The big buzz coming out of Sundance Film Festival is the Christopher Reeve documentary Super/Man. The doc was so well received that it started a bidding war between Neon, Netflix, and WBD. According to an exclusive over at Deadline, it now appears the home of Superman, Warner Bros Discovery is nearly nailed on to win with a staggering $15m deal.
Super/Man was directed by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui who also wrote it with the help of Otto Burnham. It documents Reeve’s rise from unknown actor to Hollywood legend, and his life after a tragic horse riding accident that left him with spinal cord injuries leaving him a quadriplegic.
Chris’ children admitted the tragedy had plagued their father but ultimately made him a better man. His daughter, Alexandra, told Variety prior to the film’s premiere.
“I think he was very conscious of that irony and the legacy of Superman when people viewed his story and thought about him after the accident. He talked about redefining what it is to be a hero… it’s an everyday person who survives despite overwhelming obstacles.”
Activist Man
Bonhôte and Ettedgui used never-before-seen home movies and personal archives to reveal how he learned to live in a wheelchair and dependent on a ventilator to breathe. In an act of true heroism, Reeve never let his disability hold him back and he became and successful activist fighting for the rights of disabled people.
In 1997, Reeve fought to change disability legislation that would see an increase in insurance payments for those catastrophically injured from a cap of $1m to $10m. As you would cynically expect, the bill was defeated. However, not letting that stop him, he supported the Work Incentives Improvement Act, which allows people to continue to receive disability benefits after they return to work. This bill passed.
As well as this, Reeve was an advocate for embryonic stem cell research which has a potentially unlimited capacity for self-renewal for regenerative medicine and tissue replacement after injury or disease.
In 2004, not long before his death, Reeve urged California voters to vote yes on Proposition 71 which would establish the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and would allot $3 billion of state funds to stem cell research. Proposition 71 was approved less than one month after his death.
One Of My Heroes
You all know me by now and it’s obvious I’m a massive Superman fan. This all started in 1978 when at the age of 4, I was taken to the pictures (as we called it back then) and my first cinema experience was seeing Christopher Reeve as Superman. To say it blew my tiny mind is an understatement.
For nearly 46 years, I have become nearly obsessed with the character. I have statues, comics, merchandise, and even Superman tattoos. Several years back I even changed my middle name by deed poll to Kal-El, for which my beloved wife called me a “fucking loser”!
I’m stoked to see this documentary when the deal is finally done and Warner Bros Discovery manages to get their shit together and reveal it to the world. I think this would be one of those occasions where I would be blubbering like a fool watching it… that is if I wasn’t such an Alpha who was born without tear ducts.
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