MovieRotweiler

I don't like the Salkind's. I feel that they treated Richard Donner and many others members of the cast and crew with unforgivable dis-respect. However, I can't help but feel for them just a little when it comes to Superman IV: The Quest For Peace. Sure they may have bank-rolled Three, which was a bit of a turkey in its own right, but then they had to sit back and see Supe's fourth incarnation absolutely butchered by the God-awful Cannon films. In fact, they were probably laughing. 'Ha ha, even we could have done better than that!'

Superman IV really, really needs a major overhaul. It'll never happen of course, but it would be fun to see it. The forty-five odd minutes of cut footage could be judiciously re-integrated into the film, whilst removing or re-editing existing stuff. (get rid of Nuclear Man taking Lacy out for a quick spin in space for a start - she would have been dead long before she could see the stars!!!) Then get hold of the original source prints for all the effects footage and digitally re-composite them to eliminate all the horrendous matte-lines. Remove the wires from the flying shots, and re-film the opening credits, which are, let's be honest, lame in the extreme. Then re-master the entire print, and upgrade the sound to 5.1 (hell, even DTS), add a load of extras and release the thing on DVD. I'd buy it!!!

Okay, okay, I know I'm dreaming. It'll never happen, just as we're pretty unlikely to see a Donner re-cut of Superman II. But the way I see it, if Anchor Bay can do such a bang-up job on Supergirl, with a Special Director's Cut well over two hours long, Warners could at least treat the Superman-loving public to longer cuts of their favourite films. Even if the deleted scenes were just that: deleted scenes as a DVD extra.

What do you think?

End of rant - move along people, just go on back to your lives!