Superman II

Superman II (1980) brings three criminals exiled from Krypton to Earth. They have the same powers he does, and at the same moment Superman is dealing with the cost of telling Lois who he is. The real story is behind the camera. Richard Donner had been shooting the first two films together. In March 1979, after friction with the producers over budget and schedule, he was removed. In his own account he received a telegram saying his services were no longer needed. He had completed roughly seventy five percent of the second film. Richard Lester took over. Under Directors Guild rules he had to shoot at least forty percent himself to receive sole credit, and he cleared that by reshooting most of what remained. Gene Hackman refused to return for the reshoots. Some of Lex Luthor's scenes use a body double and a voice impersonator. Two days after the first film opened, Marlon Brando sued the Salkinds for 50 million dollars over unpaid gross participation and settled for 15 million. To avoid paying him again for the sequel, his completed scenes were cut and Susannah York was brought in as Superman's mother Lara. In 2006 Warner Bros. released a version reassembled from Donner's footage and the unused Brando material. It runs 127 minutes. Good for: classic superhero cinema, Terence Stamp's General Zod, and behind the scenes history. Less good for: the tonal break is visible; scenes by two directors sit next to each other and their senses of humour do not match. The resolution invents rules as it goes, and the memory wipe is infuriating now.