The only thing I am really curious about is how they were, and are if this DVD version comes out, going to origianlly end 2. As you can read in the script, Superman flies around the earth at lightspeed and turns time back. Well they did that at the end of 1. That wasn't supposed to happen at the end of 1. What happened was that, when they where running out of time to complete 1, Donner and the studio didn't feel that the ending had the impact that it should. Originally Lois and her car are supposed to have been almost crushed by the sinkhole, but Superman arrives jsut in time and pulls the car out. Then he pulls her out of the car and throws the car into space. Well it was one of those things that looked nice on paper, but didn't work when filmed. So Donner and Chris Reeve sat down, and it was Chris who suggested Lois dying, him defying his fathers demand of "It is forbidden for you to interfere with human history" and then he flies and turns time back. So Chris wrote the scene, and then they filmed it. This also was another thorn between the Salkinds and Donner as when they shot the desert stuff, they where sneaking over the boarder from Canada as the Salkinds didn't want to pay the expense of having to use an American crew for those shots per the Union rules. Warner's told them to shoot it and made the Salkind's use American crew and pay the fee.
So that brings me to my original thought. How where they going to end 2? Chris said before the reshoots of 2, right after 1's release that Superman already turned time back once, and they didnt want to do it again. Or would it have been a simple look by Superman of "Well, this worked once, so I might as well do it again"? Donner had said that he had wanted to keep Lois knowing that he is Superman, and then explore that theme in Supes 3 and 4 in later interviews. So I am wondering what was going to happen since nothing for Superman 2 was shot after Warner's stepped in, and the last scenes shot for 1 are the death of Lois scenes.
It will also be nice to see Donner's version as the special effects shots will be different. When the Salkind's fired Donner and had Lester finisht the film, per the contract with Warners; who was now funding 2, and the DGA rules, they had to complete the film in the same time that Donner was contracted to shoot both 1 and 2 together. To do this, and because they now had to reshoot so many scenes to take Donner's name off of the directors credit, they decided to redo alot of the EFX. In order to get those effects done so fast, they instructed the effects house (No longer the original people who did 1, but some low brow TV commercial EFX houses in LA) to do all of the effects with either dummies or dolls. That is why you see alot of dolls and dressed up manequins flying around in 2. That is also why don't see the fountain moving at the end of the film when Superman flies to the White House with the new roof. They told the EFX house you dont have time so just do a static shot of it. But since all of the EFX where shot by Donner and the original EFX crew, those shots will be put back into the film on the DVD release.
And again, since the Niagra falls stuff wasn't shot, How will donner do it. I mean the way Lois finds out he is Superman in the Donner version is much different from what Lester shot, which is the only part of that scene shot. They can use Kidder's screen test that is on the DVD for Superman 1 which has the scene directed by Donner as originally scripted, but it was meant as just a test shot. The only problems with that is, even though it is in widescreen and is great, Kidder's hair is short, and not the length that it is in the rest of the film. Also, since it was jsut a test shoot, they only shot it with one camera, and I am sure that Donner wanted more camera angles to add dramatic impact. If this ever does happen, it will be interesting to see what Donner will do.
If you also listen to the Donner and Mankelweicz's commentary on the Superman 1 DVD, they both talk about how they had storylines and treatments written for later Superman films. I think I read in an interview that they had written stuff all the way up to Superman 5. It would have been nice if the Salkind's had never fired him, and they could have made those movies to see what they would have came up with.
