"Constantine 2" is coming and Keanu Reeves is at it again!
Finally, "Constantine", the dark genre mix of horror, film noir and superhero, gets a well-deserved sequel. We can thank one person in particular for that: Keanu Reeves.
Who knows how many studio bosses the now 58-year-old Keanu Reeves had to exorcise to finally get the green light. But good things come to those who wait: 17 years after "Constantine", Reeves' big heart project about exorcist John Constantine is finally getting a sequel, as the online magazine Deadline reports.
The Canadian-Lebanese megastar, who has been trying for years to convince film studio Warner Bros. to make a sequel - and has since himself hoped not - will once again star in it.
Start, script and director
No story details have been announced yet. What is already known, however, is that Warner Bros. can once again count on director Francis Lawrence, who, in addition to "Constantine", is best known for "The Hunger Games" films and "I Am Legend". The sequel will be written and co-produced by "A Beautiful Mind" and "Star Trek: Picard" author Akiva Goldsman as well as "Star Trek" and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" director J. J. Abrams.
However, fans will have to be patient until a first trailer is released - let alone the film starts in cinemas. Director Lawrence is currently in the middle of shooting "The Hunger Games" prequel "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes". Reeves, on the other hand, is likely to do "John Wick: Chapter 5" first before returning to his favourite character. Accordingly, filming is likely to start next year at the earliest, if not in 2024.
From flop to cult film
"Constantine" was released in 2005. The film only loosely used the character and story from DC's rather unknown "Hellblazer" comics from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Hardly anyone was bothered by the fact that a dark-haired Kannadian, of all people, played John Constantine, the detective and exorcist portrayed in the comics as actually British, blond and bisexual. Nevertheless, "Constantine" did not become the box office hit it had hoped for, with a worldwide box office of just 231 million dollars.
Although ripped by critics, the film gradually found its fans: dripping with provocative humour and cynicism, it's bitterly wicked, sarcastic, bold in its leisurely detective-story narrative pace and spot-on in its short action passages. There's even an anti-smoking campaign hidden in there. In fact, good word-of-mouth helped "Constantine" become a cult classic in the years that followed. Fans had long been calling for a sequel. So did Keanu Reeves. Their wish is finally being granted.
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I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.
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