Superman II (1980)

Taglines:

The Man of Steel is back, and better than ever! See more »

Parents Guide:

View content advisory »

Official Sites:

WB Home Entertainment - DVD site | Add/edit official sites  »

Country:

USA | UK

Language:

English | French | Russian

Release Date:

19 June 1981 (USA) See more »

Also Known As:

Superman 2 See more »

Filming Locations:

Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage, Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK See more »

Budget:

$54,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$14,100,523 (USA) (21 June 1981)

Gross:

$108,185,706 (USA)

Production Co:

Alexander Salkind, Dovemead Films, Film Export A.G. See more »

Show detailed company contact information on IMDbPro »

Runtime:

127 min  | USA: 116 min (Richard Donner Cut)

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (MegaSound encoding) (70 mm prints) | Dolby (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Trivia

Director Richard Lester was not sympathetic to the epic look that original director Richard Donner had given the original Superman, saying that he did not want to do "the David Lean thing". Imposing his own control over the Superman saga, Lester took advantage of the death of Donner's cinematographer, Oscar-winner Geoffrey Unsworth, to stamp his own look on the sequel. Lester decided to scrap most of Unsworth's footage, which created an epic stateliness through the use of a gliding camera and unique colors for different locations, and hired potboiler director Michael Winner's cinematographer, Robert Paynter, to create a comic book-style that would evoke Superman's roots in comic books. Lester deliberately wanted to break the stylistic "American epic" mold created by Donner and, with Paynter, set out to recreate the look and feel of a comic book. For this reason, Lester did not use his own long-time collaborator, lighting cameraman David Watkin, as Watkin's photographic style was too classical, and thus not adaptable to a comic book aesthetic. Working with his Lester, Paynter and his camera operator Freddie Cooper developed a different type of framing from the original, but one that was ideal for their concept of a comic book film: They replaced Unsworth's gliding camera with horizontal panning and static framing to evoke comic books and comic strips, with their static frames that are crammed with people and objects. Similarly, the composition of shots the trio developed for 'Superman II (1980'. had objects and people crammed into the frame. To further emphasize comic book composition, the action was photographed from one angle, to give the film a desired flatness. (Harkening back to the technique of the early sound era, Lester's films had always been shot with three cameras simultaneously filming the action all at one time, with two cameras for close-ups and one for the long-shot (the establishing shot). Actors do not like this technique as they do not know when their close-ups are being filmed, and must be "on" constantly, rather than saving their best takes for the close-ups. Lester's technique added to the friction on the set caused by Donner's firing, with Margot Kidder particularly disliking Lester as a director.) See more »

Goofs

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Willie, the young boy in East Houston, Idaho, does a poor job covering up his British accent. See more »

Quotes

[first lines]
Krypton guard: Alert, alert, alert.
See more »

Crazy Credits

Opening credits incorporate an extensive amount of footage from the first
Superman movie. See more »

Connections

Referenced in "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace: The Creeping Moss from the Shores of Shuggoth (#1.6)" (2004) See more »

Soundtracks

"Pick Up the Pieces"
Written by Roger Ball, Hamish Stuart, and Average White Band (as The Average White Band)
Performed by Average White Band (as The Average White Band)
Courtesy of Atlantic Records See more »