Superman II: The Richard Donner 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."[16] 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.[17]

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."[18][19] 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.[20]

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.[21] In March 1979, the Salkinds filed suit against Reeve alleging he had breached his contract by walking off the sequel.[22] Furthermore, Reeve had held reservations with 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.[23]

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 need for a stand-in actor and a voice double for several scenes.[20] Filming for Superman II re-commenced in September 1979.[24] 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.[17] However, Reeve noted that it made the production move at a faster pace.[25] Filming was completed on March 10, 1980.[26]

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.[26][27] 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".[28][29]

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.

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 Tessmacher in the hot air balloon.
• Luthor and Tessmacher 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.

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.[30] 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 of 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.[31] 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.[28]

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.[32] It featured extended scenes pulled from international TV broadcasts over the years. Warner Bros. threatened legal action over the bootleg release.[33][34]

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), which in many cases replace scenes 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.[2] Accordingly, Reeve's build, clothing, haircut, and eyeglasses are notably different from shot to shot.

The prospect of creating a Richard Donner cut did not begin to gain momentum until the 2001 DVD restoration of Superman. At the time, six tons of footage of each Superman film were discovered in vaults in England by Michael Thau,[35] 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."[36]

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.[37] 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.[38] 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."[39] 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."[40]

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).[41] 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."[42]

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.[35] In January 2006, Donner told IGN: "They're doing it. I'm not doing it... I don't even want to see it until it comes out in the theater... I'm too far away from it now."[43] 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."[44]

Throughout the years, Donner had frequently proclaimed diametrically-opposing views with regards 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 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."[35] Sometime later, Thau confirmed that Donner had decided on a far closer involvement with the project, also bringing in Tom Mankiewicz to assist. In an interview with the magazine Movie Magic, he stated, "When I'd get a cut on a scene, I'd show it to Dick and he'd say, 'I don't like that line; that reading's not good,' and so on. With Dick it's always, 'Make it move faster."

Overall, The Donner Cut comprises Donner's Superman II scenes edited by Stuart Baird in 1977–78, 1980 Superman II theatrical scenes cut by John Victor Smith, as well as a large amount of new material edited by Michael Thau. The new cut reportedly used less than 20 percent of the footage shot by Lester.[45]

In a June 2006 interview with Amazon.com, George Feltenstein, senior vice president of Warner Home Video's Catalog Marketing division, stated:[46]

We have been getting for years and years and years letters begging us to release the Donner cut of Superman II, and this year we bit the bullet and we've created what is ostensibly a new film, although the footage is all footage that was shot years and years and years ago. But it was sitting in a lab and never assembled. And for those of us were very saddened and touched by the loss of Christopher Reeve – to see footage you've never seen of him before, and a whole different take on the Superman II story, is really thrilling.

Donner contacted composer John Williams about creating a new score for his version of the film, but Williams was unable to help out, as he had also turned down a similar request by Superman Returns director Bryan Singer because he was scoring Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005). Donner reused Williams' music (along with unreleased and unused cues) from the first film, while still retaining a small amount of Ken Thorne's score, subsequently relegating Thorne to the closing credits for "additional music", and the new opening title sequence gives Williams' composing credit.

The world premiere of The Donner Cut was screened on November 2, 2006, at the Directors Guild of America building in Hollywood. It was attended by several members of the cast and crew, including Donner, Ilya Salkind, Mankiewicz, Kidder, Sarah Douglas, O'Halleran, and McClure. After the screening, they participated in a panel discussion.[48][49][50] On November 25, 2006, an exclusive screening benefit for Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut was held at the Fine Arts Theatre in Los Angeles, California.[51]

On November 28, 2006, the film was released on DVD, Blu-Ray, and HD DVD, which featured an optional introduction by director Richard Donner and an audio commentary by Donner and Mankiewicz. Additionally, the release included a new making-of featurette titled Superman II: Restoring the Vision and six deleted scenes.[52]

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut an approval rating of 90% based on 10 reviews with an average rating of 7.6 out of 10.[53] In comparison, the theatrical cut of Superman II received an approval rating of 83% based on 58 reviews with an average rating of 7.4 out of 10.[54]

Kenneth Sweeney, writing in American Cinematographer magazine, praised the DVD release, noting that "Donner's take on the narrative events of Superman II is unusual and fascinating. This version includes a longer prologue, deletes many of Lester's campy sequences, and offers a more consistent balance between adventure and romance." He concluded that "[t]his exciting, one-of-a-kind DVD is really a joy to behold for longtime fans of the Superman franchise, and is a must for all fans of the superhero genre."[55] Todd Gilchrist of IGN gave The Donner Cut a score of 9 out of 10, writing "the film itself is a remarkable artistic accomplishment".[56] Vic Holtreman, reviewing for Screen Rant, praised The Donner Cut as superior to the theatrical version, but lamented that "there is still almost all of the silly humor that was in the first Superman film and the original release of Superman II."[57]

In his book Superman vs Hollywood, Jake Rossen wrote, "Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut is neither a better nor a worse film than its first incarnation. Lester's labored slapstick has been all but excised, and Brando's presence certainly elevates the melodrama surrounding Clark's conflict over becoming 'human.' But incorporating the unpolished audition footage is jarring; ultimately, the edit is simply a curiosity."[58] Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club graded the film a C+, concluding, "It's nice to see the Brando footage and the restored scenes of Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder's breezy chemistry. But where the original cut at least played as a relatively cohesive movie, loose ends and all, this looks like little but loose ends. It's a curio, not a corrective."[59]

Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut received an award at the 33rd Saturn Awards in the category of Best DVD Special Edition Release.