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Post by zarius on May 28, 2013 9:32:13 GMT -5
 Currently in the final stages of tweeking. Will be converted to HD and uploaded to a torrent site sometime today. Basicly, this is a 90-minute condensed version of Superman Returns, omitting several key storyline aspects such as the return from Krypton, the embittered ranting of Lois, and the super-kid. Instead Clark is the one that has been gone for a few years, with Kal-El devoting his whole time to being Superman. Clark reenters Lois life and we find out he cut himself off from Lois a while ago as Supes (sometime after Superman IV, explained in the opening text at the start of the film), so while there are traces of Lois' frustrations with Supes still apparent, it doesnt dominate choice moments of the movie The timeline is as follows -WB/Legendary Pictures/DC logos -Wall of text over a starfield as the Planet Krypton theme plays, explaining what has happened since Superman IV -Open on the Kent farm. Clark gets up, pets his dog, then goes out on patrol as Superman. Title of the movie placed at the scene where he is looking over the Earth hearing everyone, before thawrting the bank robbery -Lex on the yaught, heads to fortress. Interaction with Jor-El cut entirely, as we know from Superman II he's more than familiar with the set-up -News reports at the Planet of Supes busy day, Clark arrives amd gets called to the cheif's office. -Lois aboard the plane testing out the space shuttle -Lex tests out the crystal. Train set scene trimmed -Clark switches to Superman. Him at the bar occurs much later in the movie, it's implied he hears of the disaster at the Planet instead -Superman saves the plane and disposes of the shuttle. Lois fainting is cut -Lex sees the results of his experiment -Clark meets Richard and the kid -Lex reads the paper, headine referring to Supes returning cut, as he's never been away -Lois and Clark talk at the cab. Clark flies off -Lois and Richard discuss Superman at home. We cut just before Lois can answer Richard's question. The article "Why the world doesnt need Superman" is referenced more in a jokish fashion and has little emphasis on the story until the end. -Musuem robbery and Superman saves Kitty from crashing, unaware she is diverting him. Her slapping Lex and pointing out she was causing a diversion is cut as the audience isnt stupid and can easily deduce that -Clark goes to the bar -Lex creates the kryptonite shard -Clark, Richard and Lois discuss the black-out. -Lois and Supes entire conversation on the roof and flight cut -Superman discovers his fortress has been ransacked -Lois goes to Lex's yaught, is caught. Kid's "you're bald" line is cut -Lex and Lois scene shortened to omit Lex suspecting the kid is Clarks, as he isnt in this cut -Kid murdering the thug with the piano is cut. -Clark switches to Superman and goes after them when he gets Lois' memo. Scene shuffled to after Lois sinks to the floor of the hold feeling helpless. "Where has he gone?" headline shot omitted -Film proceeds as normal until Supes gets beaten up, Lex's "five years" thing is omitted. -All of Jor-El's narration while Supes is underwater cut (except for "remember me") -Lex telling Kitty millions of people will die is cut. She knows he means it, her act of treason is brought on by the brutality of the Super-beating instead. -Supes recovers thanks to Lois and Richard, lifts the island, throws it into space. -ENTIRE Hospital scene is cut out. -Lois finds herself unsure of what to do next when writing the article "Why the world needs Superman" calling back to her quip about the last article -Lex chews Kitty out on the island -Clark plays catch with his dog over at the Kent Farm. We're back to where we started. -Supes flies past the sun and winks at the camera |
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Post by Jor-L5150 on May 28, 2013 16:24:44 GMT -5
that might have been a more successful version of the film! looking forward to it!  |
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Post by zarius on May 29, 2013 5:02:36 GMT -5
Thanks. The torrent is up on Monova, although it's not quite in HD yet as I had problems with that, but I'll be posting some samples on Youtube today from it.
Sample One:
Sample Two
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Post by crazy_asian_man on May 29, 2013 11:33:50 GMT -5
The timeline is interesting- rearranging and subtracting elements yet still making sense from a film that's already made is always interesting to me (sort of the ultimate crossword puzzle or sudoku in a way)....
Looks like (from the timeline) you were able to make it work-
Mixed feelings on it, though, as I thought the drama with Supes being gone for 'x' amount of years and the bit with the kid belonging to Superman was the best part (outside of replicating more/less Chris Reeve/Donner's version of Superman)....
Still- to be able to see a version that REALLY blends in continuity from SIV to SV is pretty neat.
If MOS 2 happened, I always wondered if there was going to be any way that some of the messiness of the contradicting continuity from the movies would have been addressed or smoothed out a bit...
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Post by zarius on May 29, 2013 12:09:56 GMT -5
If MOS 2 happened, I always wondered if there was going to be any way that some of the messiness of the contradicting continuity from the movies would have been addressed or smoothed out a bit... From what I hear, it'd have focused more on continuing plot strands from SR, it would make sense to concentrate more on the events that were a tad more fresh for the characters. It'd have been a kick to have some easter eggs thrown in there though, maybe jokish allusions to battling supercomputers. |
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Post by crazy_asian_man on May 29, 2013 16:06:14 GMT -5
As much as I seem to cheerlead for SR's merits- I have to admit that if Singer just continued to move things forward and not really clarify (even if in a line or two of exposition or dialogue) some key backstory situations in the past with primary characters (Superman slept with Lois, but didn't reveal his identity as Clark? Or the whole memory thing actually happened).... it would have been something that would probably grow to bug me over sequels.
On one hand, I admire Singer's willingness to throw all his creative impulses in, damn the consequences (ie the kid reveal)--- which is why I found the difficult melding of Donner's '78 version and 2006 ambitious and to a degree successful- easy to do a reboot, but not easy to do it as good as/better than STM was my thought....
On another hand, it would have been nice if Singer had SR 2 actually ready to go- with or without him right off the starting gate if he just ended up producing it (a la X-men First Class). There seem to be a lot of good screenwriters available- I have this odd hunch that the second installment might have been stalled not just by WB- but also by Singer not having everything lined up ready to go either way. He openly said that he can be an indecisive person to his staff on the bts documentary on SR---- with the hole SR painted itself into by the end (although I love the ending)- it's a pity he didn't just commission a screenplay on his own (assuming he didn't) to have a sequel script ready to go.....*
(*Michael Dougherty said himself on the radio interview they got far with the treatment for X3, but not nearly as far for SR 2, even though it was 'x' amount of months later after SR!)
Oh well...
I just hope that if MOS is as great as we all hope, that Nolan/Snyder/Goyer's creative machine is more/less ready to start beginning MOS 2 if it gets greenlit right away.... rather than having to wait and wait and wait.....
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Post by zarius on May 30, 2013 6:54:25 GMT -5
I agree, sitting on the movie made everyone jumpy and they began to worry a little perhaps far too much about the revenue. SR wasnt quite a box office phenomenon, but it still made modest profits. At worst it could have been a situation like X-3 where they just went with it without Singer. What he and his writers conjured up for SR II sounded very much like what we're getting now with MOS..something with a literal more punch. Introspective character deconstruction is not something you ought to do when revitalising an action brand, you reserve that for an aging series, and while they were obviously basing SR off an aging series to justify that, they werent factoring in the audiences that werent aging with it.
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Post by crazy_asian_man on May 30, 2013 12:49:19 GMT -5
Introspective character deconstruction is not something you ought to do when revitalising an action brand, you reserve that for an aging series, and while they were obviously basing SR off an aging series to justify that, they werent factoring in the audiences that werent aging with it.That's a very fair assessment with SR -- Singer made SR with himself as a fan- in a way, SR is the ultimate fan film..... but even I felt that the action was lacking and that the average 15 year old that summer was more looking forward to Pirates of the Caribbean (which they were) sequels than this Superman movie, which didn't look to be anything all that fresh from the trailers and tv spots. I also agree with your feeling that MOS might have a lot of what Singer & company might have had in mind for SR 2- Kryptonians attacking earth/etc.- If Singer compressed SR a bit and stuck the action/kryptonians for the second half of SR, then he probably would have been able to get more of the action fans to come to the table over and over again and sit through the drama w/Lois & the kid if only for that... Alternately (and what's sad is)--- I recently visited boxoffice mojo and compared Sherlock Holmes box office & budget (which got a sequel) vs. SR's box office and budget---- and I get the feeling that if Singer's budget was curbed to $200 (though there's giant debate that the extra $70 mil was just tacked on from previous failed attempts)--- MAYBE there'd be a sequel fast-tracked...... if going strictly by numbers there. Who knows? Oh well... At least SR helped guarantee (by accident) the old Donner SII footage coming out in this century.... and gave us a glimpse of what was possible if updating Donner's vision. And- what the heck- Singer is back with Xmen, where he's going to make another great Xmen film anyhow. So, there's that....  |
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ye5man
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Post by ye5man on May 30, 2013 13:51:38 GMT -5
Can you could condense it further to about quarter of an hour?
Please?
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Post by zarius on May 30, 2013 14:22:28 GMT -5
Well, someone did suggest I could remove Jason from the film entirely as well as the island being kryptonite-ridden, which were very interesting ideas. Maybe it's doable, I'll see what I can sort out.
In the meantime here's another sample
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2013 23:29:59 GMT -5
Introspective character deconstruction is not something you ought to do when revitalising an action brand, you reserve that for an aging series, and while they were obviously basing SR off an aging series to justify that, they werent factoring in the audiences that werent aging with it.That's a very fair assessment with SR -- Singer made SR with himself as a fan- in a way, SR is the ultimate fan film..... but even I felt that the action was lacking and that the average 15 year old that summer was more looking forward to Pirates of the Caribbean (which they were) sequels than this Superman movie, which didn't look to be anything all that fresh from the trailers and tv spots. I also agree with your feeling that MOS might have a lot of what Singer & company might have had in mind for SR 2- Kryptonians attacking earth/etc.- If Singer compressed SR a bit and stuck the action/kryptonians for the second half of SR, then he probably would have been able to get more of the action fans to come to the table over and over again and sit through the drama w/Lois & the kid if only for that... Alternately (and what's sad is)--- I recently visited boxoffice mojo and compared Sherlock Holmes box office & budget (which got a sequel) vs. SR's box office and budget---- and I get the feeling that if Singer's budget was curbed to $200 (though there's giant debate that the extra $70 mil was just tacked on from previous failed attempts)--- MAYBE there'd be a sequel fast-tracked...... if going strictly by numbers there. Who knows? Oh well... At least SR helped guarantee (by accident) the old Donner SII footage coming out in this century.... and gave us a glimpse of what was possible if updating Donner's vision. And- what the heck- Singer is back with Xmen, where he's going to make another great Xmen film anyhow. So, there's that.... I know that the numbers can be manipulated to support whatever argument, but I have to believe there was more than box office numbers as to why a sequel didn't happen. Why? "Batman Begins" grossed $206 million domestically, nearly $50 million less than "Batman" but only $6 million more than "Superman Returns." (http://www.boxoffice.com/statistics/alltime_numbers/domestic/data) The global numbers are similar, as "Superman Returns" outgrossed "Batman Begins." (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=batmanbegins.htm) (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=superman06.htm) Now, I realize there's a big difference in budgets, but I still find it difficult to believe SR really cost $270 million on its own. That's got to be hold over from a decade of failed attempts. So, I still believe Singer painted himself into a massive creative corner and couldn't work his way out. Plus, he fucked around with "Valkyrie" for too long, and the movie was good but it wasn't that good. Rant over. Sorry to jack your thread, friend. Good luck with your cut! |
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Post by Jimbo on May 30, 2013 23:49:05 GMT -5
I get the feeling though that behind the scenes, WB was ecstatic with Chris Nolan and not happy with Singer. Singer probably burned his bridges with the studio after leaving millions of dollars on the cutting room floor and delivering a movie that was tough to market, and so WB was happy to not move ahead with a sequel.
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Post by crazy_asian_man on May 31, 2013 1:08:30 GMT -5
I have a hunch that you're right....Maybe it'll take a decade or so before the truth really comes out, like the Donner/Salkind situation.
Also.... WB is probably even less happy with Singer after the box office receipts for "Jack the Giant Slayer"....
But---- in the end, he's with Xmen again and hopefully for the long haul....so it's not all bad....
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Post by zarius on May 31, 2013 6:56:38 GMT -5
Trying to get my current workprint uploaded to Mega and get some feedback on the work so far, but even with Chrome it's been a nightmare, and it's often been conking out at 9% or lower. Very annoying.  |
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ye5man
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Post by ye5man on May 31, 2013 7:50:08 GMT -5
I wonder if Singer pitched sequel ideas before filming began SR. You just can't just pitch an open ended story like that with the mindset of "We'll figure it out". Either way, it was a definite creative screw up. Lois Lane a single Mother to Perry White's nephew is not what the character is about. She would go bananas in week. Add that to Super-stalker and super will power and its clear Singer did not know these characters at all.
So I am grateful there was no SR sequel. Best to return the characters to their roots.
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Post by crazy_asian_man on Jun 1, 2013 1:35:12 GMT -5
That's what I was thinking, too.... that he had to have SOME idea how the kid was going to play into at least the next film.
I think there HAD to be some questions at WB about what was going to be done with Richard White (my money is on that he would have been killed off in SR 2) and the kid (target for the Kryptonians I would think) for a sequel....even with SR filming...
That part, I disagree fully. I thought he got it right, far moreso than the scripts by Kevin Smith and Portier that were proposed. (Haven't read Flyby yet, so I can't comment on that).
I dug that he dared to push the role of Superman forward- by having him be a father with all the vulnerabilities that carries with it, but I know it took the character too far in other fans' eyes.
It's ironic, because there'd been fans that felt it was time for something new for Superman, then when Superman got put in a new role of father- some fans wanted things to revert back to the status quo with Lois and Supes.
What I do find odd and unique with SR is just how extreme feelings run on it- for a superhero film....on both ends of the spectrum. You don't find that with Supergirl, Superman IV, Xmen 3, which wasn't all that loved, nor even on X-men Origins: Wolverine.
Anyhow-
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ye5man
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Post by ye5man on Jun 1, 2013 3:43:57 GMT -5
Should have just re-established the characters first. Its a great pity an average B/W episode of George Reeves' show (IMO) is more watchable (and more fun) than this white elephant.
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Post by zarius on Jun 1, 2013 6:08:38 GMT -5
Will try to get a new sample up today. Like so many others, I took Lois fainting out of the plane out of the film. I've also shortened Lois and Richard's introduction to Clark. I always felt the whole "well...he's Clark" bit was an amusing scene to cut away from for a bit.
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Post by crazy_asian_man on Jun 1, 2013 10:52:59 GMT -5
Well- definitely true- it's all people's tastes/preferences.... For me, I was pleasantly shocked that they tried to go as dark (and as serious) as they did with the character- but in a way that I thought could still fit who they were- (*Him checking on Lois was a touch odd, but if he was listening in on the world a few seconds later, my feeling was that he checked in on everyone -not just Lois- now and then) Similar to what I thought was done with "Dark Knight"- comic films shouldn't have to JUST be family friendly films. Still, SR's main weakness to me was that there wasn't a good enough heavy to show off what the guy could do. Throw in the Brainiac or Phantom Zone criminals into SR (what if Lex instead decided to release Brainiac as his plot in the Fortress?)..... and the movie might have given enough for everybody to have been happy in SR. By the way- maybe we should turn this thread back to the fan cut soon?  |
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ye5man
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Post by ye5man on Jun 2, 2013 6:21:38 GMT -5
Yeah but Superman does not live in a dark, serious world. Should be uplifting and majestic.
Maybe it would not have tanked at the B.O. had it contained some element of joy somewhere.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2013 6:33:24 GMT -5
Luthor again, Land scheme again,, Kryptonite again, lack of action, depressed Superman, Kate Bosworth. When you look at these factors it didn't actually have much of a chance.
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Post by crazy_asian_man on Jun 2, 2013 10:57:32 GMT -5
SR didn't tank- it disappointed based on the (on paper) budget.... unfortunately, I think Singer's Jack the Giant Slayer (which apparently has lots of joy) tanked. Go figure. If you check out different eras of the Superman comic, (especially the 1960's as an extreme), there's plenty of evidence of Superman existing in many different types of stories.... including dark, serious worlds. It's not what you (or some fans) wanted to see from a Superman movie, I get it. If I were younger I would have been irritated and disappointed too.... but this was a Singer comic book 'art' film and I was blown away by what could be done with a comic book film- Also, I get that a dark and moody Superman film like Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back might have been better placed as a second film after getting people 'wowed' back into theatres, rather than as a first return. I was ok with depressed Superman under the surface... the movie showed what was there with time passing at a certain time- he didn't go to a psychiatrist (which is what the Greg Portier script had and I DID think went too far)- but fit the idea of Superman as a greek tragedy that was suggested in the Donner films/Puzo script. Still, I'll give you this.... if I were the exec for SR- I would have probably put my foot down, too, on Lex real estate scheme/and weak superhero action setup for the backend and middle of the movie to counterbalance the introspection. Carrying things and saving things was fine for STM- but since technology allows a superhero smackdown of sorts (or cities destroyed/whatever), Singer might have been best to put that in here, and not wait for part two.... Now.... should we talk about the fanedit? |
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Post by zarius on Jun 2, 2013 12:26:54 GMT -5
I'm ok with the argu bargue, really. Always nice to vent about this movie. I've long finished my cut, I'm just working on a way to get it uploaded for some feedback.
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Post by crazy_asian_man on Jun 2, 2013 14:53:21 GMT -5
I have computer issues with downloading, but I still get a kick out of reading and imagining what fan editors have in mind when (basically) rewriting movies....
I'm curious- can you share what the text is that you have for the beginning saying what happened in your version between SIV and your version of SR?
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Rod
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Post by Rod on Jun 2, 2013 17:56:42 GMT -5
I'm ok with the argu bargue, really. Always nice to vent about this movie. i agree. i know i need some group terapy regarding this movie. fortunetely mos will help to find me a cure. this guy did a good review in the likes of red letter media: |
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