The first in our series of coverage: We're on the scene with Keanu Reeves, the crew of Batman Begins, and lots of crazy folks in costume.
Southern California is primarily known for that town called Hollywood, but once a year another So Cal city becomes just as prominent--San Diego, home of the yearly Comic Con, the world's largest gathering of comic book, sci-fi and fantasy fans and professionals. Hollywood.com was on the scene at the 2004 event July 22-25, and has the inside scoop on all of the most anticipated genre films of the upcoming year.
Constantine
Talk about a mixed blessing: Comic Con attendees were off the grid over the fact that Neo himself, Keanu Reeves, had unplugged from the Matrix long enough to appear in San Diego to promote his latest movie, in which he plays occult investigator John Constantine from the horror comic "Hellblazer."
Until, that is, their enthusiasm was dulled by Warner Bros's mystifying decision to screen 18 full minutes of Constantine with clips taken out of context from throughout the movie. Rather than whet the appetite, this lengthy presentation just left puzzled fans struggling to string together the various bits and pieces they were shown and make sense of exactly what the Hellblazer was going on as Constantine battles both demonic invaders and an even more invasive enemy: cancer.
Reeves' genial, aw-shucks appearance definitely helped the crowd decide not to tell the Constantine team to, well, go to Hell. Although always a bit shy when appearing before a large crowd, Reeves remained gracious even when the silliest non-Constantine questions were asked: yes, Point Break was one of his favorites of his own films, he admitted, even reciting some of his favorite dialogue; he'd love to do a big screen adaptation of a Shakespeare play (even Keanu may have forgotten he was in Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing); and he gave an emphatic "NO!" when asked if he'd ever appear in a Speed 3.
Reeves was at his most winning when a young lady in the audience told him she'd been a fan of the actors for "one year and three
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| "Whoa!" |
months"--since the day she first saw The Matrix Reloaded--and offered him an early birthday gift (Reeves turns 40 on Sept. 2). Despite earlier admonitions from the event organizers, Reeves hopped down from the stage and accepted the present, exchanging it for a big hug that nearly left the fan in a delirious puddle on the floor. At first he said he'd open the gift on the actual day, but gave in to temptation and peeked in the bag: the fan knew her idol pretty well--she gave him a book on metaphysics which he admitted he'd already read.
To its credit, despite the disjointed presentation, the film appears to deliver on the dark, ghoulish mood of the comic book series. It serves up some genuinely scary and disturbing imagery, and offers the talented and always comely Rachel Weisz as Constantine's love interest.
Reeves' casting is perplexing at first glance: The comic book character is wry, sardonic, fatalistic, chain-smoking, disheveled, blonde and veddy, veddy British (creators Alan Moore, Steve Bissette and John Totleben based his look on '80s-era Sting). Fans expressed concerns that, though beloved for his techno/kung fu turn in the Matrix trilogy, Reeves was a casting choice that seemed definitely from another realm.
Director Francis Lawrence assured them that Reeves' Americanized portrayal (in a story based on material from the comics runs of writers Jamie Delano and Garth Ennis) remained true to the essence of the character, if not to the tiny details.
(We're pretty sure Reeves will not utter the word "Whoa!" in this film, at least.)