Synopsis:

The 1979 SUPERRMAN: THE MOVIE was plagued with issues during production leading to many changes which resulted in two films being released (Superman and Superman II) which significantly differed from what was originally intended; a single epic movie. As money ran out the producers changed the end of SUPERMAN to the film we now know. This now is as close to the original structure, no turning back time, no Lois gets squised, as you can get. The cliffhanger lead in to SUPERMAN II: The Donner cut or the forthcoming SUPERMAN II Extended.

Intentions:

in 1978 when I bought the DC SUPERMAN SOUVENIER mag, I did not understand why there were stills in it that were not in the movie. And so began a 40 year search and desire to see what was intended. The best account of this can be found in this LONG out of print paperback in which the author shadowed the production for a number of years leading to an astonishingly eye opening account of what went wrong...and lot went wrong. It is a miracle these films exist in the form they do frankly. The Making of Superman the Movie: Amazon.co.uk: david-michael-petrou: 9780446825658: Books.

Change List:

- New opening dedication so the Reeve and Unsworth are honored - MUSIC opening removes the awful key change in the TC that occurs when the "S" flies in (source CD) - Bespoke WRAITH credit with Stuart Baird - Villains sentencing uses some S2DC - A few TINY trims to Jor-El discussion with council to improve flow. Some shots re-purposed - A new shot of Jor-El lowering Kal-El from the S2DC - A few TINY trims to the Kryptonians in the earthquake - Villains in zone shot added from Superman Extended TV version (TV) - Additional shot of crater from TV - Clarke chasing train completely re-edited to remove multiple continuity errors (including a shot where Lois is seen to speak, and we hear nothing) - See below for clip. - Young Clarke approach to barn to get crystal uses some additional TV shots - TINY trim in Daily Planet at end of Clarkes first day. Scene fely like it naturally ends when he sits. - Cat rescue removed - "Can you read my mind" trimmed by 1 minute. VERY hard to pull off. Scene went on for too long. Full audio and scoring rebuild needed. A shorter unused cue was use as the base - A re-edit of the Extended approach to Luthor's lair is used with an unused cue meant for the scene. Everything is tightened up but it is new to the TC - First missile flies towards zone as Superman flies back to earth - We see Jimmy run from rocks from Extended version - TINY trims to a few bad FX shots - Lois is NOT crushed - As Superman flies away from the prison, the phantom zone is destroyed. - NEXT YEAR SUPERMAN II relocated and many many more... - Revised the end credits "coming next year Superman II" to Superman II THE DONNER CUT" in the correct font using the same technique as in Godfather Magnum Opus Finally, Changes NOT made to this version include.... - NO material from Superman Returns - NO Feeding the babies - NO score enhancements - NO modern DC intro - NO modern WB logo - NO revisionist credits in CGI - NO net addition to the original theatrical run time, yet added 12 mins of material for no discernable loss.

Additional Notes:

The base of this edit is the Theatrical Cut of Superman The Movie: Theatrical Cut (STM-TC), NOT the extended versions, though a few shots/scenes are included. The run time is IDENTICAL to the Theatrical version DESPITE a lot of new scenes and changes being included. I wanted to prove that they could have hit the run time they had WITH the material and cliffhanger. Where did the space come from to include these extras? see below. The idea is that is should feel the same as the TC but and flow seamlessly to S2DC, thus preserving Donners vision across BOTH films.

Other Sources:

SUPERMAN CD SCORE