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SUPERMAN II - GENERAL/TRIVIA PLEASE NOTE: There will an article on what Donner shot for the sequel but has never been shown coming soon to this website with images. - [21/02/04] SUPERMAN II opened overseas several months before it opened in the United
States. In the credits of Superman II, we see some ariel footage of Metropolis, or New York. That, however, wasn't seen in the theatrical release in Superman. Instead, in the extended version of Superman, we get to see the Metropolis shots in between when Superman first appears in the fortress and flies past us, and when he comes to the Daily Planet for the first time. Richard Donner's version of Superman II can be seen in all the Lex Luthor
scenes (but look at some of the ending battle Fortress scenes where the
guy who falls off Non clearly isn't Gene Hackman); in all the scenes where
Lois Lane clearly looks different from shot to shot (The Daily Planet
pre-street battle scene in particular; she is wearing more eye makeup
and her hair is straighter); and in all the brawling scenes in the diner,
including the part where Clark Kent goes back to the Fortress alone. Battered Clark Kent in the Fortress was the first scene that Chris
did when he arrived on the set in early 1977. Shot was completely refilmed
by Richard Lester. All scenes involving Brando and Hackman, particularly Brando were
done first, which explains why Chris had to complete SII "Jor-El
restores Superman's powers" scene early on before Brando left. You''ll
notice that Chris's hair is much longer when combed as Superman where
his powers are restored and in the other scenes involving the villians
and Lex. And that his cape is more thickly padded on the shoulders. These
are all early 1977 scenes before Chris' look was perfected. At the end of Superman II when Lex walks out to the exterior of the Fortress his hair gets longer as Chris' gets shorter. Chris, or course is bigger with the more traditional cape because a few months had gone by between filming interiors in Shepperton and exteriors in Pinewood. Donner's opening for Superman2 - Lois compares a photo of Superman in the newspaper to Clark who's standing outside the office --she draws a hat and glasses on the photo then screams "Oh My God!" and rushes out next to him. Perry stops her short of accusing him of being the man of steel by telling her he's sending the two of them to Niagra --she elbows Clark in the ribs and says "We could fly up there, huh Clark?" -wink wink- Later she point blank accuses him of being Superman and tells him she's willing to bet her life on it --she jumps out the window and in a split second everything in the office room stands still -- except for a streak heading down the stairwell followed by blowing newspapers --Once outside Clark uses his Super breath and blows Lois onto a fruit stand--by the time she realizes where she is Clark and the rest of the planet crew are looking down at her from the Planet window. - Notice how even the Fortress looks architecturally different from scene to scene, and that General Zod's voice sounds different at various times. This is because there wasn't any post-production looping to keep the voice consistent from scenes filmed during SUPERMAN THE MOVIE and scenes years later filmed by Lester. Remember, the first film wrapped in early 1978 and the sequel was re-filmed in 1979. The best estimate is that 70% of SUPERMAN II is Richard Donner concept, but that about 75% of the finished product is Richard Lester re-filming the same scenes. By the way, Gene Hackman refused to do any filming for the sequel because of the way Donner was fired, and at one point the producers thought about dropping him from the SUPERMAN II altogether, like they did Brando. Truth be told, the Salkinds alienated a lot of creative personnel during the making of the first three films. Margot Kidder was so incensed about Donner's firing, that she lashed out in public and was "punished" by her removal from most of SUPERMAN III. When production started again on SUPERMAN II (without Donner, of course), writers David and Leslie Newman returned to change some of the original script around. Some of creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz's revisions of the original two part script were thrown out (except for the fights at the diner scenes). Tom Mankiewicz was still credited as Creative Consultant because a good portion of his ideas remained in the final product. The release of the Kryptonian villains from the Phantom Zone in Superman II was originally supposed to have been caused by the X-K101 rocket Superman threw into space in the first movie. I believe that at one point, Superman II was supposed to have opened with a repeat of that footage, followed by the rocket exploding in space and releasing Zod, Ursa and Non (now that's continuity done right!). I can understand how Richard Lester would want to change that with his "terrorists in Paris" opener which was good, but wrecked the link between the two films that Donner was trying to achieve. The "special edition" broadcast on ABC-TV not only has additional footage, but alternate takes of original scenes, particularly the Luthor/Otis discussion of the little black box while they are in the prison laundromat. Superman II's original ending was supposed to be the "turning back the world" scene; but was lifted for THE MOVIE to give it a little more emotional resonance. The villains wrecking havoc in Houston was shot by Lester; originally, in Donner's version, the villains destory significant monuments around the world. For the all important scene at Niagara Falls: Lois pulls a gun on Clark and says "I'm so sure that you're Superman I'm willing to bet YOUR life on it now." Clark screams "no don't" She fires Clark stands at his pull height -- he barrels out his chest to recieve the impact of the bullets which causes his shirt to rip open revealing the "S" shield --He says "That was stupid Lois If I wasn't Superman, Clark Kent would be dead -- Lois says "What? With blanks?" Take a good look at the first two shots in the White House...when we see the President (E.G. Marshall) the first time (during the Kryptonian villains' attack on the small town) we look at him from the rear only while the action takes place on the TV screen. But then look at the second rear shot of the President right after Zod & company deface Mount Rushmore with their own faces...it's the exact same shot we saw earlier, but now the TV screen has been superimposed with the shot of the altered Mount Rushmore, and obviously the dialogue is DIFFERENT ("Thousands of hours it took to create and they deface it in seconds...imagine what they'll do to the world if we resist?"). Geoffrey Unsworth is still credited with the cinematography...two years after his death! That can be explained...Unsworth had worked on two films at the same time, "Superman II" and "Tess", when he died unexpectedly in 1978. Robert Paynter finished his work when Richard Lester came aboard. The sequence of Superman's flight alongside the Concorde was originally filmed in 1977 to be part of the original "Superman". If you watch the footage carefully, you can see how the footage looks a little grainier, it belonged in just before Superman talks to his father about his first night in the extended version. Both Alexander and Ilya Salkind were considered for brief cameos as the pilots of the Concorde. But in the extended version of "Superman II", music for the scene was lifted from the scene where Clark Kent runs into the alley and changes into Superman. In Donner's version, Lois wears a Superman shirt in the Fortress of Solitude love scenes. Richard Lester had been aboard the production since "Superman". His unofficial title, according to Alexander and Ilya Salkind, was "associate producer", but he was brought on to observe both the filming and Donner. Because production was falling behind schedule, with the two films shooting simultaneously, Lester made one major decision that was the best decision - he suggested that filming all of the "Superman II" scenes be saved until after filming on "Superman" was finished. Richard Donner agreed with this decision. By October/November 1977, Superman 2 filming was halted.
The first sequence of the scene where the mission controllers are talking to the astronauts on the moon, you see world map. It is from Apollo 16 mission control. http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a16/a16.html [They are near CD.5/81.3. They are on the north side of the east-west
ridge that is north of the LM and the ALSEP site. They reached the crest
of the ridge on the outbound traverse at about 166:11:51.] [Since taking a photo of the glass-bottomed crater near the "sink" hole, Charlie has taken AS16-117- 18790, 18791, 18792, and 18793.] [Brian Lawrence notes, "I thought drinking and driving was quite impressive, but he's taking pictures too! See the dialog at 148:24:59, where Tony says 'Let's put Bravo on John's since he doesn't shoot while he's driving'."] [At about the present moment, Charlie takes AS16-117- 18794 which is notable because it shows a sharp turn that John made during the outbound traverse to skirt a crater. John takes a very similar photo, AS16-116- 18675.] 169:11:24 Duke: We ought to see the old beauty (meaning the LM) when
we top the rise here. (Pause) John just ran over a basketball-size rock
with the right wheel and just...There she is, John!
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