A recent viewing of the Richard Donner Cut of Superman II prompted a dusting off of my original script, (originally belonging to Production Illustrator Reg Hill) where I was reminded of the intended opening shown above.
These pages are the only evidence of the scene’s existence, however, as apparently it was never shot. The lack of the Fox Hunting scene among others accounts for Superman’s late appearance in his own movie, highlighting the fundamental problem with the Donner Cut insofar as expectations could never be met by what is, essentially, a series of unfinished scenes with Richard Lester footage as glue. Despite a valiant effort by editor Michael Thau to achieve coherence with this, it ultimately best viewed as a flawed but nonetheless groundbreaking experiment – and possibly the greatest DVD extra ever conceived.
Its also fascinating to think what potential use the above scene may have been put to in a campaign to ban foxhunting by people who shared Superman’s sentiment – a law that was passed by the UK Government decades later…
Beautiful!
This scene always fascinated me. It's somewhat "political" for the time and yet very dull (in a way) for the opening of a superhero movie. I did read an interview with Richard Donner right after Superman opened and became a huge hit. He stated (before he was fired) that he thought that even though most of II had been shot, they would go back and make some things/scenes even bigger (thanks to I's success). I bet this would never have been used as an opening for the sequel and we would have had something new and more "super."
Thanks for your comments, gents –
I agree its a bizarre inclusion and a strange way to open the picture, I really doubt it would have survived (along with the ending) so one can only speculate what might have substituted.
Having said that, nothing will convince me the alleyway change in Lester's Superman II could be bettered…!