Time has flown by and it's been almost three years since Christopher Reeve died on October 10, 2004. You might remember that his son Matthew had been filming a three-part documentary series about his famous father. The first, Christopher Reeve: Courageous Steps, aired on ABC back in 2002 and earned an Emmy nomination. The second part was completed and before the third chapter could be tackled, Mr. Reeve died. Now Variety is reporting that the first two parts of the series are going to be released on a DVD called Hope in Motion on November 6.

The disc is from Art Alliance America and the company's president, Joe Amodei, says: "It's incredibly inspirational. As much as many of us think we know this story, you see things here that you've never seen. I was always a fan of him as an actor and I followed his story, but I never knew after his accident that he could do things like raise his arms up and this film shows the progress he made by just continuing to fight against the odds."

I imagine it will be both inspiring and depressing as all hell. The footage details the life of Christopher and Dana post-accident, and includes interviews with him and his doctors, footage from the actor's rehabilitation sessions and his role as an advocate for stem-cell research. Obviously, that much will be inspiring -- the man had an insane amount of drive and determination. Unfortunately, there's the dark air to it -- his death as well as Dana's last year. Still, it's nice to see his fight live on. Part of the revenue will be donated to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, so hopefully the DVD does well.

First, the news we've all been waiting for, and by "we" I mean "hardcore Superman geeks." The long-awaited "Donner Cut" of the super-sequel will hit DVD on November 28th -- and it'll be surrounded by a ton of sparkly new Special Editions of Superman (1978), Superman 2 (1980), Superman 3 (1983), Supergirl (1984), Superman 4: The Quest for Peace (1987), and Superman Returns (2006).

I'll try to break this down as simply as possible. If you walk into a DVD shoppe on 11/28, you'll be greeted by:

• A 4-disc Special Edition of the original Superman, which contains both the theatrical and the 2001 extended cut, a new commentary with producers Ilya Salkind and Pierre Spengler, the 2001 commentary with Richard Donner and Tom Mankiewicz, three documentaries, some restored scenes, screen tests, archival materials, nine old-school Superman cartoons, and the 1951 feature Superman and the Mole-Men.

• A 2-disc Special Edition of the Superman 2 we already know and love, only now it comes with Salkind/Spengler commentary, two old TV specials, a Fleischer featurette, and more Super-cartoons.

• The single-disc Superman 2: The Richard Donner Cut, which comes with a new featurette entitled Restoring the Vision, a new Donner/Mankiewicz commentary, and (of course) the highly-anticipated retroactive facelift that the fans have been clamoring for.

The Superman Homepage fansite is currently running with an interesting little exclusive about the upcoming re-release of Superman 2 on DVD, part of the enormous Superman push we've been seeing (and will keep seeing) as a lead up/followup to the new Brandon Routh-styled Supes film. According to Superman Homepage, Warner Brothers had an interesting casting call a month back -- holding tryouts for Superman himself. They were rumored looking for a Christopher Reeve look-alike to add some additional footage to the classic film. Not a face double, however, just a body double; the added shots will only show our hero from a good distance.

I always get uneasy when I hear people are adding footage to a classic film. Sure, they often have good reasons, and sometimes maybe it even enhances the overall quality of the story -- but generally I like to leave things in their original, unaltered form. Am I alone here in thinking movies are best left unaltered once they've past a certain "classic" mark? Or am I just being a stodgy old Tevye type, shaking my fist and shouting "Tradition!"?