"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."
-- Margot Kidder, STARLOG #323, currently on news stands

Superman II Countdown Clock

Next year, 2005, marks the 25-year anniversary of Superman II*. What better gift to Superman fans than a special 25th Anniversary DVD release of a Richard Donner cut?

Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder in a missing Donner scene from Superman II. Click the image to view a QuickTime clip (2.2 MB), courtesy of Donner's Superman.

For those of you unfamiliar with Superman II's checkered past, a little history. Superman and Superman II were originally conceived as one film project. The films were, at the start, shot simultaneously and worked as parts One and Two of the same story. When Superman hurled the nuclear missle into space at the end of the first film, THAT's what released the villains from the Phantom Zone to come back in the second film. For a complete description of what the films should have been and what went wrong, visit the excellent Superman Cinema site or Donner's Superman.

Superman says good-bye to Lois in another of Donner's missing scenes. Click the image to view a QuickTime clip (1.39 MB), courtesy of Donner's Superman.

Unfortunately, during production, the whole project was falling behind schedule and it was decided to concentrate all efforts on completing Superman I in order to make the release date. Plus, there was all sorts of bad blood, backstabbing, and politics going on behind the scenes, thanks to Alexander and Ilya Salkind, the producers. When it came time to complete Superman II, director Richard Donner was replaced by Richard Lester. In order to get Donner's name off the credits, lots of changes were made, such as how the villains escaped, how Lois figures out Clark is Superman, and how she sets out to prove it. There's some real jewels in the vaults at the WB, such as Lois jumping out of a window at the Daily Planet to prove that Clark is Superman, and all of Brando's scenes from Superman II. That's right, Brando. All of it was shot by Donner, but none of it was ever used due to a contract dispute. Much of what Donner had already shot was rewritten and reshot. And this only scratches the surface of what happened.

Two years ago, Warner Bros. thankfully let Donner create his own Director's Cut of Superman I for the DVD release. But they only did half the job. The superb extras talked all about the above situation with Superman II, but for some odd reason WB didn't take the next logical step and let Donner finally create a Director's Cut of that film, too.

We want to see that film.

Read our Press Release
 

Watch the original Seinfeld & Superman Amex Commercial (AVI, 6.76 MB)