For Superman Week in 2006 (“celebrating” Superman Returns), I reviewed all of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies. So, for the release of this new Superman movie, I thought I’d go back and read the novelizations to two of those same movies. There weren’t novelizations of the first two Reeve Superman movies most likely due to a clause in screenwriter Mario Puzo’s contract that forbade anyone other than him from writing the novelizations. But for whatever reason, Puzo never got around to writing the books.  So Warner Books only released novelizations for the second two movies.  I looked forward to reading these novelizations because I love the two Superman sequels in a retarded sort of way and I wanted to see if there was any more awesomely insane weirdness in the books.

So, today, let’s take a look at the novelization to Superman III.

Written by William Kotzwinkle, the guy who also wrote the ET novelization.  The overall structure of the movie story is intact in the novelization.  The biggest difference with the book is that Kotzwinkle adds a sh*t ton of internal dialogue by nearly every character, but mostly Superman/Clark and Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor).  Many of the internal monologues are weird and in the case of Superman/Clark, completely against character.  A lot of Clark’s internalized conversations are him saying how he could fly someone he doesn’t like to the moon and leave them there.  You know, stuff like, “If only you knew I was Superman…” or “If I could, I would <fill in the blank with some super powered vengeance>”.  I’m fairly certain these are supposed to setup the evil Superman later in the book, but I wasn’t buying it.  It was against everything you think about Clark and Superman.

And as for Gus Gorman.  Ugh.  I didn’t really like Pryor’s character in the movie.  Pryor did good with what he was given, but the character was dumb.  This guy who can’t hold a steady job discovers that he’s some idiot savant when it comes to “computers”.  What?  And it’s even worse in the book.  It’s made more clear in the novel that Gus literally has no idea what he’s doing or how he’s doing it.  It’s like all of his computer skills are some sort of super power he can only barely control.  Pryor makes the character somewhat likeable, but you don’t have that luxury in the novel.  And it’s painfully clear that Pryor ad-libbed many of his lines in the movie because in the book, the dialogue for Gus might be some of the worst written crap I’ve ever read.  Filled with weird late 70s-early 80s colloquialisms that make no sense.  Pryor must have agreed because in the movie, he gets the same information across but in a better way.

As for the villains, the characters of Ross and Vera Webster and Lorelei aren’t much better in this novel than they were in the movie.  Their back stories are fleshed out a little.  We get that Vera is fiercely protective of her brother and craves his approval in everything she does.  There are even a few flashbacks to their childhood.  Lorelei, is still mostly one dimensional.  A poor man’s Miss Tessmacher.  She’s pretty and the book expands a bit more on the fact that Lorelei is actually smarter than everyone thinks she is.  But it’s honestly to no further end.

Unfortunately, there’s no extra story to the evil Superman stuff.  I was hoping we’d get more scenes, but we really don’t.  Although, the book does say that Superman’s suit turns fully black and his eyes glow green.  THAT is pretty awesome and I wish the movie would have taken it the whole way.

I’m Superman. BITCHES.

The book’s climax is essentially the same.  Not really much to add.  No further explanation about how Gus came up with the Super Computer idea.  It’s essentially taken from drawings on napkins to fully realized in the cave.  Who developed the AI software the computer runs on?  Gus?  He acts like he’d never seen the computer before when he walks into the cave after riding the donkey down the mountain.  Don’t you think he would have supervised the entire construction?  When the computer shoots the “correct” Kryptonite ray at Supes, how does the computer synthesize the .052% of unknown in the chemical makeup?  It’s UNKNOWN to humans.  Stuff like this needed a better explanation.

I was very disappointed with this book.  I love movie novelizations and it’s rare that I don’t actually enjoy one.  Especially if I like the movie.  I didn’t like this and I can’t recommend it.

If you want a peak into the Superman III movie that could have been, take a glance at this unused Ilya Salkind story treatment.  Prepare for appearances by Supergirl, Brainiac and Mr Mxzyptlk.  It’s weird, but I think it could have been spectacular.

Welcome to Episode 90 of the Nerd Lunch Podcast.  Since this week is Superman Week, CT and I recruit Michael May and Thom Holbrook to take the place of a missing Jeeg and join us for a lively discussion about Superman during his 75th anniversary.

We talk about our first exposure to the Man of Steel, we talk about our favorite incarnations and we even cast a dream list of Superman actors. So leap iTunes in a single bound and join us for the discussion.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner.

Or listen to it online right here.

So the new Superman movie, Man of Steel, made it’s theatrical debut on Friday.  To celebrate, I thought it would be fun to do another Superman Week.  I convinced CT over at Nerd Lunch and Robert over at To The Escape Hatch to join along.  So leap in a single bound over to those wonderful blogs and see what Superman content they are offering up this week.

As for me, today I’m going to start off this year’s Superman Week with a look at the special souvenir magazine DC released for Superman the Movie.

This particular magazine was released by DC in tabloid size, so the thing is gi-normous.  It’s too big for my scanner, in fact.  So I had to take some pics with my camera and I’ll just have to show you those. Click any of the images to see them BIGGER on Flickr.

These are the front and inside covers of the magazine. Nice, glossy pages. I especially like the photo montage on the inside cover with the movie-stylized “S” in the middle.  It helps that there’s an awesome pic of the bikini-clad Valerie Perrine in the montage.

Here’s a nice pic of Marlon Brando as Jor-El. What this magazine does well is to provide information from the movie and then provide information from the comic to compare it to. It even includes artwork from the comics.  This particular section is talking about Krypton and comparing the different versions from the movie and the comic books.

In the Krypton section we get some more info on the three Kryptonian Judges who sentence Zod to the Phantom Zone. We also see a pic of a deleted scene involving the three judges dispatching a Kryptonian “executioner” to stop Jor-El from launching the rocket with his son (bottom of page).  Here’s a closer look at that oddly dressed “executioner”.

Just before filming began on the movie, DC Comics had a contest called The Great Superman Movie Contest. DC asked kids to spell out words by cutting out letters from their comics (yes, they were encouraging kids to DESTROY THEIR COMICS…it was the 70s). Two winners got a cameo in the movie. The ad for the contest appeared in DC comics in 1977. This is what one of the ads looked like.

Below is a page in the movie magazine that shows pictures of Christopher Reeve and the then-president of DC Comics sorting through contest entries trying to pick the winners. The eventual winners are shown in the bottom picture looking at an issue of Superman.  The two boys would cameo in the Smallville football scene with the teenage Clark Kent.

There are two really nicely laid out pages featuring the discovery of Clark by the Kents. One side is the depiction in the movie and the other side is the depiction in the comics. Very nicely done.

Here is another two page spread featuring the structural plans of the Fortress of Solitude from the comic books.  Supergirl even has a small apartment there.

A spread featuring the actors in the movie next to their comic book counterparts.

Two pages featuring Valerie Perrine as Miss Tessmacher. I had a huge crush on her for the longest time. Oh, and a tiny pic of Ned Beatty as Otis.  But Miss Tessmacher in that awesome Power Girl cocktail dress with the “boob window” and in that awesome red dress from the end of the movie.  Still, drooooooooooooooooool…

Here are some cool costume designs for the movie. You see Superman, Jor El and even Ursa, one of the Kryptonian criminals, who only has a small part in the first movie.

Here’s the glossy interior and exterior back cover with publicity pics. On the inside back I love the pic in the upper left with Jor-El and the three Kryptonian criminals.  You also get some good Kryptonian destruction shots. The back cover is just your standard publicity shot of Christopher Reeve you’ve probably seen a thousand times already.

So there’s the Superman the Movie movie magazine. I didn’t show you all the pages, just the “money” ones. There is literally a TON of information in this book. I really enjoyed reading it.

Stay tuned, for tomorrow on Day 2 of Superman Week we have a new episode of Nerd Lunch in which we discuss……wait for it…..Superman.

Welcome to episode 89. This week we are again joined by Claymation Werewolf. Last time with CW we talked about 80s sitcoms (Episode 63). This week we are talking about Saturday Morning Cartoons.

(Thanks, Shawn)

We talk about any Saturday morning rituals, we talk about some of our favorite shows and some of our least favorite shows. And yes, I bring up the Teen Wolf cartoon because I haven’t talked about it enough.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner.

Or listen to it online right here.

This week for The League Brian asks us what property would we like to see rebooted/return? And how do we imagine that it would be different?

Tough question.  CT and Jeeg over at the Nerd Lunch blog enjoy doing Reboot Challenges that are similar to this.  I like the idea of reimagining a favorite property.  So my pick to have a new reboot will no doubt be no surprise to readers of this blog.  I want to see a TV reboot of The Six Million Dollar Man.  This reboot, of course, would also lead into a reboot of The Bionic Woman.

There is a mostly successful reboot of the property going on right now in comic books.  I’d like to bring that success to a TV show.  However, I wouldn’t necessarily adapt what Dynamite is doing in their comic, but I like several aspects of what they’ve done so I might use them.

So let’s begin.

Premise: I’ll keep the origin roughly the same.  Steve is a military pilot.  Special Forces, I haven’t decided the branch; Navy Seals, Army Rangers, whatever.   Steve is an excellent soldier and pilot and due to his proficiency will pilot experimental aircraft for the military from time to time.  During one of these test flights, something goes wrong and Steve crashes in a horrific explosion and he barely survives.  Like in the original novel and the show,  the accident will damage Steve’s head, both legs and one of his arms.  OSI, a clandestine military department, chooses Steve to receive prototype nanotech plus bionic implants to repair his body.  The surgeries are done by OSI’s bionic specialist Dr Rudy Wells.  During Steve’s multiple bionic surgeries Rudy decides that for better balance and performance he will need to replace both arms.  The bionic limbs are controlled/regulated by microscopic nanobots that are implanted into his body.  This allows for “software upgrades” on the fly for mission specific details, tech and intel.  It also allows for better monitoring of Steve’s bionics and vitals from Rudy’s control center at OSI.  After the surgeries and physical therapy, Steve joins OSI as an agent and is placed under the supervision of Audrey Goldman who doles out his assignments and briefs him on intel.

Storylines:  The first part of the first season will deal with the aftermath of the accident and Steve’s subsequent physical therapy and testing of his bionic limits.  After he joins OSI, Steve is used as a black ops agent.  He performs impossible missions that no one but Steve and his bionics could accomplish. For the most part, starting mid-season, the episodes of this series, like the original, will focus on Steve’s “missions” for OSI.  Steve does infiltration, recon, sabotage and maybe even a little assassination.  I also want some stories to delve a bit more into the OSI operations side.  Maybe even a few “between missions” episodes where we see Steve get tune ups and upgrades from Dr Wells.  This allows us to see that Steve gets damaged during his missions has to have a new arm or leg fitted.  This will also show some testing of new “special missions” bionic gear like underwater legs with a built in oxygen respirator and a new arm with lasers in the fingers.  Stuff that the 70s toys were built upon but never made it into the show.  This time at OSI will also show the building of the working relationship with Audrey Goldman and Rudy Wells.

I want Jaime Sommers there in episode 1.  She is Steve’s fiance and she’ll be told he died in the crash.  Then we probably won’t see her again until later in the season.  Somewhere mid-to-late season 1 we’ll find out that OSI secretly tried to recreate their bionic successes with Steve.  They outfitted another disabled soldier, Barney Hiller, with bionic limbs.  The tech malfunctions, but also Hiller was a little unstable in the first place and he goes on the loose wrecking havoc having been corrupted by the bionic power in his body.  OSI calls in Austin who is able to stop him a few times, but barely, which makes Hiller hate Austin partly for stopping him but also for being his only equal.  Hiller decides to get back at Austin by finding Jaime Sommers and kidnapping her.  The final few eps of season 1 will have Austin tracking down Jaime to save her from Hiller.  Austin finds Jaime but Hiller will escape to return in season 2.  As Steve arrives to rescue Jaime he realizes that Hiller booby trapped his lair and it explodes with Jaime still inside.  This will lead to Austin’s ultimate season ending decision to have OSI outfit Jaime with bionics to save her life.  Season 2 will begin with Jaime’s surgeries and recovery.

Format:  I see this show being a little expensive, so I think the BBC model would work best.  Maybe 6-12 episodes per season, really allow us to focus more on each episode’s story and the “look and feel”.  Plus, you know, always leave them wanting more.

Cast:  So, who would I cast in this new Bionic Man show?

For Steve Austin I want David Boreanaz.  He looks like a soldier and he can play intensity very well as he’s done it in his most famous roles as Angel (Buffy, Angel) and Agent Booth (Bones).  But he can also bring some humor with the darkness since I don’t want this reboot to be too “dark and gritty” (a problem with the 2007 Bionic Woman reboot).

For Oscar Goldman’s character I changed the gender and picked Joan Allen.  I love Joan and she plays the administrator/boss very well as you can see in the second two Bourne movies, Death Race and The Contender.  I need Audrey Goldman to be tough as nails as well as a true blue “company woman” who puts OSI first (but, obviously, that will change over time).

For Dr Rudy Wells, my bionics expert, I would love Idris Elba.  This guy can do anything and I need him to be, essentially, Steve’s friend.  Wells will be the one to stick up for Steve when Audrey Goldman starts taking Steve for granted.

For Barney Hiller I want Jeremy Renner.  Renner has played soldiers many times and he can bring the intensity and the crazy.  I imagine this role to be sort of a cross between his SWAT character, Brian Gamble, and his Bourne Legacy character, Aaron Cross.  While he’s A-list in the movies right now he has done TV before.  He starred in an episode of Angel alongside Boreanaz (The Somnambulist) and played a cop in the short-lived The Unusuals.  And since he’s not starring here, just recurring, it may be easier to lock him in.  In case you were wondering, Barney Hiller is a character from the original show.  He made two appearances in the episodes The Seven Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Criminal.

I would want Katee Sackhoff for Jaime Sommers.  Katee is probably best known for Battlestar Galactica, which, of course, I’ve never watched.  She was also really good as Dana Walsh in the last season of 24 and she played Sarah Corvus in the aforementioned 2007 Bionic Woman reboot.  When I was watching that reboot back in 2007, I thought the main roles should have been reversed and Katee should have played Jaime Sommers and Michelle Ryan should have played Sarah Corvus.  I get to rectify that now. Obviously, Katee would spin-off into the eventual Bionic Woman show.

Other ideas:  Like I said, Katee would spin-off into her own Bionic Woman show.  I would like Elba and Allen to appear on the spin-off as well just as those two characters did back in the day.  Even when the two shows were on different networks.  I would also like the Hiller character to appear on Bionic Woman as his kidnapping of Jaime will constantly be a weak spot for her.  And, I’d like Hiller to eventually help create in some fashion an evil Bionic Woman.  Maybe Hiller hijack’s OSI’s HDQ and forces Rudy to operate on someone.  I toyed with the idea of having Michelle Ryan as the evil Bionic woman just as I mentioned that’s how the 2007 show should have cast it, but I’m wondering if that may scare off some studios since that reboot did so poorly why would they revive it with just the roles reversed?  So, instead of Michelle Ryan I’m thinking Gina Carano would be an excellent bionic villainess.

She was great in Haywire (even though the actual movie isn’t that good) and Fast & Furious 6.  Plus, I just found out, that Gina and Katee Sackhoff will be in an as yet untitled movie together that is being described as “the female expendables”.  I’m on board for that.

So that’s my reboot.  I think it’s pretty solid and I’d watch it every week.  Of course, I have a soft spot for the bionic franchise.  I watched the 2007 Bionic Woman reboot twice as long as it seems everyone else did even though I thought there was so much lost potential in that show.