I saw on the Web that Richard Donner is working on a DVD version of Superman II.  I don't know if this is true, but boy do I hope so!

Here is the article from the Superman Homepage regarding the Donner Superman II DVD:

http://supermanhomepage.com/news.php?readmore=1271

If this is true, I will be buying it the day it comes out!

An official version of Richard Donner's "Superman II"??

I'm in!!

I hope it's true!

In an interview with Margot Kidder the movie was completed. In order to not pay Donner, they hired Lester for 60 percent, which makes him the director accoding to some law. The Lester shots became the easier shots in Canada. Everything in Metropolis is directed by Donner. The Canadian parts were rewritten Metropolis parts shot in Metropolis originally. I look forward to the real Donner movie, which probably is in some vault somewhere.

SPOLIER perhaps:

According to Kidder, instead of the Naiagara flood scene was a scene with her throwing herself from the Daily Planet building.

Wasn't the Brando footage that Singer will use in Superman Returns intended for Superman II?

Also, according to the Dreamwatch Buzz column, Warner will also release DVD versions of Superman III and IV, which are supposedly outside the films continuity.

Are they trying to confuse the viewers or what?

Well, I hope that part is not true, as that's some of the worst stuff in a bad movie!

"Well, I hope that part is not true, as that's some of the worst stuff in a bad movie!"

I can mostly confirm this. A gentleman I work with was involved in the "Directors" series for HBO, and Donner's was one of the ones he did. Since he knew of my "passion" for the genre he let me watch some of the unused footage where Donner spoke on the Superman franchise. There was about an hour on this subject that was not used  and it was very interesting as to what he said. I'm not sure that all of the Metropolis scenes which were left in the film were directed by Donner but most were and some were edited in out of context. It will be interesting to see his vision of the film regardless if this is indeed the case.

What was in the interview was probably not "just Canada" as I wrote, it was what she called scenes featuring herself, Margot Kidder and Chris (as she called him), only, which then mainly featured the Candadian scenes and she then desctribed how they had been shot in Metropolis by Donner. Acording to her, it seems like Lester just directed these two actors, and that was what I found so interesting that I tried to write it down here, if it is true. Some Fortress of Solitude footage was also shot by Lester, also just featuring these two actors (the famous deleted scene with heat vison cooking was probably Lester's).

This might explain the differences between the shots with her and Reeve also at the end fight.  And nothing featuring Lex Luthor was shot by Lester, from another interview I read with Hackman. But Kidder did not remember many details from the movies, the kiss from Superman IV she had completely forgotten. But it appeared in the interview as if the "lost" Donner footage was a complete movie, which later had to be partially removed.

Kidder interview was in Comic book Interview (?) Comic book sized magazine, very good mag, around -94-95. Hackman's comments I recall from a Swedish interview during the release of Superman IV. I might have gotten things wrong, please correct me, now you all know my two "sources".

I read an old Starlog or Comics Scene in which Donner stated that he filmed about 60% of SII.  I specifically remember him saying that he hated what Lester had done with the villains in the small town. 

This site has taken info from a lot of sources and made an attempt to list what all Donner filmed:
http://www.supermancinema.co.uk/superman2/real_s2/whatwassho t/default.asp