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Warner Archive Announces “Superman: The Movie” Extended Cut (1 Viewer)

Ronald Epstein

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That's great news! I don't even remember the TV cut but I look forward to watching this movie again in its longer iteration.
 

WillG

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It seems to be confirmed in the other Superman thread that got resurrected on this news that the tv cut will indeed be widescreen. I had assumed it was just going to be a old 4:3 master. I'm pleasantly shocked that the former is apparently the case.
 

Josh Steinberg

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Cool news! I had no idea there was a tv version!

It's about three hours - the producers were able to arrange to sell the TV rights in a deal where they'd be paid by the minute - so they threw in every scrap of footage they had. It's not the best cut, but it has nostalgic value for me (and I imagine a lot of others).
 

WillG

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It's about three hours - the producers were able to arrange to sell the TV rights in a deal where they'd be paid by the minute - so they threw in every scrap of footage they had. It's not the best cut, but it has nostalgic value for me (and I imagine a lot of others).

It does also have some fairly compelling material in it (some of which did end up in Donner's extended cut that was released on DVD and BD and in deleted scenes). But yeah a lot of it was heavy filler (lengthy extensions to existing scenes). Still this is great for collectors, especially since for the first time ever this cut will apprently be in BD quality and widescreen.
 

Josh Steinberg

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Oh yeah, I'm hugely excited for it - but I thought it worth mentioning that if you've already seen the 2000 cut, you've seen the best deleted bits.
 

Allansfirebird

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It's about three hours - the producers were able to arrange to sell the TV rights in a deal where they'd be paid by the minute - so they threw in every scrap of footage they had. It's not the best cut, but it has nostalgic value for me (and I imagine a lot of others).

I made a transcript of the KCOP version a few years back for the hell of it, using the 130-page shooting script as a base. The final document was over 240 pages - that’ll give some indication just how much the Salkinds put back in so they could rake in the TV sale cash.
 

Randy Korstick

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I remember watching the TV version when it originally aired which I am pretty sure was on either ABC or NBC. I think later it was shown on KCOP. But I remember there were some good new scenes with Lois and Clark and Lois and Superman and also a lot that did drag on like a lot of extra scenes that weren't that good with Lex Luther, Ned Beatty and his girlfriend. Some extra scenes showing them moving the missle around on the trailer. A lot of comedy that didn't really work. But I am definitely looking forward to watching this again in a high quality format.
 

Clayking38

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The original broadcast was an ABC network presentation, with local ABC affiliates picking up the feed. If memory serves it was spread over two nights. I still have a video tape of it. My brother-in-law was a video editor at ABC at the time and was included in the network credits following the movie. When I mentioned this to him he was surprised by it.
I've read on another forum that the sound is 2.0, with the voices spread uniformly across both channels, with some of the music mono. That's a negative.
 

Randy Korstick

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The original broadcast was an ABC network presentation, with local ABC affiliates picking up the feed. If memory serves it was spread over two nights. I still have a video tape of it. My brother-in-law was a video editor at ABC at the time and was included in the network credits following the movie. When I mentioned this to him he was surprised by it.
I've read on another forum that the sound is 2.0, with the voices spread uniformly across both channels, with some of the music mono. That's a negative.
Yeah ABC is my first guess. And yes these extended versions of movies that happened in the 70's and early 80's were shown over 2 nights. In this case 188 minutes with commercials added would be 4 hours. 46 minutes longer than the original 142 minute theatrical cut. 9 minutes of this footage was added back in for the 151 minute directors cut. So we are getting 37 minutes of new footage.
 

Lord Dalek

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The original broadcast was an ABC network presentation, with local ABC affiliates picking up the feed. If memory serves it was spread over two nights. I still have a video tape of it. My brother-in-law was a video editor at ABC at the time and was included in the network credits following the movie. When I mentioned this to him he was surprised by it.
I've read on another forum that the sound is 2.0, with the voices spread uniformly across both channels, with some of the music mono. That's a negative.
That's the theatrical mix. Its really badly done and kinda justifies the remix (sound effects changes and all) when you AB the two on the 4-disc dvd/anthology blu-ray.

As for this tv version., I'm assuming its actually in mono as nicam was several years away from when this was created in 1981.
 

Lord Dalek

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Yeah ABC is my first guess. And yes these extended versions of movies that happened in the 70's and early 80's were shown over 2 nights. In this case 188 minutes with commercials added would be 4 hours. 46 minutes longer than the original 142 minute theatrical cut. 9 minutes of this footage was added back in for the 151 minute directors cut. So we are getting 37 minutes of new footage.
188 minutes is approximately how long the KCOP version runs. The ABC broadcast is about 6 minutes shorter.
 

TonyD

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Josh I found the dvds you made.

This is the KCOP ABC edition.

So I'm guessing this is what the new bluray will be.

I wonder if I'll find time to watch these dvds and the bluray.
 

Josh Steinberg

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That was fun doing that :)

I had the VCR with Tony's tapes on one side of the room, plugged into the TV, and then on the other side of the room was the computer, with an analog-to-digital converter and some cables stretching across the room. I did it at like 2am to minimize the chance that someone would walk through the living room and step on a cable.
 

deepscan

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For those who are confused, and BTW Neil Bulk, this is Krypton 101 for today...

KCOP is a TV station out of Los Angeles. At the time of its broadcast in about 1994 (correct me if I’m wrong), it was an independent station. This is where the first known airing of the full 188 minute TV version occurred, and since it was prepared for international broadcast, it has gone by many names...the Salkind International Version, the KCOP cut, extended TV version...they are all one and the same.

We now know that 35mm elements of all the scenes survived all this time, and up to now the TV cut has only existed in 16mm master and broadcast tape formats. This will now change since an all new HD master has been prepared.
 

Interdimensional

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Cool. I wonder if WB will do more of this sort of thing going forward. What other movies have notably longer TV cuts that have never been released on bluray?

I know of at least one I'd love to have, but I don't think it's likely to happen.
 

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