Aintitcool news posterd a long, boring interview with Donner. Below is the only semi-interesting part of the interview I could find,
”MORIARTY”: How does that affect you when you see someone remaking your stuff or when you see what Singer’s doing with SUPERMAN?
DONNER: Ummm... uhhh... it’s strange. It started for me with TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE. You know... the guy on the wing? That was a remake of my episode [“Nightmare At 20,000 Feet”], and when I looked at it, I felt a lot more confident in myself and my abilities. I’m all for them, I guess. With THE OMEN, I wish somebody would have called me, and I could have given them some thoughts. They could have thrown them out and disregarded them, but it would have been nice to have talked about it. I’m sorry they didn’t.
”MORIARTY”: I’ve always loved what you did to Gregory Peck in that film. You totally perverted his image with the casting of him in that film.
DONNER: You know how that happened? I asked him if we could talk before he read the script. He said, “Over the phone.” So I called him up, and he answered in that voice of his. “Yeeeeessss?” And I said, “When you read this, the one thing I would appreciate you doing is read it as the story of a man who is literally having the worst day of anyone’s life. Ever. It’s about what can happen to one person in such a short period of time that might drive them to be able to raise a knife and kill a child.” And he said, “Wow. That’s in this?” And about noon or one the next day, I got a call that said, “Mr. Peck would like you to come over to his house.” I got an audience. And he said, “If I had read this cold, I would not have seen what you said.” I just had to attack him on a different level, try to convey to him the reality of that film the way I saw it. There’s no way it works literally. It’s all just circumstance that comes together. What are they really seeing with their eyes at that point? Is it more about someone pushed past the point of insanity. I wonder how they’re doing this new one.
”MORIARTY”: It’s strange as a fan of the first two SUPERMAN films to hear rumors about how this one sort of picks up where they left off, and to see images that so clearly take inspiration from what you did.
DONNER: They’ve tried so many people, tried so hard to make a new SUPERMAN. They’ve spent millions and millions of dollars.
”MORIARTY”: I think there’s a book in there. There’s never been a development process like it.
DONNER: You bet. Unbelievable. And when Lauren was doing X-MEN 2, and Bryan was directing it, Dan and Mike, the two writers, were with him all the time. And they told me that they would sit in their trailers all day, watching SUPERMAN, and they told me how much they loved it. So when Bryan got offered the job, he called me to ask if he had my blessings. And to me, there’s nobody better. He’s not just a gun for hire. He and those two guys, Mike and Danny, they wrote it with a passion. And I understand he directed it the same way. With that passion. I’m thrilled.
”MORIARTY”: Well, it’s just odd the way it folds back into your movies.
DONNER: Makes me feel like an old fart. I’ll tell you that. When you’re married to a teeny-bopper, though, it makes life worthwhile.
We discussed SUPERMAN II and the new DVD cut, as I mentioned in an earlier article, and then he had to go back to working on the scene again, but just for a moment, turning back around to face me as soon as he could.
”MORIARTY”: There are things you did in that first SUPERMAN that I think set a template that is still closely followed by everyone making superhero films.
DONNER: The first SPIDER-MAN, I saw it and I couldn’t believe it. That guy’s amazing, the director, Sam... but I couldn’t believe it. There’s so much. The family stuff, the first flight, and on and on and on.
”MORIARTY”: I think he’s mentioned that. He really loved the first SUPERMAN and I think it’s obvious... he knew what he loved about it.
DONNER: He’s so good. But you think he could give me 10% of the film? (laughs) Actually, he gave me two trees.
17 comments:
The first Superman is still my favorite superhero movie. It made a tremendous impression on me when it came out, because it was one of the first movies that made me ponder what the DIRECTOR was doing. (I had a cheeseball "Making of" paperback that someone gave me, which quotes Donner constantly talking about 'verisimilitude' as the most important quality of any movie; I couldn't get a fucking straight answer from any adult about what that meant and eventually figured it out for myself).
The cinematography of that movie is particularly notable. It's one of the last two films shot by the legendary Geoffrey Unsworth, who only did one movie for Kubrick but that movie was "2001." Unsworth is a spectacular genius with source lighting and tonality of color. He also made Caberet which is all Berlin neon and The Great Train Robbery which has that same incredible green-and-amber-and-smoke tonality, with the film grain just visible enough (due to the perfect exposures) that it's like the soft weave of a $6000 wool suit. (Unsworth died right after Robbery, which is dedicated to him. On 2001, his "student" was John Alcott, who shot the "room at the end" sequence with the lit floor panels providing the only illumination -- and no cheats -- and went on to shoot every subsequent Kubrick except Eyes Wide Shut.).
Additionally Superman has a truly inspired John Williams score, which I understand they're bringing back (partially) for the new movie. That's cool.
My opinion was that the entire superhero-movie genre got fatally derailed by Tim Burton, who's doing something very strange indeed that comes from a weird, FAO-Schwarz/Heroin/Freud zone that I can't claim to understand. I'm delighted that these new DC movies are getting back on track and I'm glad Donner agrees.
I have bootleg copies of Superman 1 and 2 that I grabbed from the last nerd convention I went to. There are a lot of extra scenes which supposively come from the "lost" Donner footage as well as stuff that was only seen when it was aired on TV. I've always placed those 2 Superman flicks as the best superhero films ever made.
Yeah; I don't really like the second one because the strategy of
1) fire Richard Donner
2) fire John WIlliams
3) fire Geoffrey Unsworth
kind of bothered me (as should be clear from my above posting). :) I realize that Williams was probably unavailable by that point and Unsworth was probably dead by that point, but Donner was definitely fired. I have the "real" version of that DVD and the commentary is very illuminating. He was definitely fired by those weirdoes who produced the movies.
"I have the "real" version of that DVD and the commentary is very illuminating." Where did you get it? I totally want a copy!
Um...at Tower Records?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000059Z8J/qid=1141403615/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_5/103-8060384-2100663?s=dvd&v=glance&n=130
What is this "Tower Records" you speak of? My mistake - I thought you were saying that you had your hands on the "definitive" Donner version. I was shocked because that version doesn't exist yet. I have the version you have, but I also have a bootleg with extra scenes. For example, does you version have the shot of Superman flying by the Concord and waving to the pilots? What do you mean "yes"?
I had one of those "jinx" moments recently when the conversation was about long opening credit sequences and me and another guy simultaneously remembered Superman's as the most frustrating.
That's the movie that I first learned that the Producer and Director credits are the last ones, b/c my mom was talking me through the overlong wait.
To this day I think they stand as the most painstakingly long credit sequence ever created. It was so torturous in the theater because we were so excited to see Superman and the opening credits lasted for like 5 minutes.
Without long opening credit sequences there would be no special significance to movies that had them at the end!
I'll never forget the first time I encountered this: a black screen, a lonely single horn, and then white on black titles: "Paramount Pictures Presents"/"The Godfather." Done. I couldn't believe how cool that was.
I'm a total font geek/title geek so I even have a list somewhere of movies that a) have "[studio] presents" and the title (like Godfather, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars); b) have just the title ot logo (such as The Abyss, Rumble Fish, Scrooged, Ghostbusters, The Matrix); and movies that have NOTHING AT ALL at the beginning (like Apocalypse Now, Robocop 2, Die Hard 2, Manhattan).
Obviously I'm really into this, but how can I respect a director who isn't on top of the built-in adrenaline machine of the title sequence? I could go on for days...movies that omit or mess with the studio logo; Spielberg's big switchover with Jurassic Park and every film since except Catch Me If You Can and Munich; directors who are so bad at title sequences I can't believe it (like Tarantino). I've been accused of wanting to make movies just so I can design the title sequences.
I love at the end of Carpenter's Halloween how the word "Halloween" comes up on screen with the Halloween theme playing just as we realize that the film is over and Michael Myers is still out there. If they never made a sequel this would've been one of the scariest endings for a horro film ever.
Other movies that begin the closing credits with a repeat (or first use) of the title: Robocop (where I admit it looks a little silly); Soderbergh's Solaris (where his use of a million-point Helvetica Neue Ultra Light gives the thing a solemn majesty the movie doesn't deserve; fade to black and then practically the entire fucking widescreen goes "SOLARIS" in white).
In movies where are the titles are at the end, I love the convention of beginning with an inversion of the conventional opening title hierarchy (Directed By/Written By/Produced By) and then, at a certain point, go into "forward-moving" opening title mode (Suddenly after some costume credit you're back in the big font going "RUSSELL CROWE"/"PAUL BETTANY" or going "MEL GIBSON"/"DANNY GLOVER" etc. This usually leads "all the way back around" to "WARNER BROS. PRESENTS"/"A JOEL SILVER PRODUCTION" (as if we were starting) but then we SKIP the title and go to the scroll, which is cool.
My absolute favorite (and I've done this in every measly title sequence I've designed, for DV shorts or whatever) is to come to the absolute end... Kodak and Dolby logos... "The contents of this motion picture" etc..."All rights reserved" etc...union logos...and then, finally, at the very, very end..."20th Century Fox presents DIE HARD" (back to the big font; crawl slows and stops; fade out). Yeah.
Other great things that happen at the very, very, very end:
1) Goodfellas: as the titles finish, we get to the end of the Derek and the Dominos/Eric Clapton "Layla Extro" which features, incongruously, a tweeting bird...so the first sound in Goodfellas is the roar of cars on the Taconic Parkway in 1970 (before we see anything) and the last sound is the tweeting bird
2) Dustin Hoffman is on the reservoir running track in Central Park at the end of Marathon Man; he jogs away, and we're left looking at (and still hearing) the track and occasionally joggers as the titles flow. At the end, JUST as we're fading to black, a single very fast runner goes SPRINTING through the shot, audibly panting, left to right. We're so faded that he's just a silhouette. Somehow, it's restful and soothing after the movie we've just seen.
3) The "When in Hollywood, Visit Universal Studios" title card at the end of "The Blues Brothers" suddenly gets another line of text at the bottom that says "(Ask For Babs)"
4) A kid on a bicycle moves quickly and loudly through the South American crowd at the end of "Silence of the Lambs." It's basically the same schtick John Schlessenger used at the end of "Marathon Man" (above).
5) The voice whispering "Johnny...Johnny" and the amplified heartbeat come back at the very end of the (otherwise superb) closing credit sequence of "Angel Heart"...the name switches to "Harry" for it's last iteration, and then the hearbeats stop on the downbeat (in other words, five, four, three, two, one.)
I'm not counting any Ferris Bueller-like "last-minute jokes"; that's something entirely different.
I realize this picture is a little off topic, but I'm going to lunch now. Bite me.
None of you mentioned the credits of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which consist of displaying in their entirety before the film begins(along with several subtitled jokes, stops and restarts), and nothing but black screen and theater organ music afterwards.
Yeah, good point, Brett. I love the crappy organ music they use there...it's so wonderfully pointless.
I bow to your film knowledge, Jordan, it truly is remarkable.
My fave Holy Grail title isn't in the actual movie, but in the trailer. It ends with "See Monty Python and the Holy Grail...and afterwards, why not dine here?" Then there's what looks like mid-60's footage of a super white couple going to a Chinese restaurant, greeted by a super smiley Chinese waiter. In the last shot, the words Monty Python and the Holy Grail appear in a context-appropriate typeface above footage of the couple eating.
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