After reviving The Matrix last year, Warner Bros. is bringing back yet another Keanu Reeves property. The studio is developing a sequel to 2005’s ‘Constantine’ , the film based on the supernatural DC property, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
The project is to reunite Reeves with director Francis Lawrence, who helmed the original. This time around, veteran scribe Akiva Goldsman will write the script.
Goldsman will also produce via Weed Road Pictures, with J.J. Abrams producing via Bad Robot with Hannah Minghella. Deadline first reported the news.
Abrams has been developing a Constantine series for HBO Max; however, it will not be moving forward there. It’s possible it could find life elsewhere. The same is true of Madame X, another Abrams-produced DC project that will no longer have a home on HBO Max.
Under the newly merged company Warner Bros. Discovery, there has been a shift in strategy, with an emphasis on theatrical projects for DC characters.
There has also been cost-cutting, with the pricey Abrams-produced Demimonde also not moving forward at HBO earlier in the summer.
The news comes as Abrams and collaborators have been shopping around the animated Batman: Caped Crusader, a series developed for HBO Max that is no longer heading to the service.
Constantine earned $230 million globally, and the character has been kept alive in the public consciousness.
After Reeves’ iteration of the anti-hero, who in DC lore is an occult detective, the Matt Ryan played John Constantine in an NBC series, and later on The CW’s Legends of Tomorrow.
In the years since the first Constantine film, Reeves’ star power has only risen, with the actor juggling multiple franchises, including John Wick. The fourth installment bows in March.
Lawrence, meanwhile, has a packed schedule. He is currently filming the Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and is also attached to direct the Netflix video game adaptation Bioshock.
Reeves is repped by WME, Sugar23 and Ziffren Brittenham. Lawrence is repped by CAA, 3 Arts and Hansen Jacobsen.
Related Post: John Constantine also turned black? New ‘Constantine’ series will officially start filming next year.
