Superman II: More Donner, Less Salkinds

I just got an e-mail from a friend of mine about an hour ago. He's a big fan of Superman and we've talked recently of some guy online who made a hobby re-edit of Superman II to suit it more to the original director's vision (Richard Donner, who also directed the first Superman film, the Lethal Weapon movies, Scrooged, and quite a few other enjoyable movies).

Here's what my pally said:

While Washington waits for news of indictments, I have real important news! Richard Donner himself has been hired to do a special edition DVD cut of Superman II !!! The official word came through on the Superman Homepage!

See a script of the film that more closely reflects the Donner version (as opposed to the version by Richard Lester, who directed the highly enjoyable The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers) at Donner's Superman II.

The Superman Homepage hastens to add:

It's still very early days, so anything can happen from here on in, but we'll be following the story closely.

An interesting note, but you probably already know it. Alexander and Ilya Salkind (father and son) were the producers for Superman and the two musketeer films I mentioned before. (IMDb credits Ilya without his father as producer of Superman II.)

Apparently, the cast were under the impression they were making one single film, and thus were paid for one film. A lawsuit followed.

Notes on IMDb says they sued director Richard Lester, but I believe a fair amount of complaint is dished to the producers by members of the cast in a featurette on the musketeer DVDs.