Keanu Reeves Keen on Constantine

By James Wray Feb 1, 2005, 8:17 GMT

Reeves told IESB: "My contract didn't have a second film in it.  But myself and some of the producers and Francis Lawrence fell in love with the guy.  I fell in love with the guy.  I had one of the best times I've ever had working on this project.  So we would talk about 'What could we do? What happens to Constantine?'  You know, we'd think, 'He's a heroin addict in Morocco, and he's got this spell, and he's killing people, but he's trying not to kill people, so he keeps knocking himself out.  Then [producer] Akiva Goldsman was like, 'No!  He wants to stop Revelations."

"We'd do these kinds of things.  Ultimately, it's up to the audience.  That would mean that the studio would have the resources to go forward with it.  I would love to play Constantine again as long as I worked with the same people, definitely Francis Lawrence and Akiva Goldsman, and everyone involved in this project because I could not imagine doing this without them."

John Constantine has been to hell and back.

Born with a gift he didn’t want, the ability to clearly recognize the half-breed angels and demons that walk the earth in human skin, Constantine (KEANU REEVES) was driven to take his own life to escape the tormenting clarity of his vision. But he failed. Resuscitated against his will, he found himself cast back into the land of the living. Now, marked as an attempted suicide with a temporary lease on life, he patrols the earthly border between heaven and hell, hoping in vain to earn his way to salvation by sending the devil’s foot soldiers back to the depths.

But Constantine is no saint. Disillusioned by the world around him and at odds with the one beyond, he’s a hard-drinking, hard-living bitter hero who scorns the very idea of heroism. Constantine will fight to save your soul but he doesn’t want your admiration or your thanks – and certainly not your sympathy.

The film opens February 18.