It's hard to say - Doesn't the Donner cut use the spinning the Earth backwards to reverse time as well?

I'm pretty sure his claim was that it was never his original intention to use that in Superman 1 and therefore that means we would have had a different ending to that film had he been left alone. I can't remember if he ever said what his original intention was for the first film though?

@Midi-chlorian_Count said:

It's hard to say - Doesn't the Donner cut use the spinning the Earth backwards to reverse time as well?

I'm pretty sure his claim was that it was never his original intention to use that in Superman 1 and therefore that means we would have had a different ending to that film had he been left alone. I can't remember if he ever said what his original intention was for the first film though?

I believe the original ending would have seen Superman rescuing Lois without having to turn back time and there would have been a cliffhanger ending showing the 3 villains being released from the Phantom Zone.

The reversing of time was supposed to only happen once and at the end of the 2nd film.

Yeah, I thought that was what he'd said - Earth spinning rather than "magic kiss" to wipe Lois' memory.

Tbh though I'm not really too sure what to think - he was removed from finishing II for going over budget and over schedule from what I recall. However we do have that Lois pulled from the car dead post earthquakes scene obviously filmed for Superman I. So is he talking nonsense or was he going to have Superman employ an alternative method to bring Lois back from the dead? Or maybe he changed his mind much earlier in the proceedings, i.e. before even shooting, in which case it's a bit of an untruth from him to say the turning back time ending was "originally" for Superman II.

I guess we'll never know the real truth.

By the way, I started listening to the audio commentary yesterday (with Tom Mankiewicz, both sadly R.I.P.) and it was mentioned that had the first film bombed then the Salkinds would have DEFINITELY made him finish part II.

He's also on record as saying he never officially went over budget because the producers never told him what the budget was!

They also call Superman III a Richard Pryor movie featuring Superman. I can't disagree with that! lol

I think I'll listen to the rest later.