Director Richard Donner

After The Omen (1976) and Superman (1978), 1979 should’ve been director Richard Donner’s year. With consecutive blockbusters, he’d convinced moviegoers that the Antichrist lived and a man could fly. With production almost finished on Superman II, Donner seemed to have hit the trifecta.

Then it unraveled. The producers—Alexander & Ilya Salkind—fired him and hired Richard Lester (The Three Musketeers). Lester reshot the movie using a stand-in for the unavailable Gene Hackman and edited Marlon Brando out. The result was a popular sequel, but many spotted Lester’s sloppy stitches and resented the tonal change—from respectful to camp—while wondering about Donner’s cut. As the sequels worsened, the lost II became a cause celebre for Man of Steel fans. With the November release of Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, worry no more. Donner, who later helmed the popular Lethal Weapon quartet, has reconstructed—as best as he could—his original conception. It was worth the wait.

Donner’s somber take not only adds menace to villains General Zod and company but restores the essential father/son dynamic via a Brando/Christopher Reeve confrontation that’s the dramatic highpoint of the franchise. Flawed? Sure, including an ending that, dramatically, doesn’t make sense. But, as a palimpsest of Donner’s honorable intentions, it’s invaluable.

Recently, we got to speak to the affable Donner about his DVD do-over.

Paste: Were you involved in the casting?

Richard Donner: With the exception of Brando and Hackman, yes. The Salkinds made a deal with both for big money that validated the project. They didn’t even have a script. Both actors had fixed shooting dates. I came on when the production moved from Italy to England. The Omen made me the flavor of the month so they came to me.

P: Were many stars offered the lead?

RD: [Many] before I came on board. I wanted an unknown. We found Christopher [Reeve] in New York. He was skinny—to bulk up, he wore a huge sweater. As he spoke I put my horn-rimmed glasses on him. I asked if he could put on some weight. He said he could. I totally believed him. He had such amazing sincerity and his screen test confirmed it.

P: Did you work with Mario Puzo [The Godfather] on the script?

RD: He wrote the [the original story] way ahead of me. Then the Salkinds hired Robert Benton and David and Leslie Newman to write the screenplay I read. They missed the boat. It had no respect for Superman and Americana. So I brought Tom Mankiewicz to do a rewrite.

P: What was the shooting schedule like?

RD: It was established I was doing two pictures back-to-back.

P: When Superman premiered, how much did you have left to do on II?

RD: A third. The scene where Margot Kidder [Lois Lane] realizes Clark is Superman. For this version we cut Margot and Chris’s screen tests together. All the Zod action scenes. In this version, I cut much of that out because instead of being worthy adversaries they were treated foolishly.

P: What happened?

RD: Because of the rush to get Superman out, we shot everything with Brando and Hackman. Tom and I had stolen the original conclusion of II—Superman turning back time—to finish [the first film]. So we were working on II’s end when my lawyer called. He’d gotten a telegram that said that my services were no longer needed. … I feel if [Superman] had been a failure, [the producers] would’ve demanded I come back. Since it was a success, they felt they didn’t need me and they could control it more. Foolishly, they didn’t keep the scenes where Brando confronts his son. Instead they used Susannah York (Lara) so they didn’t have to pay Marlon.

P: Did you see Lester’s film back then?

RD: Yes. I had an option to go to the Director’s Guild to put my name on it. They sent me the print. I got as far as the Paris scenes. I stopped the projection and said ‘Forget it; you can take my name off of it.’

P: How did this opportunity for the DVD arise?

RD: This was a forgotten issue. Then the editor Michael Thau called and told me ‘go on the Internet, the fans want to see your version.’ I went, thought it was nice but didn’t believe it would happen. Then Michael said that with the new Superman coming out, Warner’s wants to release your version. I guess it was the fans that swayed the studio.

P: So how close does this DVD come to your original intention?

RD: Oh man, I couldn’t even answer that. Listen, when Lester made that film, that’s the way he saw it. If I had made that film, everything, every piece of film that’s in there would’ve been totally different.