Richard Donner directed Superman in 1978 under a sign on set reading verisimilitude, and that word explains the film. He insisted the material be played completely straight, and the decision to treat a man in a cape as a serious dramatic subject is the foundation every later superhero film is built on.
He then made The Omen, The Goonies, Scrooged, Lethal Weapon and its sequels, moving between horror, family adventure and buddy action without much apparent effort. The Lethal Weapon films established the template the buddy-cop genre used for twenty years.
He was removed from Superman II partway through production and the released version is a composite. His own cut was assembled and released decades later.
Richard DonnerScrooged is Richard Donner's 1988 American comedy adaptation of A Christmas Carol, with Bill Murray as a cynical television executive producing a live Christmas Carol broadcast on Christmas Eve who is himself visited by three spirits over the course of…
Richard DonnerA suicidal LAPD detective is partnered with a family-man veteran during a Christmas drug investigation that turns into open warfare. Lethal Weapon is Richard Donner's 1987 American action film about a suicidal Los Angeles Police Department narcotics detective who is…
Richard DonnerAn American diplomat learns his adopted son may be the Antichrist as people around the boy die in supernatural accidents. The Omen is Richard Donner's 1976 American horror film depicting an American diplomat who learns that his adopted son may…
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