Exclusive: Director Richard Donner Talks SUPERMAN and SUPERMAN II; Plus an Update on DAVE and the GOONIES Musical on Broadway
Even though I could’ve talked to Donner for hours about what it was like to make the “Man of Steel’s” first two movies, with only ten minutes, I had to limit my questions. We talked about how Superman and Lois got back to civilization after he lost his powers in Superman II, when he first knew they could make people believe a man could fly, his reaction to being asked to complete his version of Superman II, and what’s up with the Goonies musical and Dave on Broadway. If you’re a fan of the first two Superman movies, I promise you’ll enjoy this interview.
And one last thing before the interview…I checked out the new Blu-ray box set and it’samazing. It’s absolutely loaded with some great behind the scenes footage, awesome extras, and extended and different versions of the films. Absolutely recommended. The list of everything included in the set is at the bottom of the article.Richard Donner Time Index
- :12 – When Superman loses his powers in Superman II, how do he and Lois get back to civilization? He says it happens during the dissolve.
- 1:40 – When rewatching the film, does he see issues in it or is he able to watch it as “the great first film.” Says he doesn’t see issues in the movie anymore. He would still like to re-shoot it. The production was under tremendous duress, it was a rushed production and he was awestruck by Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman. He doesn’t see the problems when re-watching, but he thinks “I wish I would’ve done this.”
- 3:28 – Talks briefly about CGI use today.
- 3:48 – Talks about first seeing the footage of Reeve flying and thinking “this will work.” When he first came in, they told him they had the flying figured out and they showed him a person on a board with wires. A flying unit was on board for a year before they filmed the first flying shot. Talks about shooting his first flying test using camera and rear projector tricks. One day the crew brought him down to the Fortress of Solitude set to show him a demonstration of Reeve flying across the set with wires, and he remembers Reeve flying towards the camera and banking. After that, he said they all knew they had it.
- 7:23 – His reaction to hearing they had found all of his footage that he shot for Superman II. After they made the film with his replacement, they showed it to him and asked if he wanted to have his name on it. He declined, because he felt it had become a parody. After the fan-outcry of people wanting to see Donner’s cut of the film, they pressured the studio to release the footage and let him put it together. They dug up a lot of footage, but a lot of his scenes were never shot. They only exist on screen tests, so they cut together screen tests and put them in his cut of the film.
- 9:41 – He talks about the Goonies musical and Dave on Broadway. “Dave is really moving fast. We were in there, Lauren and I, and she heard some of the music and the book and it’s sensational. And Goonies is moving at the beginning stages, like a year before Dave. We’re getting good outlines and good story from Tim…oh shit, this is terrible. He’s a wonderful writer. I’d say hopefully we’ll have a good script maybe by the middle of this year, around September or October we’ll have a script that we can go to from there. It’s along process, Broadway, it’s amazing. It’s frightening in a strange way. But we only get great reactions from everybody, everybody wants to see it. It seems like a great idea, and we’ll persevere. A musical of Goonieson Broadway? But it’s gotta be irreverent, and it’s gotta be Goonies. A lot of people are pushing, ‘Oh rewrite it, do it for adults,’ I said, ‘No adults go to see Goonies, but it’s gotta be…’ Anyway, it’s a bitch (laughs).”
