Ahead of its screening at the Glasgow Film Festival this evening, comic book legend Mark Millar has spoken of why – as curator for the Superheroes in Glasgow strand of the festival – he’s chosen Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut and also why it’s an “obsession” of his.
Speaking about how he was also at the GFF to speak in 2010, Millar told us: “This year it’s different, because last year at the festival I was pimping Kick-Ass, I was out promoting it. This year I can relax, the DVDs out and we’re working on our next film.
“So this year it’s for fun, almost. They asked me if I’d like to be the ambassador, they said ‘Pick six of your favourite comic book themed movies and we’ll show them for you’, and I was like ‘This is brilliant!’ I looked up all the stuff I didn’t have on DVD and I’ve been trying to get hold of it, so it’s been incredibly selfish.
“I wanted Danger Diabolik, the Italian supervillain movie, I wanted the 3D version of Battle Royale, and the GFT guys tracked it all down, it was amazing.”
He also spoke about this evening’s screening of Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut. Never before shown on a cinema screen in the UK, the superhero spectacular is regarded as a ‘fascinating lost treasure’. Highly regarded director Donner is thought to have completed between 70 to 80% of the 1980 movie when he was fired from the movie, but material has now been edited into something closer resembling his original vision of the film.
Among his original creations such as Kick-Ass and Nemesis, some of Millar’s best known and most loved comic book work has been on the Man of Steel, including the daring Superman: Red Son, an alternate take on the story with the premise "what if Superman had been raised in the Soviet Union?"
Millar explained of his choice: “Right now we’re living in this comic book movie golden age. What a lot of kids probably don’t realise is that it’s been a more than half a century journey to get to this point. Years ago it was the worst of the worst guys who did superhero movies and comic book movies, and then it became alright middling journeyman directors.
“I think Richard Donner changed everything, I’d say that he was the first really respectable director – who’d just come off The Omen and things like that, and came in and did Superman – to tackle this sort of genre. So he brought this dignity to it; suddenly it wasn’t B-movie actors, it was Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman.”
He added: “Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut is an absolute obsession of mine. The Superman movies were the biggest influence on my life and career. That’s when I knew that’s what I wanted to do, because I love films, I love superheroes and this combined both, so the first two Superman films were a turning point in my life.
“I remember being slightly disappointed with Superman II, even as a 10-year-old I knew it was great, I knew there was something up. It’s been a labour of love for film editors who went and found a lot of the pieces that Donner had shot and ended up on the cutting room floor, and they spliced it together as much as they could, and tried to make it the original vision that Donner had for Superman II.
“It’s not perfect, because a lot of the stuff was never filmed, but it’s as close to perfect as you can get, and just as a fan of that stuff it’s such an amazing curiosity.”
MORE ABOUT GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL
- For details on this evening's showing visit the offical GFF site
- Interview: Mark Millar explains why superheroes' days are numbered
- Review: Is it really Fair Game at Glasgow Film Festival?
- Review: There's no Silent Running from 65daysofstatic
- Interview: Alex Smoke deals with the devil for Faust score
