Supergirl (film)
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| Supergirl | |
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 DVD cover for Supergirl |
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| Directed by | Jeannot Szwarc |
| Produced by | Timothy Burrill |
| Written by | David Odell |
| Starring | Faye Dunaway Helen Slater Peter O'Toole Mia Farrow Maureen Teefy Hart Bochner Peter Cook Marc McClure Brenda Vaccaro |
| Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
| Cinematography | Alan Hume |
| Editing by | Malcolm Cooke |
| Distributed by | TriStar Pictures, Warner Bros. (Original distribution + Overseas) |
| Release date(s) | November 21, 1984 |
| Running time | 105 min. (U.S. Theatrical Version) 127 min. (Original U.S. Theatrical version) 124 min. (International Version) 138 min. (Director's Cut) 150 min. (Original Version) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $35,000,000 (estimated) |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Supergirl is a 1984 feature film. It stars Helen Slater in her first motion picture role in the title role of the DC Comics superheroine Supergirl and Faye Dunaway (who received top billing) as the primary villain, Selena. It was a spin-off from the popular 1978 movie Superman, with Marc McClure reprising his role as Jimmy Olsen.
The movie performed poorly at the box office and failed to impress critics or audiences. Helen Slater, however, was nominated for a Saturn Award for her strong performance by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. The film does contain some expansions on the Superman movie mythology, such as taking the viewer into the Phantom Zone itself (in the first two Superman films, it was merely represented by a spinning black pane of glass). The story uses sorcery (a noted Superman weakness, but less favored over kryptonite) as a counter attack on Supergirl to great effect.
Released on video over the years by different companies, the film's first DVD release was on independent home video company Anchor Bay Entertainment in 2000 under license from StudioCanal. Warner Bros. recently acquired the rights to the film and reissued it on DVD late in 2006 to coincide with the reissues on DVD of the other Superman films. However, even though it is technically part of the same series of films as the ones produced between 1978 and 1987 with Christopher Reeve, it is not included in any of Warners' Superman-related 2006 box set DVD collections.
- Her first great adventure.
- Adventure Runs In The Family!
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[edit] Plot
Kara Zor-El (Helen Slater) lives in an isolated community, a Kryptonian city called Argo City, in a pocket of trans-dimensional space. Zaltar (Peter O'Toole) allows Kara to see a unique item known as the Omegahedron which can infuse an artificial structure with life. She uses it under the tutelage of Zaltar to make a butterfly-like creature; this creature breaches a window of the community and in the decompression that follows, the Omegahedron (which also powers the city) is sucked out into space. Kara follows it to Earth in an effort to recover it and save the city, which will die without it.
On Earth, the Omegahedron is recovered by Selena, (Faye Dunaway) a would-be witch, who quickly realizes that it can be used to allow her to perform real magical spells. On the radio, Selena hears that Superman has just left on a peace-seeking mission to a galaxy several light years away. Kara, now dressed as Supergirl, arrives on Earth and discovers her powers. Following the path of the Omegahedron, she takes the name Linda Lee, identifies herself as the cousin of Clark Kent, and enrolls at an all girls school.
Supergirl and Selena repeatedly battle in various ways until Selena uses her powers to put Supergirl in an inescapable prison known as the Phantom Zone. Here she has no powers but finds help in Zaltar, who had been imprisoned for losing the Omegahedron. Zaltar sacrifices his life to allow Supergirl to escape. Back on Earth she regains her powers and defeats Selena.
[edit] Brief history
Upon gaining the rights for the film Superman, Alexander Salkind, and his son Ilya also purchased the rights to the character of Supergirl, should any sequel or spinoff occur.
Although the Salkind duo financed the film completely on their own budget, Warner Bros. still lent a big hand in the process, as they originally owned the distribution rights to the film. The entire film was shot, edited, and overlooked by Warner Bros. However, two weeks or so before the film's original Summer 1984 premiere date, Warner Bros. dropped the film due to the disappointing performance of Superman III, both critically and financially.
Supergirl was then shelved for a few months, without distribution, until fledging company Tri-Star Pictures picked it up for holiday release in November. The company decided to edit the picture, cutting it from 124 minutes to 105 minutes. The drastic changes were not only damaging to the film's original intention, but also hampered the performances of stars Faye Dunaway and Helen Slater.
Upon its release, the film disappointed its anticipation. Contrary to popular belief, the film was not a major flop, but a mere disappointment. It was the #1 movie of the box office during its first weekend, and many people found it to be a great fantasy adventure.[citation needed] What contributed to the film's uprising was imported LaserDisc releases of the 124-minute version in the U.S.
By the middle of the 1990s, the rights to the film were acquired by Pueblo Film Licensing (successor-in-interest to the Salkind production company) and French production company StudioCanal, and Anchor Bay Entertainment had assumed the video rights. For their DVD release, two versions were issued, the 124-minute "International Version" (never seen in the U.S.), and a "director's cut" of 138 minutes, which had been discovered in StudioCanal's archives, and the last print of the latter version known to exist--apparently this "director's cut", which itself had been edited from a 150-minute rough cut, was prepared for release before the film was edited into its various versions.
[edit] Deleted material
Aside from the stiff editing in the films original US version, scenes that were left unseen for many years involved moments of importance. To begin, the Argo City opening was longer, and contained certain lines of dialog that supported elements that would soon be seen later in the story. The cut dialog also developed the characters and their background. The pacing was also slower, digesting the actions enough before introducing the next chapter of the film. The next moment, and one of the most important of all scenes, was the "Flying Ballet".
As Supergirl lands on Earth, she is surprised to find herself capable of almost anything, especially flying. She can smash rocks, and use heat vision to help flowers grow. This scene establishes that she is very much like her cousin, and that she possesses the same powers. The absence of this scene in the US theatrical version created confusion in later scenes. Viewers simply saw her shoot out of the lake, and fly all around the world.
The moments concerning Selena, Bianca, and Nigel were also trimmed. Selena's introduction was merely a few lines long, when the Omegahedron suddenly lands on earth, and Selena takes it for use of magic. The full introduction establishes Selena as an impatient witch, who is sick of being under her mentor and lover, Nigel, who is himself, a warlock. Later scenes not seen before the 2000 DVD release, included Selena using the Omegadedron for the first time, and realizing that she has no control when under its influence. She later throws a party for all her followers. Deleted material for this scene involved Nigel insulting Selena after she dismisses him. He then gets cozy on another party member, whom Selena pulls a vicious magical prank upon.
These scenes and moments listed show the characters state of mind, and their determinations, and dialog that later brought the film to making much more sense. Other scenes/moments, involve Linda Lee making a temporary home in the city of Midvale, Illinois, an extended version of the tractor sequence, in which the possessed machine runs amok on the Midvale streets, even killing a civilian. Another cut scene was a clarification that proved Supergirl possessed her cousin's weaknesses as well: she can't see where the Omegahedron is hidden because Selena keeps it in a container made out of lead. The Phantom Zone scenes are also longer, showing dramatic strength in Kara as she is willing to fight to the death in order to stop the evil witch Selena. Eventually, these scenes were restored to American audiences in 2000 when Anchor Bay Entertainment released the film under their label.
The 2006 DVD release by Warner Home Video (whose parent company Warner Bros. is the current rights holder to the Superman movies) is the International Edition (called the "European Theatrical Edition"). The original 150 minute version is rumored to still be out there[citation needed], in the vaults where all the Superman movie elements are (where they found Donner's Superman II as well.)
[edit] Fans
Although the film was not the motion picture blockbuster anticipated, it still secured a fanbase upon its release. Even then, hard-core fans accepted the film as it was, being a Fantasy/Adventure as opposed to Science-Fiction/Adventure seen in the Christopher Reeve films[citation needed]. It is the work of the die-hard fans, that ultimately lead to this film's return to the Warner Bros. label. More recently, fans have become highly active in producing skits and fan-films with sequel ideas and series pilots.
[edit] Future remake
According to entertainment industry reports, a Supergirl remake was in the preliminary stages.
At one point, Akiva Goldsman, screenwriter of The Da Vinci Code, Batman & Robin and A Beautiful Mind, was rumored to be attached to write, but later was reported to only producing the film.[1] It is currently unknown if Goldsman is still involved.
According to some reports by entertainment insiders, Mischa Barton is a possibility for the title role. [2] [3] As of December 2006, neither Warner Bros. nor any other studio has a Supergirl film on its roster. Many fan-made editied photos have appeared online from enthusiastic Supergirl/movie fans of possible candidates for a Supergirl remake, from Elisha Cuthbert to Scarlett Johansson even though the possibility of this is very unlikely.
[edit] Trivia
- Christopher Reeve was slated to have a cameo as Superman but bowed out early on.
- Marc McClure makes his fourth, of five appearances in the Superman movie series.
- Demi Moore auditioned for, and was cast as character Lucy Lane, but soon bowed out to make the film Blame It on Rio.
- The actual "Vortex" effect featured when Kara and Zaltar are escaping the Phantom Zone, was filmed under water.
- During the dinner party, Selena says to Nigel, "I have the power." This is a catchphrase often used by He-Man in Masters of the Universe, the 1987 film version of which would be scripted by Supergirl screenwriter David Odell.
[edit] See also
- Supergirl (main page for the DC Comics character)
- List of films recut by studio
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Supergirl at the Internet Movie Database
- Superman Homepage: Supergirl - Movie Synopsis/Review/Critique
- Superman Cinema about Supergirl: The movie
- The Cape Is Family Link to Yahoo Group
