THE GOONIES, SUPERMAN, LETHAL WEAPON Filmmaker Richard Donner Gets Tribute By The Academy June 7

The Academy will pay tribute to director-producer Richard Donner with an evening of personal anecdotes, film clips spanning his prolific career and special appearances by friends and colleagues on Wednesday, June 7, at 7:30 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

Guests to take the stage with Donner include actors Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Rene Russo, Jeff B. Cohen, Carol Kane, Joseph Mazzello, David Morse, Ke Huy Quan and John Savage; producer and president of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige; writer, president and chief creative officer at DC Entertainment Geoff Johns; writer Brian Helgeland; and Lauren Shuler Donner, producer and Donner’s wife for more than 30 years.

Lauren Shuler Donner and Richard Donner 2006 Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage.com

Donner’s work is wide-ranging, from small independents (“Inside Moves”) to cult classics (“The Goonies”), superhero epics (“Superman”) to medieval love stories (“Ladyhawke”), and mystery-suspense thrillers (“The Omen”) to blockbuster comedies (“Scrooged”) and the buddy action series, “Lethal Weapon.”

Recently director Patty Jenkins described in the New York Times how Donner’s SUPERMAN played into one scene from WONDER WOMAN.

What was the inspiration for the scene?

It’s an homage to one of my favorite movies of all time, Richard Donner’s “Superman.” One of the things I loved in Superman was this very playful period of time where we know who Superman is and what he can do. But he’s let loose on Metropolis. And he encounters a mugging he’s completely ill-prepared for. In that movie Lois Lane knows exactly what’s going on and is trying to handle the situation. She causes a gun to go off and he catches the bullet and she never sees it and he’s able to save the day with his superpowers. So this scene is trying to comment with humor on how things would go down when the roles are reversed….we built onstage because what we were looking for was something that both echoed Richard Donner’s “Superman” alleyway and something that [allowed us to] block that alley fight.

LETHAL WEAPON recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. Released in March 1987, the movie grossed over $120 million against a production budget of $15 million, and it was nominated for Academy Award in the category of Best Sound. It spawned a franchise that includes three sequels and a television series.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four stars, saying Donner “tops himself”.

For more on the tribute to Richard Donner and to buy tickets, visit the Academy’s site: http://www.oscars.org/events/academy-tribute-richard-donner