ABC will track actor's fight
By STEPHEN BATTAGLIO
Daily News Staff Writer
Actor Christopher Reeve has agreed to let the reality TV cameras roll for a series of three specials on ABC that will air over the next two years as he tries to overcome his spinal cord injury and walk again.
Sharing His Reality: Christopher Reeve, above at a May graduation ceremony, will be the subject of three ABC specials.
The specials, the first of which will air in the fall, will offer an intimate look at Reeve's daily struggle with the paralysis that resulted from a 1995 accident at an equestrian competition.
According to Bill Sinrich, president of the series' U.K.-based producer TWI, the hope is that a medical breakthrough for the treatment of Reeve's injury occurs during the filming.
If it does, the plan is to capture it on film for the series with as much access as Reeve's doctors would allow.
"Should he be able to take advantage of any therapies, the plan would be to document them," said Reeve's spokesman, Wes Combs. "It all depends on how science advances at this point."
Of course, that's a big if. As an activist for the research of spinal-cord injury treatment, Reeve famously vowed to walk again by his 50th birthday.
The actor who played "Superman" in the movies, turns 50 on Sept. 25, remains paralyzed from the neck down and breathes with a ventilator.
Reeve has become an outspoken supporter of stem cell research as a means of finding a treatment for spinal-cord injuries.
But Combs said the specials are not about advocating Reeve's cause. "I think this is a unique opportunity to educate people about what it means to be spinal- cord injured," Combs said.
The specials will involve Reeve's son, a film student at Brown University, who had been chronicling his father's daily life for the past 18 months with a digital video camera.
Matthew Reeve's mother, Gae Exton, brought the work to the attention of TWI, which sold the project to ABC. The first special will air in the fall.
Since his accident, Reeve's television appearances have been on news programs to discuss his condition. He did have one acting role in an ABC TV movie remake of the Alfred Hitchcock classic "Rear Window." He also directed the HBO film "In the Gloaming."
