Summary
Keanu Reeves’Constantine 2received a new update after several bouts of uncertainty plaguing theDCproject. There was also a teaser on the potential rating and content for the purported sequel.
Constantineoriginated fromDC’s Vertigo imprint and headlined a decades-long solo run titledHellblazerafter making his debut in another Vertigo title. 2005 saw a big-screen adaptation starring Keanu Reeves in the leading role of John Constantine, a confident man and petty dabbler in the dark arts. The supernatural horror-tinged film was met with mixed reviews from critics but quickly garnered a cult following amongst viewers and tripled its production budget at the box office. For his part, Reeves seemed to enjoy the experience and expressed thathe would love to star in aConstantinesequel.
Now, for the first time sinceReeves was attached to aConstantinesequelannounced by Warner Bros, fans are getting a major update on the state of affairs of the sequel, and it’s good news. Speaking toGameSpotabout the sequel, filmmaker Francis Lawrence offered insight into the movie’s progress. His comments also explained whyConstantine 2has been taking so long.
So Constantine 2 obviously got held up by the writers strike. And we had to jump through a bunch of hurdles to get control of the character again, because other people had control of the Vertigo stuff. We have control. Keanu and Akiva Goldsman and I have been in meetings and have been hashing out what we think the story is going to be, and there’s more meetings of those that have to happen–the script has to be written–but really hoping that we get to do Constantine 2, and make a real rated R version of it.
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The idea of an R-rated comic book movie is in vogue, most recently withMarvel edging towards an R-rating forDaredevil: Born Again. Lawrence previously discussed his ideal rating and lamented the 2005 project, which was intentionally held back from embracing the Mature rating. “One of the biggest things for me about the first one was we followed, per Warner Bros., the rules to make a PG-13 movie in terms of violence, blood, language, sexuality. But the rating board gave us a hard R based on their gray zone of intensity,” Lawrence toldThe Wraplast November. “And my big, big regret was that we have an R-rated movie that’s really a PG-13 movie. And if I was going to have to go have an R, I would have really made an R-rated movie. I would have made it much scarier and much more violent and I would have really made an R-rated movie.”
In light of the incoming reboot to the cinematic universe, some might be wonderingwhat Reeves' Constantine can bring to the new DCU. However, the answer to the question is irrelevant, as the Elseworld label would be the perfect place for the dark magician to cast his spell on a new audience without dragging the entire slate of new heroes down into his dark, morally grey world.
Constantineis currently available for streaming on Max.
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