race to complete the film, allowing the studio to receive more profits from the film's box office take than the Salkinds had originally agreed to. With their power slipping away, Donner was made the scapegoat.

To avoid paying Marlon Brando another high fee, the producers decided not to use his already shot scenes for Superman II, which had included some key plot explanations. Gene Hackman meanwhile declined to return for any re-shoots, in support of Richard Donner being fired, which meant the number of his scenes were cut down in the final cut (a body double was used in some shots).

In June 1979 production on Superman II officially recommenced with Richard Lester as director. Principal photography began at Pinewood Studios in August 1979 with a revised screenplay, which added several newly conceived scenes, including Lois jumping into Niagara Falls and the Eiffel Tower bomb sequence. Location shooting took place in Canada, Paris, Norway and St Lucia, while Metropolis (which was shot in New York for the first movie) was filmed entirely on the back lot at Pinewood. Superman II finally finished filming in March 1980.

Despite all the difficulties of the production, and with only a few noticeable shifts in tone between the two directors' scenes (Lester's approach is lighter and more slapstick, as opposed to the verisimilitude Donner fought to bring to the film), it was noted by critics to be a remarkable and coherent film, highlighted by the movie's battle sequence between Superman and the three Phantom Zone prisoners on the streets of Metropolis. Scenes filmed by Donner include all the Gene Hackman footage, the moon sequences, the White House shots, Clark and the bully, and a lot of the footage of Zod, Ursa and Non arriving at the Daily Planet. Since the Lester footage was shot two years later, both Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeve's appearances look different between the Lester and Donner footage. Reeve appears less bulked up in Donner's sequences (filmed in 1977), as he was still gaining muscle for the part. Kidder also has dramatic changes throughout; in the montage of Lester/Donner material, shot inside the Daily Planet and the Fortress of Solitude near the movie's conclusion, her hairstyle, hair color, and even make-up are all inconsistent. Indeed, Kidder's physical appearance in the Lester footage is noticeably different; during the scenes shot for Donner she appears slender, whereas in the Lester footage she looks frail and gaunt.

In the years since the film's release, the controversy continues to be fueled, while the film itself has achieved cult status. In 1983, Alexander Salkind's production company pieced together an Expanded International Cut of the film for television using approximately 24 minutes of footage not shown in the theatrical release, some of which was original Richard Donner footage shot before Richard Lester became director. The "new" footage expanded on the film's many subplots, including a further explanation of the villains' task on Earth, Superman and Lois' romance and an alternate ending involving Lex Luthor, the three Kryptonian villains and the final fate of the Fortress of Solitude. This 146-minute expanded version was released throughout Europe and Australia in the 1980s and was last seen in Australia on the Ten Network. This version includes a montage of Japanese tourists taking photos at the beginning of the Niagara Falls scene (the initial expanded US ABC and Canadian CBC telecasts, though edited differently, were derived from the European/Australian TV edit). Australians will notice scenes they originally viewed at cinemas in the deleted scenes menu on DVDs and notice some of the one liners they originally heard placed back in the Richard Donner cut.

In 2005, several Superman movie fans attempted to bring the film closer to Donner's original vision by creating their own professionally-made video restoration of the International Cut and offered free DVDs of it on one of the many Superman fan sites, but their efforts were thwarted by Warner Bros., who reportedly threatened legal action.

All four Superman films received Special or Deluxe Edition releases in 2006 coinciding with the release of Superman Returns. It was confirmed that Ilya Salkind had released Donner's footage for a separate Superman II disc and that Donner was involved in the project. According to an interview conducted by website supermanhomepage.com, Ilya confirmed that Time Warner now owns all of the footage shot for 1978's Superman, 1980's Superman II, 1983's Superman III, 1984's Supergirl and 1987's Superman IV: The Quest for Peace including distribution rights. Special Edition restorationist Michael Thau worked on the project alongside Richard Donner and Tom Mankiewicz, who supervised the Superman II reconstruction. Despite some initial confusion, Thau confirmed that all the footage shot by Donner in 1977 was recovered and transferred from England. The new edition was released on November 28, 2006 and called Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut. Following the original Superman II script, the Donner Cut features less than 20% footage filmed by replacement director Richard Lester and restores several cut scenes, including all the Marlon Brando footage and Lois jumping out of the Daily Planet to try and get Superman to reveal his identity to her. It also restructures the beginning of the movie so that the outer space detonation of the Hackensack-bound nuclear missile from Superman: The Movie is responsible for releasing Zod and his companions from the Phantom Zone (and not the blast from the Eiffel Tower H-Bomb). The originally intended ending for Superman II, which was used instead for the climax of Superman: The Movie (where Superman reverses time) was also restored for the Donner Cut, and incorporates footage Donner had shot in 1977 for this ending of Superman II.