Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze is a 1991 action / family film. It was the second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, being the sequel to the 1990 film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Secret of the Ooze was then followed by a third film in 1993. The film is commonly abbreviated to TMNT II.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)

The film follows the adventures of the four Turtles; Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael. Roughly resuming from the events of the last film, villain Shredder returns to take back command of the Foot Clan, and work towards getting revenge on the Turtles. When he learns the secret behind the Turtles' mutation, he becomes more dangerous than ever. The film sheds some light on the origins of Splinter and the Turtles, introduces two new villains; Tokka and Rahzar. Unlike the first film, this one rarely showed the use of their weapons. Most of the combats were done with their fists.

The film was released in March of 1991, and received mixed reviews from critics and fans. It departed from a lot of the darker feelings of the 1990 film, and in contrast was more light hearted than its predecessor. The film was still very popular, and it became the 13th highest grossing film worldwide in the year of its release

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)


Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the 1990 live-action film based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. The film was followed by two sequels, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III. This film presents the origin story of Splinter and the Turtles, the initial meeting between them, April O'Neil and Casey Jones, and their first confrontation with Shredder and his Foot Clan. The film's core plot closely follows that of the first published TMNT story, from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

When the NYPD is unable to stop a severe crime wave caused by the Foot Clan, four new vigilantes, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael, will come forth to save the city. Under the leadership of Splinter and together with their new-found allies April O'Neil and Casey Jones, they will fight back and take the battle to Shredder.

The film kept very close to the dark feel of the original comics with only few elements making it in from the cartoon. Although the film receives mixed reviews, it was a huge hit at the box office, and became the fifth highest grossing film worldwide of 1990. At the time of its release, it was the most profitable film ever.

The film was well received by fans, and did exceedingly well at the box office. Reviews were for the most part mixed. Roger Ebert, although he gave it only 2 and a half stars, did say that it "probably is the best possible Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie." and it supplies what Turtle fans should expect. The film was also somewhat looked down upon for its level of violence, but it was mostly stylized and not graphic. The film was praised for the most part staying very loyal to the original comics, and not integrating too many elements from the cartoon series.

The film opened at the box office in North America on March 30, 1990. It opened at #1 over the weekend, taking in more than $25 million. The film turned out to be a huge success at the box office, eventually making over $135 million in North America, and over $66 million outside North America for a worldwide total of over $200 million, making it the fifth highest grossing film of 1990 worldwide. The film was also nominated for Best Costumes and Best Fantasy Film at the 1991 Saturn Awards, as well as the Most Entertaining Family Youth Motion Picture - Drama at the Young Artist Awards

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

Monday, January 29, 2007

Tank Girl (1995)


British comic character Tank Girl originally appeared in the UK comic book, Deadline.
Tank Girl was drawn by Jamie Hewlett, and written by Alan Martin, with later writing by Peter Milligan.

Tank Girl (1995)

Tank Girl drives a tank, which is also her home. She undertakes a series of missions for a secret organization before making a serious mistake and being declared an outlaw; later strips were deeply disorganized, chaotic and frequently psychedelic.
The strip was initially set in a stylized post-apocalyptic Australia (indeed, Hewlett and Martin have described her as "Mad Max designed by Vivienne Westwood"), although it drew heavily from contemporary British pop culture.
Real-life celebrities were commonly used (usually B list, from Britpop bands and UK children's TV, although on one occasion Tank Girl did headbutt Princess Diana and steal her tiara).

Tank Girl was also the subject of a 1995 film directed by Rachel Talalay and starring Lori Petty as Rebecca Buck, aka Tank Girl.
Unlike the strip's non-linear, stream of consciousness, absurdist cut-and-paste sort of structure, the film has a standard timeline.
The plot revolves around the fact that Tank Girl and her rebel group are attacked by Water and Power, a powerful force that controls the remaining water on a dystopian Earth.
A young girl named Sam (Tank Girl's boyfriend's daughter) is abducted and the story revolves around Tank Girl's quest to save her and seek vengeance against those who killed her crew with the help of Jet Girl (Naomi Watts), Sub Girl (Ann Cusack), the rippers and Booga (Jeff Kober), who has a noticeably different personality.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Tales from the Crypt (1972)

Tales from the Crypt is a British horror movie, made in 1972 by Amicus Productions. It is an anthology film consisting of five separate segments, based on stories from EC Comics. Only two of the stories, however, are actually from EC's Tales from the Crypt. The reason for this, according to Creepy founding editor Russ Jones, is that Amicus producer Milton Subotsky did not own a run of the original EC comic book but instead adapted the movie from the two paperback reprints given to him by Jones. The story "Wish You Were Here" was reprinted in the paperback collection The Vault of Horror (Ballantine, 1965). The other four stories in the movie were among the eight stories reprinted in Tales from the Crypt (Ballantine, 1964).


Tales from the Crypt (1972)

In the film, five strangers encounter the mysterious Crypt Keeper (Ralph Richardson) in a crypt, and he tells each in turn the manner of their death. Richardson's hooded Crypt Keeper, more somber than the EC original (as illustrated by Al Feldstein and Jack Davis), has a monk-like appearance and resembles EC's GhouLunatics. However, in the EC horror comics, the other horror hosts (the Old Witch and the Vault Keeper) wore hoods, while the Crypt Keeper did not.

The screenplay was adapted into a tie-in novel by Jack Oleck, Tales from the Crypt (Bantam, 1972). Oleck, who wrote the novel Messalina (1950), also scripted for EC's Picto-Fiction titles, Crime Illustrated, Shock Illustrated and Terror Illustrated. A sequel, The Vault of Horror, was released in 1973.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

The Return of Swamp Thing (1989)


The Return of Swamp Thing is a low-budget horror movie made in 1989. It was directed by Jim Wynorski, and had a running time of 95 minutes. The film is based on the DC Comics title Swamp Thing, and is a sequel to the 1982 Swamp Thing film directed by Wes Craven.

After her mother's mysterious death, Abby Arcane (Heather Locklear) travels to the Florida swamps to confront her evil stepfather, Dr. Arcane (Louis Jourdan). In an attempt to stave off the affects of aging, Dr. Arcane combines genes from a series of swamp animals and human beings, creating an army of monsters. Dr. Arcane tries to use his stepdaughter Abby Arcane in his genetic experiments, but she is rescued by the Swamp Thing (Dick Durock), a scientist turned into a bog creature after a battle with the evil doctor.

The Return of Swamp Thing (1989)


The film is primarily a silly comedy-adventure for young children. Most notable is the comedic performance of nine-year-old Daniel Emery Taylor as one of two children who play the comedy relief.

A novelization of the film was written by Peter David. It may have been written from an earlier script, as the novelization has a considerably more serious attitude and would have taken a much larger budget had the story been filmed. The tale draws more openly from the Alan Moore era of Swamp Thing comics which influenced the final movie only on the most basic level. The novelization includes a scene in which Swamp Thing takes control of an entire hillside.

The film was issued on DVD with a commentary by Wynorski which suggests both that some of the comedy may not be as intentional as it seems, and that Wynorski had some degree of contempt for the material. It also includes two environmental public service announcements for television recorded with Durock in character and the two children featured in the movie. It is unknown if the PSAs were ever aired.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Swamp Thing (1982)


Swamp Thing is a 1982 film written and directed by Wes Craven.
It starred Louis Jourdan, Adrienne Barbeau and Ray Wise as the scientist who was transformed into a monster by a laboratory accident. The film was based on the DC comics character of the same name by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson. A late coming, low-budget sequel entitled The Return of Swamp Thing appeared in 1989.

Filming occurred primarily on location in Charleston, South Carolina, and nearby Johns Island, South Carolina due to the region's picturesque swampy scenery.

Swamp Thing (1982)

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Superman Returns (2006)


Superman Returns is a 2006 superhero film based on the fictional DC Comics character Superman. It was directed by Bryan Singer and stars Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth and Kevin Spacey. The screenplay was written by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, based on a story by Bryan Singer, Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty.

Filming began in February 2005, and the movie was released in the United States on June 28, 2006 after sixteen months of filming and production. It was the first theatrical Superman film since 1987's Superman IV: The Quest For Peace. The film received mostly positive critical reviews and grossed over $391 million worldwide.

The film revolves around Superman's return to Earth after a five-year absence. He re-assumes his secret identity of Clark Kent, and discovers that Lois Lane—now in a "prolonged engagement"—has a five-year-old son. Superman's nemesis, arch-villain Lex Luthor has devised a new plan to defeat Superman. Director Bryan Singer has said that the continuity is "taking off from the first two Superman films with Christopher Reeve"which serve as its back-story, or as he put it, a "vague history". The late Marlon Brando's role as Superman's biological father Jor-El is reprised with the help of computer-generated imagery and earlier footage.

Superman Returns (2006)

Superman Returns has similarities with the James Bond series of films in that it is implied that it shares common continuity with earlier films, despite the change of actors in key roles and time-setting. The most noticeable of these links is the use of John Williams' original themes from Superman: The Movie, much as Bond films continued to reference the original "James Bond Theme", and the use of Brando's voice and archive footage. A more subtle reference is the appearance of a photograph of Glenn Ford as Clark's now-deceased adopted father Jonathan Kent (a deleted scene included on the DVD release gives a clearer view of this image); Ford had played the role in the original film. Other links to the previous films include Luthor's "affinity for beachfront property" (his quoting of his father's words of advice echoes similar dialog spoken by the Gene Hackman version of the character in the first film), and Superman's encounter with Lois on the rooftop which similarly echoes their first romantic encounter. Luthor also shows knowledge of the workings of the Fortress of Solitude, as he had previously visited the place in Superman II. The kryptonite meteorite in the museum is labelled as having been found in Addis Ababa in 1978 -- the same location where the kryptonite meteorite was accessed by Luthor in the first film (released in 1978). The revelation that Jason is Superman's son ties in with the sexual encounter between Superman and Lois that occurs in Superman II. The presence of Martha Kent indicates that at the events of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, in which Martha is implied to have died (a fact confirmed by a deleted scene from that film) have been discounted.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)


Superman IV: The Quest for Peace is a 1987 film, the last of the Superman theatrical movies starring Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel. In this film, Superman battled Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) and his creation, a solar-powered evil clone of Superman called Nuclear Man.

Unlike the previous three movies, which were produced by Alexander and Ilya Salkind, the fourth movie was produced by Golan-Globus' Cannon Films, in association with Warner Bros.

In 1983, following the mixed reaction to Superman III, which nontheless made $60 million at the box office, Reeve and the producers, father and son team Alexander and Ilya Salkind, assumed that the Superman films had run their course. Reeve was slated to make a cameo in 1984's Supergirl but was unavailable; that film (technically the fourth in the series) was a box office failure. Four years later, Ilya Salkind sold the Superman franchise to Golan & Globus of Cannon Films.

According to Reeve, Golan & Globus Films did not have a script in mind when they first approached him about doing the fourth installment; they simply wanted him to reprise his role. Reeve himself admitted in his autobiography Still Me that he really wasn't sure that he wanted to do another Superman film, especially if it was going to be treated as a farce, which had been the case with the third film, an approach that Reeve felt was disrespectful to fans and the source material. The new filmmakers then offered Reeve a deal he couldn't refuse – in exchange for starring in the fourth Superman film, they would produce any project of his choosing, and also promised him story input (there was also talk of having Reeve direct a fifth Superman film in case the fourth one proved successful). Reeve accepted, and in exchange, Golan & Globus produced the gritty crime drama Street Smart.



Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)

After reviewing various scripts, Reeve suggested the storyline of Superman becoming involved in the global political issue of nuclear warfare, in order to give the film a more serious feel to distance itself from the previous film. Unfortunately, Golan and Globus had so many other films in the pipeline at the time that their money was spread too thinly to properly accommodate what became Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, released in 1987, forcing the film's veteran director Sidney J. Furie to cut corners everywhere. The film was universally panned by critics and fans alike, who were disgusted by the film's cheap special effects, which paled in comparison to the earlier films, and performed poorly at the box office.

The movie was not well received by either the general public or movie critics. Some critics considered the film to be one of the worst of its year. The movie suffered from poor sound and visual effects, believed to be caused by Cannon using much of the film's intended budget on their other projects. Reportedly, Warner Bros. gave Cannon approximately $40 million to produce Superman IV but in the end, Cannon used only $17 million for Superman IV. Most feel that the first movie had superior effects when compared to the fourth film, despite being ten years old at that point.

Of the four Superman films starring Reeve, this one fared the worst at the box office, and the series, as it turned out, went dormant for 19 years. Reeve himself admitted that both this and the third installment were very poor and did not live up to the potential that had been established by the first two films, and his 1995 paralysis made the development of any further sequels involving him impossible. Time Warner let the Superman feature film franchise go undeveloped until the late-1990s when a variety of proposals were considered (see: Superman Reborn), including several that would reboot the franchise altogether with substantially different versions of the characters and setting, rather than attempt to follow up on this film.

The final words in this film, "See you in twenty," proved to be prophetic. The next Superman film Superman Returns arrived at cinemas in June 2005, nineteen years after this film premiered at the box office.

Supergirl (1984)


Supergirl is a 1984 feature film. It stars Helen Slater in her first motion picture role in the title role of the DC Comics superheroine Supergirl. It was a spin-off from the popular 1978 movie Superman, with Marc McClure reprising his role as Jimmy Olsen.

The movie performed poorly at the box office and failed to impress critics or audiences. Helen Slater, however, was nominated for a Saturn Award for her strong performance by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. The film does contain some expansions on the Superman movie mythology, such as taking the viewer into the Phantom Zone itself (in the first two Superman films, it was merely represented by a spinning black pane of glass). The story uses sorcery (a noted Superman weakness, but less favored over kryptonite) as a counter attack on Supergirl to great effect.

Supergirl (1984)


Released on video over the years by different companies, the film's first DVD release was on independent home video company Anchor Bay Entertainment in 2000 under license from StudioCanal. Warner Bros. recently acquired the rights to the film and reissued it on DVD late in 2006 to coincide with the reissues on DVD of the other Superman films. However, even though it is technically part of the same series of films as the ones produced between 1978 and 1987 with Christopher Reeve, it is not included in any of Warners' Superman-related 2006 box set DVD collections.

Superman III (1983)


Superman III is a 1983 movie that was the third of four movies based upon the long-running DC Comics superhero produced between 1978-1987. Christopher Reeve, Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure, and Margot Kidder are joined by new cast members Annette O'Toole, Annie Ross, Pamela Stephenson, Robert Vaughn, and Richard Pryor. The film was the last Reeve/Superman film produced by Alexander Salkind and Ilya Salkind. It was followed by Supergirl in 1984 and the non-Salkind sequel Superman IV: The Quest For Peace in 1987. The film was less successful than the first two Superman movies, both financially and critically. Many fans of the series complained that there was too much emphasis on comedy, the villains were too weak, and that Christopher Reeve essentially played second fiddle to Richard Pryor. However, others enjoyed the movie and it brought Pryor to an even wider audience. Following the release of this movie his status in the movie industry was such that he signed a deal with Columbia Pictures worth US$40,000,000.

Superman III (1983)


The total domestic box office gross for Superman III was $59,950,623. Thus, it was considered a major financial disappointment, since the first two movies each grossed over $100 million domestically. Besides a considerably poor feedback from the audience themselves, what also likely hurt the box office performance was the fact that Superman III was released during the same summer as the Star Wars sequel Return of the Jedi and the James Bond films Octopussy and Never Say Never Again.

Another problem may have been that the trailer seemed to spoil much of the movie itself. In July 1983, ITV showed the Royal Premiere of Superman III. This show included interviews with actors in the film who had flown to London for the United Kingdom and European premiere. Some clips from the film were shown, including where Superman is flying Gus to the coal mine and explaining how he used the acid to destroy the supercomputer, thus revealing the ending of the film.

A frequent criticism of Superman III is the inclusion of comedian Richard Pryor, who wound up getting the second biggest role in the movie behind Christopher Reeve. Many suspected that Pryor (who was riding off of the heels of smash hits like Stir Crazy and The Toy) helped himself into getting into Superman III after appearing on The Tonight Show and telling Johnny Carson about how much he enjoyed watching Superman II.Audiences also saw Robert Vaughn's villainous Ross Webster as an uninspired fill-in for the Lex Luthor of Gene Hackman, who sat out Superman III due to his problems with the Salkinds. Hackman along with Margot Kidder, (Lois Lane) was upset with the way the Salkinds treated Superman director Richard Donner, and Hackman retaliated by refusing to reprise the role of Lex Luthor entirely (though he would later be persuaded to come back for Superman IV: The Quest For Peace in 1987 with which the Salkinds had no connection). The Salkinds retaliated against Kidder by severely reducing her role in Superman III.

In his commentary for the 2006 DVD release of Superman III, Ilya Salkind denied any ill will between Margot Kidder and his production team, and refutes the claim her part was cut for retailiation. Instead, he says, the creative team decided to pursue a different direction for a love interest for Superman, believing the Lois & Clark relationship had played out in the first two films (but could be revisited in the future). With the choice to give a more prominent role to Lana Lang, Lois' part was reduced for story reasons. Salkind also denied the reports about Gene Hackman being upset with him, stating he didn't return due to prior commitments.

Fans also placed most of the blame on director Richard Lester, Richard Lester made a number of popular comedies in the 1960s - including The Beatles' classic A Hard Day's Night (1964) and other hits such as The Knack (1965), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) and Petulia (1968). His grounding is in comedy and this is an approach that dooms Superman III . Lester broke tradition by having Superman III opening up with a prolonged slapstick sequence (often compared with silent comedy) with difficult-to-read titles over it (the first two movies opened up in outerspace with big and bold credits). Fans believed that Lester, unlike Donner, had virtually little, if any, knowledge or, more importantly, respect for the Superman legacy and legend. In fact, Richard Donner was supposedly fired because he wouldn't follow the Salkinds' vision of Superman being campy (a la the Batman television series starring Adam West). Superman III is commonly seen as more or less a goofy farce than a grandiose adventure picture like the first two movies. Another problem is the screenplay, written by David and Leslie Newman. When Richard Donner was hired to direct the first two films he found the Newman scripts so distasteful that he hired Tom Mankiewicz for heavy rewrites. Since Donner and Mankiewicz were no longer attached to the franchise, the Salkinds were finally able to bring their "vision" of Superman to the screen and once again hired the Newmans for writing duties.

Film critic Leonard Maltin said of Superman III that it was an "appalling sequel that trashed everything that Superman was about for the sake of cheap laughs and a co-starring role for Richard Pryor." Fans generally agree though that the only redeeming and sincere moments in Superman III were the scenes involving Clark Kent and his childhood sweetheart Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole), who for all intents and purposes, replaced Lois Lane as the love interest in this movie, and the climactic junkyard fight between Clark Kent and the "Evil Superman." Despite Christopher Reeve's best efforts to portray an intense and violently unstable Man of Steel, "Evil Superman's" acts of assorted mischief (staying near Lana in a suggestive manner and arriving late at a rescue, straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa, blowing out the Olympic torch, getting drunk and flicking peanuts) gave the movie an even more camp touch though it has failed to become better received in the same way the Adam West Batman film is looked on favorably.

Superman III is sometimes praised for the performance of Reeve, playing a corrupted version of the Man of Steel, and a spectacular junkyard battle between this newly darkened Superman and Clark Kent.

Superman II (1980) ,Part 2


It was released in Europe and Australia (December 4, 1980) before being released in the United States (June 19, 1981).
The original script had the nuclear missile from Superman: The Movie releasing Zod and companions from the Phantom Zone, instead of the Eiffel Tower bomb.
In the version of the film planned by Richard Donner, Superman flies around the Leaning Tower of Pisa at incredible super-speed, accidentally causing it to stand up straight. This was dropped by Richard Lester, but re-used in Superman III, where evil Superman straightens the Tower of Pisa on purpose.
Some scenes from the Metropolis battle may have been shot and then cut: the destruction of the Washington Monument, the Statue of Liberty's arm being destroyed, melting of the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and Ursa's reshaping the faces on Mount Rushmore.
In one TV version, a US "polar patrol" is shown picking up the three Kryptonians and Lex Luthor at the end of the film. Without this ending, it appears that Superman has let the Kryptonians die, though Superman has a strict code against killing and their deaths aren't necessary once they are depowered.
Superman also uses the rare "super-kiss" to make Lois forget he is Clark. While this was a real power Superman had in the comics, it was rarely used, and eventually removed.
The scene where Lois Lane discovers Clark Kent's true identity was scripted for use in the first Superman film.
Richard Donner briefly appears in a "walking cameo" in the film. In the sequence where the de-powered Clark and Lois are seen approaching the truck-stop diner by car, Donner appears walking "camera left" past the driver's side. He is wearing a light tan jacket and appears to be smoking a pipe.
In the scene where the young boy falls over the rail at Niagara Falls, as Superman is rescuing him, a woman's voice can be heard saying in a stereotypical New York/Jewish accent, "Of course he's Jewish." "He," obviously referring to Superman. The creators of Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, were both Jewish; as was Batman creator Bob Kane.
Selected premiere engagements of Superman II were presented in Megasound, a high-impact surround sound system similar to Sensurround.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Superman II (1980)


Superman II is the 1980 sequel to the 1978 feature film Superman. It was the only Superman film to be helmed by two directors. For this reason the film is surrounded with controversy since original director Richard Donner had completed, by his estimation, roughly 75% of the movie in 1977 before being taken off the project. Many of the scenes shot by second director Richard Lester (who had been an uncredited producer on the first film) in 1979 are refilmed Donner sequences. It was released in Europe and Australia in late 1980 but not distributed in the United States until June 1981, which is unusual for such a major production.

Superman II (1980)


According to statements by Donner, roughly 25% of the theatrical cut of Superman II contains footage he shot, including all of Gene Hackman's scenes. In 1984, when Superman II premiered on television, 24 minutes were re-inserted into the film (17 mins in US ABC TV). Much of the extra footage was directed by Richard Donner. A brand new re-cut of the film, restoring as much as Donner's original conception as possible, entitled Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, was released in November 2006.

Off-screen problems hampered production of this movie: like other Salkind productions such as The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974), this was filmed at the same time as the first Superman movie to be a direct sequel. However, Marlon Brando filed suit over his percentage of the first film's profits, so as a response, the Salkind brothers excised his scenes from the second film. Director Richard Donner 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. Following that, Gene Hackman declined to return for any reshoots by Lester, which cut down the number of scenes in which he appears in the final cut (or with a few scenes where a body double was obviously being used).


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 Brothers 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 unfortunately made the scapegoat.

Despite all the difficulties, and with only a few noticeable shifts in tone between the two directors' scenes (Lester's scenes tend to be more campy and humorous), 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 almost 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 (the initial expanded U.S. ABC and Canadian CBC telecasts, though edited differently, were derived from the European/Australian TV edit).

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 has 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. SE 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. It was also confirmed that the new cut will feature less than 20% footage filmed by replacement director Richard Lester.

Monday, January 1, 2007

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