Apparently the ultra-limited edition of her expanded first album includes a booklet with these pics (and others) but also a lock of Lady GaGa's hair. [Daily Mail]

Reviewing Metropolis, Wells wrote:"Never for a moment does one believe any of this foolish story; for a moment is there anything amusing or convincing in its dreary series of strained events. It is immensely and strangely dull. It is not even to be laughed at. There is not one good-looking nor sympathetic nor funny personality in the cast; there is, indeed, no scope at all for looking well or acting like a rational creature amid these mindless, imitative absurdities."

The visual differences between Metropolis and Wells' Things To Come are staggering. And if it's necessary to pit these two films against each other in cinema bloodsport, it's difficult to determine a winner. The raw creativity and invention of the images in Things To Come still resonate over seventy years later: workers float through a bright industrial landscape of bubbling fluids in huge transparent vats and spiral staircases that go on forever. The images associated with Metropolis are certainly less fantastic, but iconic. It seems that history has already chosen a winner, and it's Metropolis in a cyborg landslide.

Both films serve as cautionary tales to the audience, but Things To Come tells a much more interesting story with a much wider scope. It is simply epic, regardless of its short running time. Metropolis warns us of removing the human element from our visions of the future, but Things To Come does what is required of great science fiction: It holds up a tremendously ornate mirror to our own prejudice and assumptions, and then requires us to make (and live with) our own decisions.

In Things To Come, a world war launches in 1940, and lasts 30 years, until nobody can remember why it started. The world descends into medieval squalor, and Everytown is run by an evil Boss — until a flying machine, piloted by Cabal, a representative of a group of enlightened scientists and thinkers, appears. The Boss and Cabal fight for control, until Cabal drops "Peace Gas" and wins. And we see 70 years of progress pass by in a montage, as humanity rebuilds its shattered world. But then in the year 2036, in an idealized future utopia, we see the battle between luddites and the representatives progress play out again, as the luddites seek to sabotage the futuristic Space Gun. It never stops.

You can watch the whole thing online at the Internet Archive.

Lang's original cut had almost become an urban myth; after the movie bombing during its original release, the classic was re-edited and re-released by its studio, UFA, who excised almost half an hour of material. The outtakes were considered lost until the discovery of an uncut 16mm print last year that has since been restored by a team comprised of the Murnau Foundation as well as ZDF, Arte and the Deutsche Kinemathek.

The first screening of the uncut Metropolis since 1927 will take place at a gala on February 10th, 2010, as part of the Berlin Film Festival.

Berlinale to show uncut 'Metropolis' [Variety]

Oolong Island
Does an island count as a city? Possibly not, but as anyone who read DC Comics' 52 knows, Oolong is no ordinary island. Populated almost entirely by mad scientists (and maybe a couple of sane ones, too), Oolong Island is a place where the old laws (of physics) no longer apply, and there's no such thing as a bad scientific breakthrough, only one that needs to be stopped from destroying the world as we know it by resident superteam, the Doom Patrol. But what else could you expect from a place where scientists are encouraged to indulge in mind-altering substances to further free their minds?

Platinum Flats
Whereas the real world has Silicon Valley, former Batgirl Barbara Gordon and her Birds of Prey have Platinum Flats, which proclaims itself as "America's High-Tech Capital" and home to all manner of upstart start-ups like YouSpace, MacroWare, NetCracker, Findster (Well, it is an alternate Earth, after all) and has eradicated problems like crime and urban decay thanks to its well-heeled and inventive inhabitants. Better living through technology indeed.

Haven
What's the quickest way to suddenly have a city full of advanced technology in your backyard? Have an alien spacecraft crash into it. That's what happened in the DC Universe's version of California (As if having Green Lantern's "Coast City" midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles wasn't enough), which suddenly found itself with an extra-terrestrial prison full of political prisoners dumped onto its coast in the early '2000s series Haven. On the plus side, the US Government granted them city status, in exchange for some of their tasty new technology. Let's just work on that whole "retro-engineering so we can use it without tentacles" thing, shall we?

Big Town
In 2000, Marvel Comics wondered what would've happened if, instead of using their genius to fight crime, Reed Richards, Tony Stark and the rest of their superheroic scientist buddies actually invented things to benefit society. According to Fantastic Four: Big Town, the result is a futuristic New York, which quickly becomes the center of civilization, expands to include nearby cities in other states, and destabilizes society as we know it. But, on the plus side, unstable molecules really cut down on your laundry costs.

Atlantis
Whether it's Marvel or DC Comics, there's an undersea city of Atlantis, and they're more technologically advanced than us. Marvel's Atlanteans prefer to travel is super-science submarines while they consider their latest plans to invade the surface world for whatever unconvincing reason they've been duped into believing this week, while DC's undersea dwellers have the distinction of having a civilization that started long before man had even crawled from the sea, and therefore having a head-start on the rest of us. Of course, if they were really that smart, they'd have worked out how to stay out of the water for more than an hour at a time, but apparently they were too busy telepathically communicating with whales to be troubled by such thoughts.

Attilan
Maybe the only people who can deal with the world of tomorrow today are scientifically-advanced themselves... like Marvel Comics' Inhumans, whose millennia-old city is so advanced that it has not only withstood being transported throughout space (literally; for awhile, it existed on the moon) but has also proven capable of physically transforming itself into a spaceship when needs be. See? Humans end up turning scientifically-advanced cultures into disasters, but Inhumans are apparently smart enough to turn change to their advantage.

Electropolis
Dean Motter's most recent take on the idea of the futuristic city (from his 1999 series of the same name) offered a different take on the idea: the retrofuturistic city, founded on decades old ideas about the future that're still ahead of their time. "Cathedral-sized Van Der Graaf generators and towering Strickfadden machines" may sound oddly outdated to us now, but this city still managed to have robot detectives, flying cars and an on-time metro service unlike the modern world we live in.

Metropolis
What better home for the Man of Tomorrow than the self-declared City of Tomorrow? Superman's adopted hometown may be best known for its major metropolitan newspaper, but consider all of the mad scientists that Superman faces on a regular basis, to say nothing of the alien technology, scientific establishments to clean up after superbattles and even the wonderfully-named Science Police, and it's pretty clear that there's more to this forward-thinking city than depending on print media. The city even has a street dedicated to scientific institutions called The Avenue of Tomorrow. What could be more perfect than that?

Now maybe you're knowingly dating a robot, or perhaps you've had one constructed for that very purpose. But if you think your guy or gal might be an artificial intelligence, but you're not sure, look for these symptoms:

You've Only Spoken to Them Online

xkcd: It's always risky dating someone online. You don't know if that cute girl you've been chatting with is really an octogenarian with great taste in movies — or a particularly sophisticated spambot. Fortunately, this savvy Internet user knows a test for artificial intelligence far more efficient that the Turing Test or the Voight-Kampff.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer "I Robot...You Jane:" We all learn a valuable lesson about chatting with strange men when sweet, awkward Willow starts an online romance with Malcolm. She thinks she's found the man of her dreams — or at least someone to help her forget Xander for a while. Tragically, "Malcolm" is actually "Moloch," an ancient demon trapped in the school's computer system whose only means of physical interaction is through a robot body.

There Are Multiple Copies

Battlestar Galactica: Glowing spines would have been a handy way to tell the Cylons from the humans, but barring that, there are a few other ways to tell if the person you're sexing up is a Cylon. Baltar and Tyrol both date Cylon women with a penchant for sabotage, but Helo gets the most definitive clue to his lady friend's true nature, when he spots her exact duplicate hanging around Caprica with a Number Six.

Star Trek "Requiem for Methuselah:" Rayna Kapec seems like the perfect woman: intelligent, beautiful, and a great pool players. It's no wonder that Captain Kirk, who falls in lust every other week, pursues her. But, alas it's not meant to be. Kirk and Spock stumble into a chamber belonging to Rayna's guardian Flint, containing several earlier gynoid versions of the lovely Rayna. The emotional impact of learning that she's a robot and being forced to choose between Kirk and Flint prove too much for Rayna's circuits to handle, prompting an irrevocable meltdown.

The Twilight Zone "In His Image:" Jessica Connelly never actually learns that Alan Talbot, the man she fell in love with, is a robot. His creator and physical doppleganger, Walter Ryder, just quietly takes his place after Alan malfunctions and starts developing homicidal impulses.

They're Three Laws Compliant

Foundation: We'd all like our significant others to respect human life and to protect us when we're in danger. But Dors Venabili, Hari Seldon's bodyguard and eventual wife, is actually programed to do just that. Seldon does suspect that she's a robot, but by then he has already fallen for her.

Their Affection Can Kill

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me: British Intelligence never bothered to tell Austin Powers that his partner and new bride Vanessa Kensington is, in fact, a fembot planted by Dr. Evil. Austin learns soon enough when Vanessa points a pair of machine guns from her breasts, though she notes he would have figured it out sooner if he'd tried a little foreplay.

Kim Possible: So the Drama: When crime-fighting teenager Kim Possible needs a date to her junior prom, new student Eric appears just in the nick of time to be Kim's first steady boyfriend. She's understandably devastated when her nemesis Dr. Drakken kidnaps her new beau, and rushes to save him. But when Kim gives the newly liberated Eric a relieved hug, he electrocutes her, revealing himself to be one of Drakken's Synthodrones.

They Dance Like No Human Dances

"Der Sandmann" by ETA Hoffmann: Summer Glau's ballerina background may have been an excuse to place the Terminator Cameron in toe shoes, but gynoids have a long history of dancing. Olimpia, for example, is quiet adept at dance as well as singing and playing the harpsichord. Many find her cold and stiff movements a bit off-putting, but Nathanael, a young student already engaged to another woman, develops a passionate obsession with her. When he learns that Olimpia was an automaton all along, he's driven mad by the revelation, leaping to his death.

Metropolis: When the Joh Fredersen and Rotwang conspire to place a robot made to resemble the popular worker leader Maria upon the working caste, they hold a dance performance to see if the people of Metropolis see her as human. It works, and the men of Metropolis are immediately captivated. It's Fredersen's son Freder, who is in love with the real Maria, who eventually recognizes that she's not the girl he fell for, and must be a copy.

They've Returned from the Dead

Machine Teen: Carly Whitmere knows that her boyfriend, Adam Aaronson, is frequently ill, but never would she guess that his bouts of illness are the result of glitches in his robotic systems. It's actually not Carly, but Adam's best friend JT who first discovers his robotic nature, and later helps repair Adam after he is seemingly shot to death.

Star Trek "What Are Little Girls Made Of?:" Starfleet had lost contact with Nurse Christine Chapel's fiance Dr. Roger Korby for several years, so she was relieved to discover him apparently alive and well on Exo III. But it turns out the Korby she encounters is not quite the man she remembers, but an android copy that the dying Korby imbued with his appearance and memories, one who firmly believes in robot supremacy.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer "Ted:" When Joyce Summers starts dating Ted Buchanan, he seems to good to be true. He's charming, a fantastic cook, and happy to spend an afternoon playing miniature golf. Unfortunately, Ted also happens to be the robotic equivalent of Bluebeard, wooing women only to later hold them captive and watch them die. Although Buffy takes an instant dislike to this interloper, and accidentally "kills" him after Ted slaps her, Joyce only catches on to Ted's evil nature when Ted returns from the dead, all glitchy and malfunctioning.

It's inevitable, in general, that when we finally create self-aware machines, they'll want to destroy us — as soon as they realize humans are remaking Melrose Place, the robots will realize they have to remove us from the Earth for the good of the universe. But the robots we build to be our sexual playthings will be especially determined to slaughter us. "You want me to be the naughty bondage nurse again? Affirmative — as long as this time, I can tie you down and examine you from the inside out."

So here's our list of sex robots who turn lethal. Note: We're not listing killer robots who just happen to be sexy. To win a place on this list, a robot has to have been built for sex, and then turned lethal. Feel free to debate our choices below. As it is, it's perhaps not that surprising to realize that the sexbot who goes on a killing spree is a more common trope than you might expect at first.

Pris in Blade Runner.

She's really our poster girl — designed to be a "basic pleasure model," for use on the military colonies, she instead uses her amazing gymnastic, acrobatic and erotic skills to become the ultimate assassin. At one point, she almost decapitates Harrison Ford with her incredible thighs. (The Replicants are clearly artificial life forms, even if they do obviously have organic components. Feel free to debate whether Pris is a sexbot.)

April in Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Uber-dweeb Warren Mears builds April to be the perfect girlfriend: she never cries or acts needy, but she cares about everything he cares about. And she's ultra sexy and eager to please. Too bad that when Warren gets sick of her and decides to toss her aside for a flesh-and-blood girlfriend, she becomes violently jealous and attacks Warren's new girlfriend, and anyone else who gets in her way. "If I can't [love Warren] what am I for?" she asks. The answer: slaughter! And mayhem!

Cynthia in Batman Beyond, "Terry's Friend Dates a Robot."

One of Terry McGinnis' fellow high schoolers, the nerdy Howard, programs a robot (in the shape of a beautiful woman, of course) to be his girlfriend because he's sick of being considered a loser. When he makes her personality "100% loyal", the robot interprets this in the most brutal form possible, attempting to kill any possible competition for Howard's attention.

The Sexoids in Ghost In The Shell.

It seems kind of obvious to me: If you don't want your sexbots to rise up and murder you, don't call them "Sexoids." It just doesn't sound like a very sexy name — or cool, for that matter. The Sexoids pretty much turn to murder every time they pop up in Ghost In The Shell, but especially in GITS: Innocence, it's all about the Sexoids murdering their owners.

The Stepford Wives.

This is sort of a different case: They don't turn on their owners. Instead, these women designed entirely for pleasure start their jobs off by killing the flesh-and-blood woman they're replacing, at least in the original movie version. (In the book, I think the husbands kill the original wives.)

The sexbots in whatever movie this is:

Some guy on Metafilter remembers seeing a classic 1970s movie about "Crazy SexBot Women Who Kill." With buzzsaws coming out of their breasts, even:

Sometime in the late 70s or early 80s I remember seeing a movie on local TV that I did not understand (I was a somewhat-sheltered little kid in those days). All I remember is that there were women in the movie who were robots or androids of some sort (perfect human replicas a la Blade Runner), who killed at least a couple of men via sex. I remember one scene pretty clearly in which one of these women had her breasts sort of start spinning like small buzzsaws out of her clothes, killing whatever guy was with her. Another scene I really vividly remember had one of these fembots straddling a man (on the floor, I think, with both of them mostly clothed). The man was enjoying himself at first, "Oooooohhhh, ahhhhh," and then he started to scream and shriek. At the time I had no idea what was going on, but later on when I learned about the birds and the bees I realized that the bot-woman must have killed him with her vagina (something buzz-saw-y like the other chick's breasts).

What movie is this guy remembering? Or did he just smoke too much LSD back in the day?

Sylvie in Bubble Gum Crisis 5: Moonlight Rambler.

Someone is murdering vampires in MegaTokyo, and it turns out to be a pleasure droid named Sylvie, who's harvesting vampire blood because her fellow sexdroid Anri was injured escaping from a space station. Sylvie needs the vampire blood to repair Anri and help her remain fully functional. "Without it, she'll be forced to hurt people, like me," Sylvie explains. Why did you do it? asks Priss. "I wanted to be free... like you," says Sylvie. (At about 6:55 in the video at left.)

The Lucy Liu Bots in Futurama.

The Charlie's Angels star is just one of the celebrities illegally held by Nappster. Then the corporation placed Liu's personality into a blank robot so Fry could date her. When his friends exposed Nappster's scheme, they unleash a murderous wave of Lucy Liu Bots to kill all the witnesses.

Maria in Metropolis.

Okay, to be fair, her purpose was always fairly deadly. But she starts out being a bit of a pleasure droid before she gets down to some serious evil — in her early scenes, she does a weird, hyper-sexual dance for a bunch of leering aristocrats.

Freya in Saturn's Children by Charles Stross.

Poor Freya — she's designed to be sexually attracted to humans, but we're extinct. What's a sex robot to do? She takes part in an illegal smuggling operation, smuggling "pink goo," or organic cells — and of course, she has to do some killing along the way. Because that's the smuggler's life.

Verlis in Metallic Love by Tanith Lee.

Lee's 2005 sequel to her classic Silver Metal Lover brings back Silver, the former "pleasure robot," now renamed Verlis. He starts a new love affair, with a young girl named Loren. He's designed to be the ultimate companion, charming and talented — but he and his seven fellow robots also have deadly gifts, like creating weapons out of their bodies and turning themseves into giant dragons. As SciFiWeek puts it, "Constructed as beautiful playthings, they are instead deadly powerful creatures who regard humans as lesser life forms and a threat to their existence." And they have plans to throw off their corporate shackles and achieve "world domination."

Silver in Tomb Raider: The Man Of Bronze.

According to this third Tomb Raider novel, Silver is "a pleasure bot," programmed to seduce women. But over the centuries, he's gotten warped and is now determined to wipe out his rival Bronze, no matter whom he has to kill along the way. What does this have to do with raiding tombs? Don't ask me.

The Sexbots in Buttobi CPU.

In this Japanese porn anime series, a man meets a sexbot who becomes very attached to him. But then, for some reason I've never been clear on, another sexbot shows up and starts trying to kill him — maybe out of jealousy. In any case, this being a hentai video, he has to give "his" sexbot a powerup to fight the other sexbot, by inserting his genetic material into her rear data port. Yatta!

Aphrodite IX.

She's a sexbot who's reprogrammed as an amnesiac assassin, and she's the star of her own Top Cow comics series. Soon to be a major motion picture, apparently.

The Fembots in Austin Powers.

Okay, so they're pretty much programmed to kill. But they also seem to be programmed to please, at a fairly basic level. Consider Miss Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley), who spends the first movie slowly getting romantic with Austin Powers, before being revealed as a murderous fembot in the first couple of minutes of the sequel.

Amazing Blade Runner-inspired photos by Dani*Dune (More at the link.)

Additional reporting by Alasdair Wilkins.

Metropolis (1927)
With the economy imploding, we know what The Suits are thinking: Why not tap into the zeitgeist by remaking this stylish, silent, futuristic thriller about socioeconomic-class chasms? Added bonus: At the heart of the film is a hot stripper robot — total box office bullion! To paraphrase Nigel Tufnel, speaking about his precious vintage guitar in Spinal Tap: “Don’t touch it… don’t point, even.” No, don’t even look at it.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
After the success of his UFO-sighting film, Stephen Spielberg expressed interest in revisiting the property, which haunted our minds and stoked our imaginations as we pondering these mysterious aliens. Soon after, he made the cuddly E.T. instead. Smart man.

History of the World, Part I (1981)
It’s a joke, you see: what with history traditionally recalled in successive volumes. As much as we’d love to see the musical “Jews in Space” — which was teased in Mel Brooks’ cinematic romp through times of yore — we’d hate to see this stellar concept stretch into an SNL type skit gone too long. Plus we’ll always have The Schwartz.

The Thing (1982)
The late Vincent Canby, one of the New York Times’ greatest critics, once referred to John Carpenter’s remake of 1951’s The Thing From Another World as a "a foolish, depressing, overproduced movie." Which is naturally why we consider it a classic. Carpenter, the Sci Fi Channel, and Strike Entertainment (Slither, Dawn of the Dead), and have respectively tried to resurrect the property. And just last year, it was announced that the latter had succeeded, forging an (unholy?) alliance with Universal for a prequel. Nicely played, Strike, nicely played. But a prequel still feels like a sequel even though it is a prequel. (We’ll pause while you think that through.)

12 Monkeys (1995)
A dude goes back in time and hangs at a mental hospital while trying to stop an earth-plaguing virus, in this gripping, plot-twisting head trip. Anything more would simply be anti-climactic. Besides, what would you call it: 13 Monkeys? 24 Monkeys?

The Running Man (1987)
We know what you’re thinking. The awesome, sensational Running Man — about a to-the-death reality show for felons — would make a perfect obvious tie-in soon enough. It takes place in 2019! Which is coming up. Like, relatively soon. Too bad Death Race beat you to the punch. As we learned, the game show-as-moral-decay metaphor simply isn’t shocking anymore. Besides, we’ve been getting our fix of dystopian competitions from Japanese competition shows anyhow.

Akira (1988)
A thriller about a covert government op and a guy teeming with supernatural powers, this is an apocalyptic epic of sweeping beauty and challenging complexity. To attempt to improve upon — or even mimic — this classic would be utter hubris.

Armageddon (1998)
Despite popular disdain, the hysterically ridiculous doomsday asteroid flick made a killing, internationally, at the B.O. And we know you all too well, Michael Bay. We’d hoped you’d learned your quality-control lesson from Bad Boys II, but here’s hoping you will with Transformers 2.

Donnie Darko (2001)
Director Richard Kelly’s break-out movie was dark, intriguingly time-twisty, and made ghoulish use of a rabbit. It also went on to become a surprise cult hit, which is why the industry is so ready to juice it with a story about the creepy misadventures of his little sister (Sparkle Motion!) while on a roadtrip. (Nightstalker director Chris Fisher will helm the follow-up.) S. Darko, as it’s called, was said to have started shooting in May. But, as we learned from the original, it’s never too late to change fate and put this risky proposition out of its misery.

Ghost Rider (2007)
Nicolas Cage’s painful paean to the flame-headed motorcycle enthusiast made a decent chunk of change, so a follow-up is already in development. But it’s never too late to do the right thing and snuff it out of its misery. According to the actor, there’s been talk about “going international with that character. Taking him into Europe, having him go on a motorcycle.” Perhaps we should use that Penance Stare on the sinful filmmakers—apparently the fate of the Western world depends on it.

I Am Legend (2007)
The lucrative, Will Smith-starring adaptation of the Richard Matheson book initially found its stride, then missed the plot mark completely — that the infected vampire/zombies are, in fact, evolved humans — in its frustrating, off-putting second half. Still, not ones to pussyfoot around, Warner Bros., eager to cultivate another franchise, has obtained the sequel rights. But forgive us if we doubt Hollywood’s commitment to the fine source material, given the tendency to transform anything cerebral into a mindless popcorn flick.

Watchmen (2009)
Zach Synder recently took the high road and declared that he’s doubtful he’d direct a second Watchmen without the Hollywood-loathing Alan Moore’s involvement — which pretty much settles that. Or not. Once we figure out who owns the big-screen rights to the property, they can theoretically bastardize the bejesus out of it. Surely some things are sacred.

The real problem in working out this particular problem is the fact that these cities have a tendency to... well, to move. The Metropolis you see in Smallville seems to be within reasonable driving distance of Smallville, which would mean that it's somewhere in Kansas. But Metropolis in the DC Comics has always been a stand-in for New York, and - according to the Atlas of the DC Universe, created for DC's late '80s, early '90s role playing game - exists on the coast of New Jersey... right next to Batman's Gotham City, which is also a stand-in for New York City.

If you don't live in NYC, don't worry; DC has stand-ins for many real life cities throughout the world, not just America. In fact, when Marvel Comics' superheroes came to the DC Earth in 2003's JLA/Avengers series, the heroes from the (slightly) more-realistic Marvel Universe noticed that DC's Earth was actually slightly larger than their Earth because of all the extra locations... Locations like California's Coast City (home to Green Lantern), Indiana's Fawcett City (The original Question's stomping grounds), Missouri's Central City (where the Flash tends to spend his time) and Louisiana's Belle Reve, where the Suicide Squad relaxed between missions.

To get back to the original question, though, how long would it take for Batman to get to Smallville? It's a trick question; he'd just teleport there in no time using the Justice League Teleporter, of course.

[Atlas of the DC Universe]

The Museo del Cine Pablo C. Ducros Hicken in Buenos Aires found the 16 mm negatives, which include the character of Georgy in his "reduced" state, a character named Slim and his transformation into an apocalypse-preaching monk, and a car journey through the city of Metropolis. Just in time for the no-doubt-ridiculous remake to start work, we can finally see what the original Metropolis was about. A lot of stuff that made no sense in the edited version now actually makes sense. The only question is, will Giorgio "Love To Love You Baby" Moroder write a new score for the missing parts, to go with the score he already wrote in 1984? [Murnau-Sifting, thanks tynansanger]

• Metropolis cost over 7 million Reichmarks to film in 1927, which is about the equivalent of $200 million today. That makes it one of the most expensive silent movies to date.
• Originally clocking in at over 153 minutes long, most subsequent edits were only 90 minutes in length. The cut footage is believed to have been lost forever.
• Brigette Helm plays both Maria and a robotrix in the film, even though as the robot you never see her face. Director Lang wanted her to play both parts so audiences would sense a connection between the two characters.
• That Robotrix costume was so uncomfortable that it left Helm covered in cuts and bruises after filming. Where's SAG when you need it?
• Film scholars can't agree on what speed Metropolis is meant to be shown. Silent films were hand-cranked at the time, and tended to be between 16 and 20 frames per second. Showings of the film have ranged from 18 fps to 24 fps, resulting in both slowed-down and speeded-up movement.
• In 1984, music composer Giorgio Moroder made a version of the film replacing the soundtrack with modern rock, featuring Pat Benatar, Adam Ant, Loverboy, and Freddie Mercury. Sadly, this Metropolis Meets The Early 80s edition hasn't been released on DVD.
• DC Comics released Superman's Metropolis in 1996, based on the film and featuring Lois as "Futura" (the original name for the robot in Lang's script).
• Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astro Boy, saw a poster for the film and created his own manga called Metropolis. He never actually saw the movie, but his version shares similar themes with the original. An animated version of Tezuka's manga came out in 2001.
• There have been numerous re-releases of the film over the years, some shortened to an hour. In 2002 a digitally restored version was released on DVD that was 123 minutes.

The architecture of Metropolis, called Raygun Gothic, has influenced the looks of everything from Frankenstein to Blade Runner to The Matrix, and the design for the robotic version of Maria in the film is evident in C3P0 from Star Wars. But will it be sacrilege to mess with this movie? While it would be great to expose it to more audiences, the possibility runs high that this might end up as a disaster.

We'll keep our fingers crossed, but make sure you check out the original film which was restored and put on DVD back in 2002.

'Metropolis' Finds New Life [Variety]

Famous names: Fritz Lang

Crunchy goodness: 5

Spinoffs/sequels/copycats: Arguably this movie spawned an entire class of fembot supervillains, including the ones in Stepford Wives, Eve of Destruction, Terminator 3, and of course Austin Powers.

Design breakthrough: All of the sets and conceptual design in Metropolis were state-of-the-art futurism at the time. The soaring skyscrapers in the city, flying vehicles, elevated roads, and robotics tech were truly visionary, and introduced audiences to urban futurism.

Sight you'll never unsee: The mad engineer bringing robo-Maria to life. This scene has become so iconic that it's been referenced in everything from beer commercials to doctoral dissertations.

Read the novelization online by the original screenwriter Thea von Harbou