Kiwi producer’s Superman doco that stunned Sundance set to make NZ debut

Sunday, 11 August 2024

Kiwi film producer Lizzie Gillett admits she can now never go back to Sundance.

However, it’s not because of bad behaviour, a public gaffe or awful accommodation, but rather, as a result of having such an incredible first experience at the annual Utah film festival, nothing could ever top it.

Capping an incredible past January, which also saw another of her projects – Amazonian rainforest documentary The Territory – pick up the Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, Gillett debuted the independently financed tale Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story to packed auditoriums and critical acclaim, before selling the film to Warner Bros. Discovery for around US$15m.

The film focuses on the beloved American actor’s career and the 1995 horse-riding accident that dramatically changed his life, and is screening as part of this year’s Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival. It also has an October nationwide general release date.

Gillet, the Dunedin-born, London-based head of documentary at Misfits Entertainment, whose other documentaries have included last year’s film festival hit Merkel and Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story, talked to Stuff to Watch recently via Zoom from her SoHo Square offices.

Congratulations on the film’s reception and success so far. How did you become involved in the project?

It was actually via a cold call on LinkedIn. A producer had a relationship with the Reeve family and found out they had all these tapes. I think they’d been approached quite a bit over the years, but were at the point, coming up to 20 years after Christopher’s death (the anniversary is on October 10 this year), that they were ready to tell their story. I think they thought, if it could be done with the right team, the right people … and we were able to put together this amazing team led by directors Ian (Bonhote) and Peter (Ettedgui).

In your eyes, what made them the right men for the job?

They had done McQueen (a 2018 documentary about UK fashion designer Alexander McQueen) and a 2020 documentary on the Paralympics, called Rising Phoenix. Between McQueen’s kind of epic, intimate, cinematic biopic feel and Phoenix’s subject matter, we kind of had what we wanted. That’s why it was the perfect evolution for Ian and Peter. I don’t want to blow their trumpet, because I work with them – and I’m always trying to keep their egos in check – but they just did the job from day one. The first cut they sent me, I think Mum (Shirley) was with me and she said, “this is the best thing you’ve ever done in your life”. I said, “what about my children?”

What were some of the biggest, specific challenges of shepherding this from idea to completed film?

One of the biggest was the amount of archive. The family had been filming everything and, in fact, Matthew, Christopher’s eldest son (from his near decade-long relationship with British modelling executive Gae Exton), had made documentaries back in the early 2000s about his father. So, I think, at one point, we had 125 tapes that were all some kind of old format that nobody uses any more. So we had a young researcher who had to watch all of this footage of family birthday parties and horse rides.

Then there was raising the initial money, which surprised all of us. Once we decided to work with the family and they agreed to work with us, we did a treatment and a sizzle (reel). We took it to 15 financiers over the course of a month – and they all passed on it. It was tough. We finally found one – a production company in New York (Words+Pictures) – and they financed the whole thing. But we still didn’t have a guarantee that it would sell. It’s actually quite terrifying – nobody had seen it until that Sundance premiere.

Wow, yes, talk me through that Sundance experience.

Sunday morning, 9am, a prestigious slot and there was a fight outside to get tickets. The theatre was just rammed with people – and lots of them were buyers. I thought, ‘Oh my god, this is make or break’. Pretty quickly people started crying and it crescendoed to a point where there was a lot of ugly man-crying. Communal therapy. And the very first comment in the Q&A afterwards was from someone who had a similar injury to Christopher, who said, “this is the first time I’ve seen my own experience reflected and this film is going to change the world”. Everybody was crying again. Then, up came the three Reeve kids who are so beautiful and so elegant and articulate.

Then we had a very exciting couple of days where we were privileged to have conversations with a lot of potential buyers about what was most important to the family – and important to us. The family had priorities about the legacy, the aesthetic, but, for us, it was about theatrical (distribution). We wanted to have a film that plays in a cinema, because we believe the cinema is the most inspiring and emotionally charged way to see this story. For us, Warners felt so committed and – straight-off – we knew they got it like we did.

So why do you think the film has struck a chord and elicited such an emotional response from those who have seen it so far?

There are lot of celebrity biopics and documentaries out there, but we feel this is an incredible story about family and love and legacy. I do think as well, as the big superhero franchise films have slightly faltered in recent times, people haven’t remembered that there was a time before superhero films were everywhere. I think part of the fun of our documentary, even though it’s emotional and quite heavy, is all the stuff about the making of the original Superman and how Robert Redford, Arnie Schwarzenegger and Neil Diamond were all either putting their hand up, or being considered for the role. Also, just remember how important that 1978 movie was, even the [then] head of Warners said “you’re never going to make any money” from a “comic-book movie”.

I also think people want heroes and to watch something that’s uplifting and inspiring. There are so many dark and serious, sad and very political docs – and I love them and I make them and they should be made, but as an audience, to have something that galvanising and speaks across the political aisle … He (Christopher) was one of the good guys, his wife (American actress and singer) Dana (who died of lung cancer in 2006) was just so amazing and to see a family that is all about love. I think people want that.

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story will make its New Zealand premiere at Wellington’s Embassy Theatre on Sunday, August 11, as part of this year’s Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival. It will also screen at Auckland’s Civic Theatre on August 18. For more information and session times, see nziff.co.nz. The film is also scheduled to return to select Kiwi cinemas nationwide on October 10.