SUPERMAN RETURNS: "Back to Krypton" concept art

I got the Superman Returns 2-disc Special Edition DVD on Tuesday afternoon. I absolutely love it: it's a great movie with an excellent transfer to DVD (although as I stated in my review of the movie back in July, Lex Luthor's plot in this movie is still the dumbest criminal plot of all time) and the extra features make this disc set well worth the price over the standard release. I especially liked all the deleted scenes - about fifteen minutes worth - that were included.

But I was very disappointed to find that the much-discussed "Return to Krypton" scene wasn't one of them. As you know if you've seen the film (and if you haven't seen it then you really really should 'cuz it's an awesome movie) Superman returns to Earth after being gone for five years while investigating what astronomers told him were the remains of his birth-world Krypton. Well, the scene where Superman arrived at what's left of Krypton was produced, but it didn't make the final cut of the movie. Hopefully we'll be able to see it someday in a director's cut or something.

But if you are aching to know what Superman's visit to the site of Krypton looks like, Ben Procter - one of the concept artists on Superman Returns - has posted some of the artwork for the "return to Krypton" sequence on his website. I wish more than ever that this scene had made it into the movie, 'cuz this would have truly been a staggering thing to behold on the big screen... and especially in an IMAX theater. Check this scene out of Superman's crystal ship arriving at the scene...

And look at this one. It sorta reminds me of the shattered Kilrathi homeworld you see at the beginning of Wing Commander: Prophecy...

There's plenty more where these came from, including a Quicktime video of some test footage with the ruins.