In 1977, director Richard Donner set about simultaneously filming an epic two-part adaptation of the Superman
comic book series.
Principal photography began on March 28, 1977, at Pinewood Studios for the Krypton scenes, but by May 1977, production had run two weeks behind schedule. It was reported that Donner had developed tensions with the Salkinds and
Pierre Spengler concerning the escalating production budget and production schedule. Donner responded by claiming he was never given a budget. However, Donner told
Starlog in March 1979, "I got along with the Salkinds all right, but I didn't get on with Pierre Spengler. I told him to his face that the film was too big for him but he wouldn't face up to the responsibility. It had nothing to do with the film itself, it was in the making of the film—the knowledge to pull it off." In July 1977,
Richard Lester, who worked with the Salkinds on
The Three Musketeers (1973) and
The Four Musketeers (1974), was brought in as a temporary co-producer to mediate the relationship between Donner and the Salkinds who were no longer on speaking terms. Prior to this, Lester had won a lawsuit against the Salkinds for money still owed to him from making the films, but the assets were held in legal entanglements in the
Bahamas. The Salkinds then offered to compensate him if he would help on the
Superman films, in which Lester became a
second unit director where he and Donner formed an effective partnership. By October 1977, Gene Hackman, Ned Beatty, and Valerie Perrine had completed their scenes as they were all under contract to finish both pictures. Nevertheless, with months left of filming, the Salkinds halted filming for
Superman II and focused on finishing
Superman by which time Donner had already completed 75% of the sequel. Following
Superman's December 1978 release, it was widely assumed that Donner would be recalled to complete the remainder of the sequel. Spengler had encountered
Variety columnist
Army Archerd at a Christmas party, and assured him that while there had been tension, he was proud of the film and looked forward to working with him on the sequel. Archerd then contacted Donner in which he responded "If he's on it—I'm not." However, a number of events led to Donner's eventual replacement as director of the movie. Most importantly, producers
Alexander and
Ilya Salkind announced that Marlon Brando's completed scenes for
Superman II would be excised from the movie in order for them to avoid having to pay the actor the reported 11.75% of gross U.S. box-office takings he was now demanding for his performance in the sequel. Donner publicly lambasted this decision, announcing that he would make the film his way or not at all. In January 1979, Donner had told
Variety, "That means no games... They have to want me to do it. It has to be on my terms and I don't mean financially. I mean control." As Donner had become unavailable during the European promotional campaign for
Superman, the Salkinds approached
Guy Hamilton to take over directional reins for
Superman II since Lester was filming
Cuba (1979) at the time. However, Hamilton was unavailable, but by the time
Superman II was ready to begin filming, Lester had completed
Cuba and was available to direct. Eventually, on March 15, 1979, the Salkinds decided to replace Donner with Richard Lester. Donner recalled that "One day, I got a telegram from them saying my services are no longer needed and that my dear friend Richard Lester would take over. To this day, I have not heard from them." Ilya Salkind countered, "Dick Donner said, 'I will do the second movie on my terms and without [Pierre] Spengler'...Spengler was my friend since childhood and my father and I were very loyal guys. We said no, and it really boiled down to that."
The 1980 theatrical Superman II (The Richard Lester Cut) With Lester placed as director, he was not sympathetic to Donner's filmmaking style: "Donner was emphasizing a kind of grandiose myth. There was a kind of
David Lean-ish attempt in several sequences, and enormous scale. There was a type of epic quality which isn't in my nature, so my work really didn't embrace that...That's not me. That's his vision of it. I'm more quirky and I play around with slightly more unexpected silliness." Since
Geoffrey Unsworth had died before the release of
Superman, Lester brought on cinematographer
Robert Paynter to have the film evoke the garish color scheme of the comics. Tom Mankiewicz was approached by
Terry Semel, then a Warner Bros. vice president, to return for the sequel, but he declined out of loyalty to Donner. Mankiewicz recounted "I have a lot of respect for [Lester]. Friendship is more important than anything. And Dick [Donner] brought me on the picture and my loyalty was with Dick and I couldn't believe that they fired him." David and Leslie Newman were then brought back to re-tool the script constructing a new opening and an ending. The new opening involved Superman thwarting the nuclear terrorists at the
Eiffel Tower. The new ending involved Clark causing Lois to forget his secret identity through a hypnotic kiss. Additionally,
Christopher Reeve had become unavailable as he had accepted an offer to star in the romantic fantasy film
Somewhere in Time (1980), five months into the production shutdown, by which time his contract to shoot both
Superman films back-to-back had expired. Reeve claimed that twelve hours after his casting was announced, he received a letter from the producers to be available for
Superman II on July 16, which was only five days after he was to finish filming
Somewhere in Time. In March 1979, the Salkinds filed suit against Reeve alleging he had breached his contract by walking off the sequel. Furthermore, Reeve had had reservations about Lester and the Newmans' script following the departure of Donner. During the renegotiation of his contract, Reeve agreed to the financial terms, but demanded more artistic control. The remaining sequences left to be shot included the scenes of the super-villains in
Midwest America and the battle in
Metropolis, which were all shot by Lester. Gene Hackman, out of loyalty to Donner, declined to return for re-shoots, which necessitated the use of a
body double and a voice impersonator for several scenes. Filming for
Superman II re-commenced in September 1979. As previously announced, Brando's scenes were removed and entirely re-shot with actress
Susannah York. Throughout filming, Lester opted to retain his directorial technique for the
three-camera setup while shooting scenes, which frustrated the actors as they did not know from where they were being filmed for their close-ups. However, Reeve noted that it made the production move faster. Filming was completed on March 10, 1980. Composer
John Williams was flown to England to score the film in which he was given a screening with Ilya Salkind and Richard Lester. When Salkind left the projection room, Williams and Lester fell into an argument; when Salkind returned, Williams told him that he "could not get along with this man."
Ken Thorne was then selected to score the sequel. Before the film's release, Warner Bros. had appealed to the
Directors Guild of America to assign the appropriate co-director credit, in which they argued Lester could not be credited unless he shot 40 percent of the film. Although Lester had earlier thought he would not be credited, he approached Donner to see if he wished to be credited as co-director, in which Donner replied, "I don't share credit". The title was released in Europe and
Australia on December 4, 1980, and June 19, 1981, in the United States. This version of
Superman II combined Donner footage shot in 1977 with Lester footage shot in 1979. Approximately 30% of Lester's
Superman II is Richard Donner's footage. In numerous scenes, the theatrical
Superman II interweaves footage filmed years apart. Much of this interweaving was necessitated by
Lex Luthor actor Gene Hackman's refusal to return to film any further scenes with Lester. Thus, all Hackman footage in the film is Donner's, although in certain scenes, a body double was used for wide shots re-filmed by Lester. In several instances, Lester re-staged Donner-filmed scenes, inserting certain newly filmed shots into pre-existing material. This is most evident during a scene in which the super-villains burst into the
Daily Planet. The scene was filmed in its entirety by Donner in 1977. The
Perry White office set was then partly re-built under Lester in 1979, the actors placed in exactly the same positions, costumes, etc., and new material filmed and inserted into the final film, despite the actors looking physically different.
Donner footage in Superman II The following is a list of all major Donner footage that was retained for
Superman II: • Various shots of the Kryptonian villains on trial (Brando has been matted out) • Scenes from
Superman: The Movie during the opening credits (except for hand-double shots replacing Brando) • Lex Luthor and Otis doing laundry in prison. • The three
supervillains land on the Moon and kill the astronauts. • Luthor escapes prison. • Luthor and Teschmacher in the
hot air balloon. • Luthor and Teschmacher at the
Fortress of Solitude (Kryptonian recordings filmed by Lester). • The three supervillains attack the
White House and force the
President to "kneel before Zod" (except for shots of the American flag falling, shot by Lester). • A powerless
Clark is beaten up by Rocky, a truck driver in a roadside diner (Donner appears as an extra in this sequence). • Lex Luthor visits the supervillains in the White House (except for the first two shots of the sequence, shot by Lester without Hackman). • The villains burst into the
Daily Planet and chase after Superman (some close-ups are Lester footage). • The villains return to the
Planet and decide to go to Superman's polar fortress (some close-ups are Lester footage). • The second part of the finale at the Fortress of Solitude, beginning with Luthor's belated arrival (some close-ups are Lester footage). • Superman returns Lois home. • Clark returns to the diner and gets his revenge on Rocky.
Criticisms Critics of Lester's
Superman II, including Donner, have stated that Lester's penchant for comedy undermined the integrity of the film, especially when compared to Donner's
Superman. Examples of this trademark comedy are evident during scenes which feature Superman fighting the super-villains in Metropolis. The villains attack the citizens of Metropolis using super-breath. Several sight gags follow, including the wind blowing off a man's toupee, the ice cream being blown off a cone and into someone's face, a man being blown over in a telephone booth and talking the whole time, a man with an umbrella being spun around as if dancing (parodying ''
Singin' in the Rain) and a man on roller-skates rolling uncontrollably backwards across the pavement. Conversely, David Denby, reviewing the film for New York'', praised the film's light approach and credited Lester for the film, particularly Hackman's performance. Mankiewicz shot back in a mailed letter writing, "Just for the record, Gene Hackman never shot a foot of film with Lester and it was all written by me," but
New York never issued a correction. Discussions about the lost Donner footage raged for years. With the advent of the Internet, numerous letter-writing and other campaigns were instigated to persuade Warner Bros. to allow Richard Donner to create his version of
Superman II. In 2004, the fan-restored DVD known as
Superman II: Restored International Cut was released through many Superman fan sites. It featured extended scenes pulled from international TV broadcasts over the years. Warner Bros. threatened legal action over the
bootleg release.
The Richard Donner Cut When filming was suspended on Donner's
Superman II in October 1977, the director had completed almost all of the major character-based sequences in the film. All scenes in the
Daily Planet and most scenes set in the Fortress of Solitude were completed. All scenes featuring
Marlon Brando,
Ned Beatty,
Jackie Cooper,
Valerie Perrine and
Gene Hackman were also completed. What remained to be filmed was the villains' arrival on Earth, and their rampage through mid-west America as well as exteriors at Washington, D.C., during which Zod announces his takeover of the Earth from the tip of the
Washington Monument. Most of the battle scenes between Superman and the super-villains had yet to be shot, as well as both the interiors and exteriors at Niagara Falls, which had been planned to be shot during the Canadian shooting on
Superman: The Movie, but was indefinitely postponed to make up for time and get the production back to England quicker. Several minor scenes including a love-struck Superman deliberately tilting over the
Leaning Tower of Pisa (later adapted in
Superman III) and a scene in which Superman warns off some English fox-hunters were also not filmed.
The Donner Cut features most of the completed but previously unseen scenes (some scenes have been deleted for narrative or dramatic reasons, while others are in alternate takes different from what had been seen in previous television cuts). In many cases such scenes replace those re-filmed or altered by Lester. These include the original opening of the film set in the offices of the
Daily Planet. In this opening, we see Lois trying to figure out the similarities between Clark Kent and Superman, followed by Perry White assigning Clark and Lois on the honeymoon racket in Niagara Falls, and then Lois testing Clark / Superman by jumping off the balcony of one floor of the
Daily Planet (a revised version of this scene appears in the Lester theatrical cut). A scene in a Niagara Falls hotel room, in which Lois tricks Clark into revealing he is Superman by shooting at him with a pistol loaded with blanks, is assembled from footage from Christopher Reeve's screen test, filmed with another actress (
Holly Palance) as Lois. Footage from Margot Kidder's screen test for the same film was shot with the now-cast Christopher Reeve. including much "lost" footage filmed by Donner. Soon after, Donner was approached by Warner Bros. to do an extended version of
Superman II, but remained reluctant to revisit the movie. In May 2001, he told the website
IGN: "At the time, the studio wanted me to go back in and re-cut the film and add anything I wanted to add or do anything I wanted to do. Quite honestly, I was done with it. I was finished." Nonetheless, fans continued to campaign for the film, including
Birmingham, England native Dharmesh Chauhan who launched his website, supermancinema.co.uk, in which he petitioned for a release of the Richard Donner cut. In May 2004, the
Planet of the Apes fansite TheForbidden-Zone.com launched an Internet campaign demanding Warner Bros. to allow Donner to release his version of
Superman II in conjunction with the film's 25th anniversary. On June 19, 2004, the studio responded with the statement, "Warner Home Video is supportive of an extended version of
Superman II on DVD. However, there are complex legal issues that need to be resolved before the film can be re-released. Warner Home Video is presently addressing those issues." That same month, Margot Kidder said in an interview for
Starlog: "There's a whole other
Superman II in a vault somewhere, with scenes of Chris and me that have never seen the light of day. It's far better than the one that was released." Other than Donner's reluctance to re-visit the project, these legal issues were the greatest obstacle towards creating a Donner cut. The required footage was still owned by the Salkinds, and issues of using Brando's filmed footage in
Superman II remained unresolved. In March 2005, it was speculated that archive footage of Brando would be used in the then-upcoming sequel
Superman Returns (2006). Later, in November 2006,
Donner Cut producer Michael Thau told
American Cinematographer magazine, "Marlon Brando's estate made a deal with Warner Bros. to license some of his footage for
Superman Returns. This later led to the studio going back to his estate for our re-cut of
Superman II. If that footage couldn't be used, it wasn't worth doing the project." Work began on the project in late 2005, though without Donner's involvement. Thau explained Donner's reluctance to involve himself was because he was preoccupied with directing
16 Blocks (2006) at the time. A month later, when asked about the new
Superman II cut, Donner told the website
Dark Horizons that Thau was "recutting my picture and again, he's asked me would I help. I can't because it's so long ago and the little bit of footage that I looked at, I would never shoot like that now in a million years, I mean it was a different way, a different style, different interpretation." Throughout the years, Donner had frequently proclaimed diametrically opposing views with regard to the possibility of re-assembling his
Superman II – often stating that he would like to do it, other times stating that he would not. In June 2006, Thau stated, "Dick [Donner] was beginning to free up from
16 Blocks and I would try to lure him into the cutting room with 'Here Dick here's a piece of candy, come take a look' and then he started warming up to the project." In a June 2006 interview with Amazon.com, George Feltenstein, senior vice president of Warner Home Video's Catalog Marketing division, stated: == Music ==