It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
Rob Venditti (Hawkman) and Wilfredo Torres (Batman ’66) will collaborate on Superman ’78 to tell stories set within the world Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve created in Superman: The Movie. In Superman ’78, bystanders are surprised and delighted by Superman’s abilities, and Lois Lane doesn’t (yet!) know that Clark Kent is secretly Superman. The sheer thrill of seeing a man fly, leap, or stop a bullet will be reflected in this environment where Superman has just been introduced! Inspired by Donner’s classic, timeless style of superhero storytelling, in Superman ’78 Venditti and Torres will show fans that a man can truly fly.
Based on its announcement/synopsis.
He certainly looked the part, but I never thought he was a good actor. He came across as wooden in the role.
Henry Cavill Jr?
One episode aired and it’s already renewed!
The Man of Tomorrow’s Lament
by Vladimir Nabokov (June 1942)
I have to wear these glasses -- otherwise,
When I caress her with my super-eyes,
Her lungs and liver are too plainly seen
Throbbing, like deep-sea creatures, in between
Dim bones. Oh, I am sick of loitering here,
A banished trunk (like my namesake in “Lear”),
But when I switch to tights, still less I prize
My splendid torso, my tremendous thighs,
The dark-blue forelock on my narrow brow,
The heavy jaw; for I shall tell you now
My fatal limitation … not the pact
Between the worlds of Fantasy and Fact
Which makes me shun such an attractive spot
As Berchtesgaden, say; and also not
That little business of my draft; but worse:
A tragic misadjustment and a curse.
I’m young and bursting with prodigious sap,
And I’m in love like any healthy chap --
And I must throttle my dynamic heart
For marriage would be murder on my part,
An earthquake, wrecking on the night of nights
A woman’s life, some palm trees, all the lights,
The big hotel, a smaller one next door
And half a dozen army trucks –- or more.
But even if that blast of love should spare
Her fragile frame –- what children would she bear?
What monstrous babe, knocking the surgeon down,
Would waddle out into the awestruck town?
When two years old he’d break the strongest chairs,
Fall through the floor and terrorize the stairs;
At four, he’d dive into a well; at five,
Explore a roaring furnace – and survive;
At eight, he’d ruin the longest railway line
By playing trains with real ones; and at nine,
Release all my old enemies from jail,
And then I’d try to break his head -– and fail.
So this is why, no matter where I fly,
Red-cloaked, blue-hosed, across the yellow sky,
I feel no thrill in chasing thugs and thieves –-
And gloomily broad-shouldered Kent retrieves
His coat and trousers from the garbage can
And tucks away the cloak of Superman;
And when she sighs –- somewhere in Central Park
Where my immense bronze statue looms –- “Oh, Clark …
Isn’t he wonderful!?!”, I stare ahead
And long to be a normal guy instead.
Christopher Reeve's brutal honesty to John Cryer prior to the movies release is admirable.
That is excellent. Brings back memories of my editing room time on Superman IV. Re: The China Wall rebuild scene; in post the VFX team did an animated Superman moving at super speed, i.e. blurry, and he rebuilds the wall (as per the brick footage), but, of course, the animation looked utter shite, so we cut that all out, took the only footage we had of Superman we could make work (if u can call it that), which was the mid-shot of Superman looking at the completed wall before flying off, and we made dupe copies of the footage and also flipped the shot so we had enough footage to add the blue ray beams shooting from Superman's eyes, which replaced the animated Superman which was originally used on the rebuilding bricks background plates.
At one point, the director, Sidney J. Furie, suggested Superman could just rebuild the wall with his "telepathic" powers. I told Sidney that Superman doesn't have such powers, but he said, "Ah, Superman can do anything." So I raced up the corridor to Chris Reeves office (he was around during editing) and told him what was happening. Chris charged down to the editing room and, in no uncertain terms, told the director, "SUPERMAN can't move objects with his mind!!!"
The Caravan of Garbage series has a very jokey approach though they really do some excellent in depth research.
Yes, it's great. One of the big things that happened is the 2 hour cut of S4 was preview screened in LA. The VFX were not remotely finished so the audience reacted negatively to all that stuff, especially the original climax (Nuclear Man transforms into a Nuclear bomb to spark WW3), which was really rough in terms of unfinished VFX. As a consequence, Warners, who were distributing in N. America, insisted on big cuts, removing nearly 30 mins of footage, including the original climax. They apparently had the right, as the N. American distributors, to do this.
I think, from recall (it's a long time ago), Cannon wanted to keep the full 2 hour version for rest of the world (or where they were distributing the film), but, because of the imminent release date, there was only time to complete the 90 min version and not enough time, or money left, to do 2 versions.
Ha! That's marvellous. Must've been tricky getting that film together.
There were two Nuclear Men originally. The first one is all brawn and no brains and played for laughs by Clive Mantel (towering 6'4" actor), but all that stuff was cut out after the preview (including the multiple car crushing scene u may have seen in photos). Unfortunately, no one bothered to tell this to Clive Mantel, so he purchased tickets for the world premiere for himself and his family, only to discover, on the night, he was no longer in the film! Poor sod!
My understanding is that Cannon made the call to editing out a chunk of the film, which is not all that unusual because they were notorious for looking for any angles to make a profit. Cutting the film down to 90 minutes so that there's more time for screenings sounds exactly like their MO. Especially that bit about how they were hoping to use all that extra footage as the basis for a SUPERMAN 5.
WB wouldn't have much creative control until the movie rights reverted back in 1992/1993. In fact, the most assertive they've ever been was when they opted not to release SUPERGIRL, which lead to the Salkinds having to look for a new distributor with Tri-Star.
The big edit was done, a bit hastily and roughly, on the dupe print in LA directly after the poor preview results, and when the director, SJF and the VFX editor, who had accompanied the LA preview (because he had to cut in any latest VFX shots into the dupe print right up until the preview screening), returned to the editing rooms in Elstree, we copied and refined that LA edit on the actual 35mm cutting copy of the film. I recall various Cannon producers etc. questioning if we could keep the original 2 hour cut for Cannon, but Warners, as US distributor, wanted the 90 min cut for their US release.
In the script, if I recall correctly, it was scened as the upper atmosphere, but when it came to the film, the VFX always had them in outer space! I know, crazy!
Also, on my previous post, I am very sure that the reason the 35mm dupe of the film was immediately cut while still in LA, after the preview, was because SJF had to screen the hastily cut 90 min version to the Warner Bros execs for their approval. I'm not sure if any Cannon execs were at that screening. When we got the cut version back at Elstree, we refined the cut because there were a number of cuts/edits and shuffled scenes which didn't make narrative sense.
Speaking of edits that didnt make sense, I have always been curious about that shot where Supe and Nuclear Man are falling down the Statue of Liberty- N Man shoves him off and we awkwardly cut to a still frame of Supe falling, and then it abruptly cuts to Supe chasing Nuclear Man again.
To your knowledge was there a cut sequence in between that edit? It's so abrupt it feels like something is missing.
Boy, not sure. I've not seen the film for years. I think there were some abrupt cuts in the world-wide Superman v Nuclear Man fight. I think the scene in Red Square was cut in LA and then, if I recall, put back in again for whatever reason, I can't remember now.
Filmmakers being ignorant or simply not caring about real world physics isn't exactly new, because sometimes they put other factors ahead of such details in order to drive a story point or idea. And the sentiment being driven is that Superman wants people to see the world as he sees it: Just one world, no borders.
We see this in many other films, it's just that SUPERMAN IV is the most extreme example of filmmakers ignoring the science. We had already seen that happen in SUPERMAN II where Zod and his cronies were able to have conversations on the moon, despite the fact that there's no sound in space. It's not scientifically accurate, but it's only a movie and it's more concerned with being dramatically accurate.
I actually have been wondering @ColonelSun at the LA test screening did it include the night club scenes? For whatever reason, those deleted portions of the film were not included in the special features of the home video release. It just goes from Lex telling Nuclear Man 1 to "destroy Superman" and then the next deleted scene is Nuclear Man 1 being brought outside the dance club by a lady.
The LA preview was the full 2 hour version, which was Cannon's approved cut of the film, which included the night-club scene with Clark and Lacy, shot in London's Hippodrome, and then Nuclear Man 1 (Clive Mantel) arrives and attacks Clark and Lacy, and Superman and NM1 face off with the multiple car crushing scene. I can't remember how NM1 was destroyed (is it in the Video/BR deleted scenes?), but, because Superman destroys NC1, Lex goes about creating NM2.
Yeah we see Superman defeat NM1 by using a pole to throw him across the sky and then turns to dust after hitting a transformer.
Ah, yeah. Totally forgot that. But the stuff about the panic post LA preview recut, that was so, so unexpected, we were all shell-shocked when we heard, and I'll never forget that.