Superman II was released in 1980 as the sequel to the 1978 movie adaptation of the DC Comics series Superman. This is the only Superman film that was handled by two directors and was surrounded with controversy for that reason. Original director Richard Donner completed about 75% of the movie in 1977 before he was removed from the project. The scenes shot by the second director, Richard Lester (who was also the uncredited producer of the first Superman film) were basically refilmed Donner scenes. Superman II was released in Europe and Australia in 1980 but it didn’t reach the US until 1981. A re-cut of the film titled Superman II: The Richard Donner cut was released in November 2006 and includes the restoration of Donner’s original concepts.