Binary Bonsai

Now here’s an interesting piece of news about Superman, which aligns itself with previous rumors:

“Time Warner now owns all of the footage shot for 1978’s “Superman”, 1980’s “Superman II”, 1983’s “Superman III”, 1984’s “Supergirl”, and 1987’s “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace” including distribution rights.” #

This is great news for a number of reasons, but the most important one is:

“The biggest revelation of the interview concerns plans for “Superman II”. Scenes shot by fired director Richard Donner (who directed “Superman: The Movie”), including all of Brando’s work for the second film, may finally see the light of day. “There will be a Donner cut [of “Superman II”] from what I hear,” Salkind said. “There will apparently be an original cut with the original music and more stuff.” Whether the extra footage will be presented as an alternative version of the film or included as a supplement has not yet been determined.” #

The problem with the extra Donner footage, including the Brando stuff, is:

“Obviously we will get something but sources at the studio mentioned awhile back that not everything has been accounted for and there are concerns about the quality.” #

I’ve got various bootlegs of the Superman movies, but the quality stinks as they’re old TV rips.

Incidently, the version I have, is the version which was once available for download, though sadly it’s not quite as easily obtainable any more. But I’m sure if you poke around a bit you might be able to find it.

Nonetheless, The Digital Bits (whose site is ancient and doesn’t have proper permalinks) seem to think that:

By far the best news in all this, is that it seems that Warner is FINALLY allowing Richard Donner to create his original director’s cut of Superman II! How damn cool is that?! As many of you know, Donner directed Superman: The Movie and most of Superman II back to back, but was eventually fired from the sequel. Director Richard Lester was hired to replace him, and it’s Lester’s cut of the film that we’ve seen all these years. What’s cool is that Lester’s theatrical cut of the film is being given special edition treatment as well, so you’ll be able to fully explore BOTH versions of Superman II on DVD this summer. #

This would definitely be great news if it turns out to be true.

And speaking of writing:

In this book, a team of renowned web designers take you through the ins and outs of putting together great blogs. They waste no time harking on about the philosophy of blogs, or the community behind them. Instead, they get straight to the practical details, showing how to set up a basic blog in some of the world’s most popular blogging engines — Movable Type, ExpressionEngine, WordPress, and Textpattern. With your blog set up, they then show you how to build great looking, usable layouts for your blog. The last chapter even shows you how to build your very own PHP/MySQL-based blog engine!

With this book in hand, you’ll have found your way to blog heaven in no time!

If you don’t buy this book, which I co-authored and which is released on the 20th of Febuary, from Amazon UK or Amazon US (or where ever it might be available):

• I kill a kitten.
• You will perish in an eternal winter.
• Fire and brimstone will rain from the skies.
• You are 0.00032% more likely to get cancer
• I won’t get paid very much.

So there you have it. Ladies and gentlemen; warm up your credit cards, or in other words: Show me the money!

PS: Why won’t anyone think of the children!?