Warner Home Video continues to celebrate the year of Superman with the release of the Superman Ultimate Collector’s Edition (UCE) on November 28 – day and date with the DVD debut of the Superman Returns Special Edition as well as the previously announced Superman DVDs Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut and The Christopher Reeve Superman Collection.
The Superman Ultimate Collector’s Edition includes all six films in the Superman theatrical franchise – Superman Returns Special Edition, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, Superman: The Movie Four Disc Special Edition, Superman II Two Disc Special Edition, Superman III & IV Deluxe Editions – and is loaded with more than 20 hours of bonus features. Three bonus discs include Look Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman and exclusive to the collection, You Will Believe: The Cinematic Saga of Superman, a feature length documentary, plus Bryan Singer’s video journals chronicling the making of Superman Returns. The Superman Ultimate Collector’s Edition will sell for $99.92 SRP.
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The 14-disc set will be packaged in a collectible keepsake tin which is shelf ready and holds the set inside lenticular packaging, along with a reproduction of the comic book Superman issue #7, a Superman overview booklet and a mail-in offer for five Superman theatrical movie posters. This collection is a “must have” for any fan.
Also being released the same day will be the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc versions of Superman: The Movie and Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut. The bonus materials for Superman: The Movie (2000 Expanded Edition) include commentary by Richard Donner and Tom Mankiewicz, two featurettes: Taking Flight: The Development of Superman, Making Superman: Filming the Legend, additional footage, music only track and trailers. All bonus materials on the Standard Definition version of Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut will be included on the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc versions. Both titles will be available for $28.99 SRP.
Superman Returns Special Edition
Synopsis:
Following a mysterious absence of several years, the Man of Steel comes back to Earth in the epic action-adventure Superman Returns, a soaring new chapter in the saga of one of the world’s most beloved Super Heroes. While an old enemy plots to render him powerless once and for all, Superman faces the heartbreaking realization that the woman he loves, Lois Lane, has moved on with her life. Or has she? Superman’s bittersweet return challenges him to bridge the distance between them while finding a place in a society that has learned to survive without him. In an attempt to protect the world he loves from cataclysmic destruction, Superman embarks on an epic journey of redemption that takes him from the depths of the ocean to the far reaches of outer space.
Disc 1:
- 2006 Theatrical Version
Disc 2:
Requiem for Krypton: Making Superman Returns
Resurrecting Jor-El
Deleted Scenes
Trailers
EA Game Trailer
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
Superman II will delight fans who, for years, have been imploring Warner Home Video via voluminous numbers of petitions, letters, phone calls and e-mails to release the Donner cut. In fact, Donner had already shot most of the Superman II footage during Superman: The Movie. But as production on the sequel continued, creative differences between the director and the film’s producers became irreconcilable and Donner left the project. Although Richard Lester was hired to finish production, he chose to make major changes to the film, leaving only vestiges of Donner’s original vision and concepts in the version of Superman II that was ultimately released to theaters.
Now, nearly thirty years later, Warner Home Video is honored to grant the wishes of countless Superman fans. With this DVD release, Richard Donner has become the first director in history to be able to complete a film he left during production with nearly all his footage “in the can.” Adding back a substantial amount of that unused footage, the director has seen his original vision restored and brought to fruition.
Most notably, the “Donner cut” restores the Marlon Brando role, filmed for, but not included in the final theatrical release version of Superman II. The legendary Brando’s performance as Jor-El has finally been restored in key scenes that amplify Superman lore and deepen the profound relationship between father and son.
With so many other changes, large and small, including a variety of Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) schemes to unmask Clark Kent as Superman, this Superman II will prove to be an eye-opening experience and an important addition to film history.
DVD Special Features:
All new introduction by director Richard Donner
New featurette Superman II: Restoring the Vision
Deleted scenes
Superman: The Movie (1978/2001) Four-Disc Special Edition
A box-office smash, an Academy Award winner and a fan favorite since it first flew into theatres in December 1978, Superman: The Movie assembles a cast and creative contingent as only a big movie can. At its heart (just as in three sequels) is Christopher Reeve’s intelligent, affectionate portrayal of a most human Man of Steel. Watching Superman again isn’t just like being a kid again. It’s better.
The movie’s legacy soared even higher when director Richard Donner revisited this beloved adventure 22 years later and integrated eight minutes into the film. Enjoy more footage of the Krypton Council, a glimpse of stars of prior Superman incarnations, more of Jor-El underscoring his son’s purpose on Earth and an extended sequence inside Lex Luthor’s gauntlet of doom. Reeve, Marlon Brando (Jor-El), Gene Hackman (Lex Luthor) and Margot Kidder (Lois Lane) give indelible performances that fuel the film’s aura of legend.
Disc One:
Original 1978 theatrical version with its original Dolby Stereo theatrical soundtrack, as well as remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1.
Theatrical trailers
TV spot
Languages: English & Français
Disc Two:
2000 expanded edition movie with commentary by director Richard Donner and creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz
Music-only audio track
Disc Three:
Taking Flight: The Development of Superman
Making Superman: Filming the Legend
The Magic Behind the Cape
Restored scenes
Screen tests
Audio-only bonus: additional music cues
Disc Four
Vintage TV special The Making of Superman: The Movie
1951 Movie Superman and the Mole-Men, starring George Reeves
Nine Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons mastered from superior vault elements:
Oscar nominee Superman
The Mechanical Monsters
Billion Dollar Limited
The Arctic Giant
The Bulleteers
The Magnetic Telescope
Electric Earthquake
Volcano
Terror on the Midway
Superman II Two-Disc Special Edition (1980)
“I thought the original Superman was terrific entertainment,” the Chicago Sun-Times’ Roger Ebert wrote, “and so I was a little startled to discover that I liked Superman II even more.” Unwittingly released from Phantom Zone imprisonment, three super-powered Kryptonian criminals (Terence Stamp, Sarah Douglas and Jack O’Halloran) plan to enslave Earth - just when Superman (Christopher Reeve) decides to show a more romantic side to Lois Lane (Margot Kidder). Gene Hackman (as Lex Luthor) also returns from the first film and with a top supporting cast, witty Richard Lester direction and visuals that astound and delight, Superman II saves the day any day you watch it.
Movie with commentary by executive producer Ilya Salkind and producer Pierre Spengler
Superman’s Soufflé deleted scene
Theatrical trailer
Vintage TV specials The Making of Superman II and Superman 50th Anniversary
New featurette First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series
Eight Famous Studios Superman cartoons mastered from superior vault elements:
Japoteurs
Showdown
Eleventh Hour
Destruction, Inc.
The Mummy Strikes
Jungle Drums
The Underground World
Secret Agent
Superman III Deluxe Edition (1983)
After Superman: The Movie’s epic storytelling and Superman II’s awesome battles, how could the first two hits be topped? In Superman III, meet Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor), a half-witted computer programming natural. For him a keyboard is a weapon - and Superman faces the microelectronic menace of his life. Christopher Reeve reprises his most beloved role, deepening his character’s human side as Clark Kent reunites with old flame Lana Lang (Annette O’Toole) at a Smallville High class reunion. And when Superman becomes his own worst enemy after Kryptonite exposure, Reeve pulls off both roles with dazzling skill. Incredible visual effects abound - but above all it has heart, heroism and high-flying humor. All in abundance.
- Vintage TV special The Making of Superman III
Superman IV The Quest For Peace Deluxe Edition (1987)
Christopher Reeve not only dons the title hero’s cape for the fourth time but also helped develop the movie’s provocative theme: nuclear disarmament. “For me, it’s the most personal of the entire series,” Reeve said. “It directly reflects what Superman should be, and should be doing.” Superman does a lot this time around. To make the world safe for nuclear arms merchants, Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) creates a new being to challenge the Man of Steel: the radiation-charged Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow). The two foes clash in an explosive extravaganza that sees Superman save the Statue of Liberty, plug a volcanic eruption of Mount Etna and rebuild the demolished Great Wall of China.
