How would you re-write Superman III?

[crazy_asian_man]

When I first read the script (from a convention) prior to the release of SIII- I thought, 'This might be... ok enough... if the director brings out more than what's on the page'- but... to me, the movie was flat and less than.

But what elements did work? (For me?)

Out of everything offered, I always thought the idea of Supes returning to Smallville and re-connecting to Lana Lang was a giant possibility for Supes to have a relationship with someone who already knew his secret so that they could show the different sides to Supes in future films that couldn't be shown with just his relationships at the Daily Planet.

Also-
There were a lot of time jumps in STM that could have allowed for more storytelling of Supe/Clark's life before going to the FOS. (This was used but also kind of misused in Smallville).

I wouldn't have done a whole series, but I would have had brought back (if they hadn't aged too much by the time of SIII)- both Jeff East and the actress who played young Lana Lang - and start off with maybe character scenes of Clark having had a friendship with Lana and maybe having to share SOME of the secrets of what he could do with her- going back to the seriousness of the front end of STM (that some found boring but I loved).

Perhaps a few scenes - including stopping by Lana's after Pa Kent died, and his decision to leave Smallville the next day (Before telling his mom).

Then, cut to current (Then) times.

Clark gets a letter about his mom's death (if it had to be)- and reconnecting with Lana at the funeral and - instead of Richard Pryor and the Computer nonsense - having Clark stay a few days in Smallville- and discovering that the crystal ship that housed him was missing- (stolen by Brainiac, who followed his ship and was hatching new plans)- and go on from there- with Clark having to settle affairs in Smallville for awhile, while having a back and forth friendship with Lana - and having to face Brainiac and have the superheroics with his battle with Brainiac there.

And/or having the discovery being Clark finding a spaceship with Kara in Smallville, with Kara in suspended animation as well.

To me, that would have been my dream version of what SIII would have been.
What would you folks have done?

[crazy_asian_man]

Another alternative:

If the most liked scene was Supes vs. Clark--- then jettison the rest of the ideas, and have Bizzarro created by lex -or- any evil scientist who can get supes' dna--- and then have Reeve play both Bizzarro and his alter ego and have a similar battle scene/ or scenes with Bizzarro going nuts/evil?

[Metallo]

First off id keep the original Brainiac idea but rework it. "He" would be computer code for most of the movie. No Supergirl. Or Mxy. I'd keep Gus Gorman but make him a down on his luck computer programmer at some big company who lost his job because wanted to do more. He gets a low level job at Websco and gets greedy. Maybe to finance his dream computer project.

He gets caught stealing and Webster uses him just like in the actual film. He uses the Vulcan satellite just as in the film and scans a piece of kryptonite to synthesize so they can kill Superman. He also unknowingly scans an alien object. Brainiacs code gets into Webster's computers and it convinces Gus to build his super computer which Brainiac will take over.

Most of all I'd make the film less silly. Focus more on Superman and Lana and Smallville. I'd keep Lois around but still in Metropolis. I'd keep evil Superman. Like I said just less humor. Less focus on Gus. I might not even cast Pryor. I'm a huge fan but he overshadowed a lot of other things about the movie and didn't seem to want to play it as funny as Lester and the producers wanted him to. If they wanted a quirky funny guy maybe Robin Williams as Gus.