It’s hard to imagine a world where the casting of Keanu Reeves would be met with criticism. But back in 2005 when Constantine came out, fans of the DC/Vertigo comic were less than pleased with two aspects of Reeves’ performance. The first was that he wasn’t going to be British and the second was that he would not be wearing the signature brown coat from the comics.
Fans seemed to get over it quickly however. Despite a mixed critical reception, Constantine went on to make more than $230 million off of a $100 million budget. Not spectacular, but respectable considering the movie was rated R, the landscape of comic book movies at the time and a February release. The movie obviously became a cult classic in the years since and Reeves, director Francis Lawrence and producer Akiva Goldsman came together for a reunion panel at today’s Comic-Con @ Home.
When talking about the look of the character, Lawrence remembers not even discussing whether they should stick to the comics.
“We never talked about it,” he said. “I remember in costumes too the one other sort of big change for the Constantine characters was the coat. And we did try the Constantine coat and ended up with the black one…We wanted to do what was right for what we were doing.”
News flash: what works in a comic doesn’t necessarily work in a movie. They’re two different mediums. That’s always my answer whenever someone complains about adaptations from comics or books.
Besides, how distracting would it have been to see Reeves with blonde hair and an accent? He may be a pro at doing his own stunts, but accents are not his thing. See: Dracula and The Devil’s Advocate. The choices the filmmakers ended up making were the right ones. Constantine is a very stylish movie with Reeves’ look resembling a mix between Mad Men and film noir.
There’s been rumors for years about a sequel, but Warner Bros. has always been gun shy about greenlighting it. However, there has been news recently of a reboot coming with J.J. Abrams producing as part of his new first-look deal with the studio. Reeves is also on board for returning so the chances of seeing it appear to be improving.
from We Got This Covered https://ift.tt/3g7x7hl
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