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Some fun news. DVDTalk's Geoffrey Kleinman secured a Savant invite to the premiere screening last night of SUPERMAN II, THE RICHARD DONNER CUT at the Director's Guild. SUPERMAN I and II originally started as one huge script and was then divided into two movies; Richard Donner completed much of the filming for the second half when he was fired and replaced by Richard Lester. Lester re-shot most of Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder's scenes, and his movie ended up junking a lot of original plot and replacing it with new material. The most important element was Warner's dropping of Marlon Brando's scenes from SUPERMAN II to save money; he was replaced by Susannah York, who played Kal-el's mother.
Several popular websites have been screaming for years to see this version reconstituted. As part of a massive Superman push this year, Warner Home Video has been remastering fancy versions of the Christopher Reeve films as well as collecting other Superman rarities like the Columbia Kirk Alyn serials and the Max Fleischer Paramount cartoons (restored from original elements, we're told). A note to 'the press' asked us not to review Donner's recut before the DVD release, but nobody said anything about reviewing the evening, which was impressive on its own.
The Guild theater had a rather small section set aside for 'press' and 'guests' and a phalanx of video cameramen were on hand to record both the entrance of the VIPs (they gravitated immediately to the reception room bar) and the spirited discussion after the movie. The Warner Home Video host introduced a hefty list of special guests in the audience: Richard Donner, his restoration editor/producer Michael Thau, screenwriter and special consultant Tom Mankiewicz, Margot Kidder, Marc McClure, Sarah Douglas, and Jack O'Halloran. Representing other-generation Super-films were 50s Lois Lane Noel Neill and the new Man of Steel, Brandon Routh, along with his director Bryan Singer, his editor/composer John Ottman and his Jimmy Olsen Sam Huntington. Representing Marlon Brando were his son and daughter. All took spirited bows to the expected applause.
After the screening, which was understandably well received, the key actors, Thau, Donner and Mankiewicz took the stage and favored us with about a half hour of pleasant talk, memories and clarifications about the shooting. The actors explained how they were cast, Kidder talked at length about the politics on the set and the difference between Lester's style and Donner's -- she thought Lester was too cynical for the material. Kidder said she had been vocal in her antipathy toward the producers, which led to her SUPERMAN III part being cut down to only a few lines. Donner and Mankiewicz reminisced about the craziness in figuring out how to end the movies; the producers had panicked and moved the 'turn back the clock' finish from part two back to the end of part one. All in all, the evening was excellent for this kind of outing: No terrible delays, no egotistical stars being obnoxious and a limit set on mutual back-patting.
I'm looking forward to reviewing the disc when it comes out in a few weeks. I loved SUPERMAN I but thought Lester's II was a major betrayal of the characters and tone established in the first film. The restoration fixes many of its problems.
Thanks for reading!, Glenn Erickson
Posted by DVD Savant at November 03, 2006 10:44 AM