“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” is an upcoming documentary about the life of the actor of the same name, who became known for his famous role as Superman in the 70s and 80s.
Instead of being released on a streaming service, however, the film will be released theatrically. As the directors point out, for many, their relationship with Reeve and Superman was forged on the big screen, and every document of Reeve’s life needed to be told with cinematic intent. It proved to be a vision supported by new DC bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran, who were “passionate about giving the film a cinematic life” when they saw the film shortly after its premiere at Sundance.
“This film can handle that. It can handle that scale and ambition because of the subject matter,” co-director Peter Ettedgui tells Total Film in our new issue, out Thursday 12 September, which features the penguin on the cover. “I remember when we first spoke to (composer) Ilan (Eshkeri) about the music and he had composed a very beautiful theme. But it was pretty and a bit more appropriate for a streaming release. We said, ‘Look, you have to go bigger. It has to have that…'”
“John Williams,” co-director Ian Bonhôte jumps in to finish the sentence.
“Ilan, who is more than capable, just rose to the challenge,” Ettedgui continues. “That’s the one thing we tried to do with everyone on the team. We said, ‘Look, let’s really take this to the next level. Let’s make it the maximum emotional experience we can create for an audience.'”
Total Film also has two exclusive images from the documentary – one of which shows Reeve building muscle above, and below is Reeve directing Glenn Close on the set of his 1997 film In the Gloaming.
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is out November 1st. And you can read more about it and much more in the new issue of Total Film when it hits shelves and digital newsstands on Thursday, September 12th.
Check out the covers below:
Subscribers will receive the exclusive text-free cover now, and the issue will hit stores and digital kiosks on Thursday, September 12th.
For more information, check out our guide to all upcoming DC movies and TV shows.
