By Michael Fleming

NEW YORK (Variety) - Keanu Reeves is in final talks to star in a remake of the 1968 film ``Sweet November,'' making it his first love story since 1995's ``A Walk in the Clouds.''

The original ``Sweet November'' film starred Anthony Newley as a Gotham-based tycoon who falls for a girl (Sandy Dennis) who insists on taking a new lover each month because she is dying. Robert Ellis-Miller directed.

The Warner Bros. update will be directed by Pat O'Connor (``Circle of Friends''), with production to begin Feb. 28. It will be the next film for Reeves, who's expected to be paid his going rate of a $15 million advance against 15% of the box office gross.

Reeves has been sweet on ``Sweet November'' since the summer, and has agreed to make it one of two films he will star in before starting a 250-day shoot with Larry and Andy Wachowski on two sequels to ``The Matrix'' in the winter of 2001.

Reeves hasn't yet solidified the project he'll do following ``Sweet November,'' but one candidate is ``Fishing for Moonlight,'' the true story of a stockbroker who risks life and career to liberate a Russian woman enslaved in prostitution, falling in love with her in the process.

Reeves will next be in theaters costarring with Gene Hackman in the WB comedy ``The Replacements,'' which has an August 2000 release date.

Best known for 1995's ``Circle of Friends,'' Irish-born, London resident O'Connor has also directed ``Dancing at Lughnasa'' and ''Inventing the Abbotts.''

By Michael Fleming

NEW YORK (Variety) - Keanu Reeves is attached to star in "Fishing for Moonlight" for the two studios behind his summer hit picture "The Matrix."

The film is based on the true story of a stockbroker whose life is destroyed when he frees a prostitute from the Russian mafia. It is being produced by Warner Bros. and Australia's Village Roadshow Pictures, which have a joint venture deal.

After a finished script is turned in, the producers are hoping to ready the film for Reeves before he leaves for Australia next fall to shoot back-to-back sequels to "The Matrix."

After Reeves signed a deal that will pay him a $30 million advance against 15% of the gross for the two "Matrix" sequels, the actor hoped to squeeze in a film or two before beginning a 250-day production schedule next fall with "Matrix" writer/directors Larry and Andy Wachowski.

Reeves, who just finished the WB gridiron comedy "The Replacements," has been sweet on the studio's remake of the 1968 romance "Sweet November." If the "Moonlight" script passes muster, Reeves will likely do both before flying to Sydney.

"Fishing for Moonlight" is based on an article Daniel Jeffreys wrote for London's Times newspaper about a stockbroker who visits a brothel boasting Russian beauties, and finds himself in a room with a young immigrant who is clearly terrified. The stockbroker decides to save the girl.

Reuters/Variety