Superman Stuff

This has been news for about a week now, but I have to report it.

Do you know the whole story of Superman, the now-classic 1978 film? See, originally, they were making Superman and Superman II at the same time, with the idea that they'd come out within a year of each other. You know, like The Lord of the Rings. But, the two films were constantly running behind schedule, and, when about 80% of Superman was done and 60% of Superman II, the producers went up to director Richard Donner and said, "Ya know what? We're going to put #2 on hold. Just focus on finishing #1." And that's what was done.

Now, Superman comes out and makes a ton of money. Naturally, they all said, "Great! Now let's go finish #2!" But, did they ask Richard Donner to come back and finish directing #2? NO! See, the producers always wanted the movie to be kind of silly and campy, like the ol' Batman TV show. Donner wanted to make a version more faithful to the comic. And they had constantly huge fights on the set about that. So, when it came time to do #2, the producers told Donner to go to hell, and they brought in British director Richard Lester to film the remaining 40% of Superman II.

And, from that point on, it's always been a bit of a geek fantasy to see Superman II: The Richard Donner Version.

And you know what? We're finally going to get it!

With Superman Returns slated to come out this summer, Warner Brothers has begun work on a massive boxed set containing super-special editions of the first 4 Superman films. And, as a special bonus, you're finally going to get Superman II: The Richard Donner Version. Donner himself has declined to participate (still some bad blood over all this), but they're going to be assembling the Donner edit using Donner's editor and all of Donner's notes.

This is very, very cool.

Oh, and I've got an interesting bit about Smallville. Last year, young Clark Kent met up with the teenaged Flash. Back in November sweeps, he met up with the teenaged Aquaman. Which DC Comics superhero will young Clark Kent be meeting in February sweeps?

Why, it's everyone's favourite Teen Titan, Cyborg!

In the comics, young Victor Stone was the child of STAR Labs scientists who was victim to a lab accident, and in order to save his life, his father turned him into a cyborg. On Smallville, Victor Stone is a victim of a LuthorCorp experiment, thus turning him into a cyborg.

The episode will be on in the next couple of weeks.

But, as we all know, there's still one superhero we're all dying to see on Smallville. We're all still waiting for that one episode were Clark bursts in on Lex Luthor and Luthor says, "Ahh, Clark. Here, I want you to meet an old prep school friend of mine. Clark Kent, meet...Bruce Wayne."