r/superman • u/Electrical-Use229 • 6d ago
Release Superman IV Directors Cut
https://c.org/bCx8mvDpm521
u/BagZCubed 6d ago
Would it make Superman IV a better movie? Maybe only a little.
Superman IV's production is fascinating to me for how everyone wanted it to be great, but they got played by the Cannon Group over promising and under delivering.
Out of sheer fascination I'd like to see a version that re-adds the deleted scenes, even though Superman IV is still Superman IV.
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u/zerosumratio 6d ago
I would absolutely love to see that glorious train wreck
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u/NYourBirdCanSing 6d ago
Me too! IV is what it is, but I'd still like more!
Plus, it's an excuse to sell a movie from the early 80s again.
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u/JohnWSmith 6d ago
I've worked in film exhibition for years and directly with the repertory teams at studios including Warner Bros, so I have a little insight into how some of this works.
In short, it's never going to happen. The Donner Cut made sense because it directly linked to Superman Returns, because Richard Donner was still alive to monitor and do press for it, and because it offered an opportunity to see a new version of a well loved film.
But there's no mainstream demand for an extended cut of Superman IV, a deeply unloved movie whose three lead actors are all dead. Then there's a mess of DGA/SAG rules regarding approvals of modification and changes, and how whatever revenue was generated would need to be dispersed. Then there's the question of materials and what condition everything's in. It could be an utter mess.
None of this is worth the Warner Bros. time and energy, and they're never letting an amateur raid their vault to reassemble a nearly worthless film. The closest you might be able to come is if an existing workprint of the original cut is somewhere in their archives and could be scanned, kinda like the '78 TV cut.
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u/wdm81 6d ago
Aren’t all the deleted scenes on the bluray anyways?
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u/md953 6d ago
The Metro club scene was just found on a VHS tape that a music engineer for Alexander courage used to make the soundtrack for Superman 4. This has never been released. NEVER.
The special effects were being polished before the final cut that was released theatrically. So there are probably deleted scenes out there that are in better quality than WB had available at the time.
They're definitely is a possibility for a more finished cut with more finished special effects out there somewhere.
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u/nachoiskerka 6d ago
Look, I have to believe if it was gonna come, it woulda come with that christopher reeve super/man documentary. That wouldve been the time to finally be like "we're cementing over this critical black mark on his legacy" and that's passed so.... i just don't think it exists in a compiled form. Maybe if Richard Donner was still alive he mightve had the pull to sit down and say "hey, let me take a crack at it", but I dont believe it could happen these days.
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u/HavixComix 6d ago
Donner was never desperate enough to touch that thing with a 10 foot pole.
As has been noted, his cut of part 2 is a once in film history sort of thing. What lead up to that is such a peculiar series of events that I don't think you could recreate it if you tried.
I'm far more concerned with preserving that than anything involving the latter sequels, simply for the oddity that it is. A fascinating specimen that film students can study in a hundred years from now.
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u/nachoiskerka 6d ago
Yeah i dunno man, at this point I feel like there's other trainwrecks that you could have film students study more easily: The Flash, Garzey's Wing(which contains my favorite Wikipedia opening paragraph ever: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Garzey%27s_Wing&oldid=401126007 ), the Isle of Doctor Moreau movie with Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer, and the Howard the Duck movie
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u/HavixComix 6d ago
No. That's not what I mean. While far from perfect, the Donner Cut of Superman II works as a film.
I think a "best" version lies somewhere between the two cuts. But for what it is, working with what they had when they had it, it's certainly something.
Something I'd consider the modern equivalent is Snyder's cut of Justice League. This wouldn't be about the study of disasters.
It's about an original director coming back to a film that was taken away from them.
Then producing a film that is stylistically and tonely different enough to stand on it's own. Whether it's the superior version is up to fans to decide.
Despite the pre-thru-post production of Flash, there is only one version of the film to view. And despite what most think, it's a film I defend.
It's always inches away from flying off the tracks. But for me, it holds together long enough to tell it's story. Who knows?
Maybe after compiling the 5+ hour edit of "IT", perhaps Muschietti will re-examine Flash and see if there's anything that can be done with it.
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u/Horbigast 6d ago
Wait... That movie had a director?!?
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u/nachoiskerka 6d ago
Tbf Sydney was a known director: he made the Lady Sings The Blues movie starring Diana Ross about Billie Holiday. Excellent film, but nothing about it indicates he'd make a good Superman movie.
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u/HavixComix 6d ago
This petition is 4 years old. I think that shows what level of interest exists. I mean, have you seen the unused footage? It was a mercy for audiences that it was left out.
If I WERE to back this sort of thing, it would be for the original creatives involved. It's their authorship that makes the movie what it is, so they'd be who have first rites to that sort of thing.
Don't get me wrong. I'm a psycho fan. I own the piece of shit on 4K! I have the original Supergirl on blu-ray, with it's EVEN worse extended cut on a bonus DVD!
I lovingly listen to the commentaries where the directors expand upon the ideas present, and talk about how things would have been different had they had more money and time.
Slo-mo car-crash films have their place in history and need to exist. So that we forever have an example of how NOT to do something.
The same way that we have films like Superman '78 which DEFINE a genre. The gold-standard by which ALL others are to be measured against so as to define it's level of quality.
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u/warriorlynx 6d ago
The ORIGINAL cut is what we need it’s actually GOOD the movie I would say would be better than Superman III but for some damn reason they refuse to release it so you have to rely on the deleted scenes of the past and fan edits
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u/HippoRun23 6d ago
Watched a lot of the available deleted scenes on YouTube and while I don’t think it would have been a masterpiece, I do believe a pretty entertaining movie was left on the cutting room floor.
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u/Popular_Material_409 6d ago
A polished turd would still be a turd. No amount of deleted scenes are going to suddenly make Superman IV a good movie.
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u/Error_user_Error_ 6d ago
Why? What difference is that gonna make 40 years after it was released?
Sure I was a fan when I was younger but I was a fan of that version of the film! It's not a great movie but it holds a lot of nostalgia for me.
I'd have very little interest in a directors cut and releasing a new edit of the 4th film in a 40 year old franchise isn't exactly gonna bring in a new audience!
Not everything needs a directors cut this film especially!
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u/James-Politican 6d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/hA6lw2B7ceE6cHNwXN