Comic-Con 2004 Coverage(Part 2)

COMIC-CON: Keanu Reeves shows us CONSTANTINE (Part Two) Our second report from the Comic-Con panel

[Editor's note: If you missed part one of our coverage of the CONSTANTINE panel, click here!]

When a bearded Keanu Reeves walked out on the stage last Friday at the San Diego Comic Convention panel for CONSTANTINE, a wave of thunderous applause greeted him. Thousands were in the audience to see Reeves, his CONSTANTINE co-star Djimon Hounsou, director Francis Lawrence and Vertigo group editor Karen Berger talk about the new movie based on the HELLRAISER horror comic book series. While he appeared to be a little sunburnt on the face, Reeves looked quite happy to be there to talk about his new movie.

Created by SWAMP THING writer Alan Moore more than two decades ago, the comic character of John Constantine is a true rogue, the occult world's equivalent of Han Solo. Draped in a trenchcoat and a chain smoker, the British Constantine from comics was first designed to mirror the lead singer of one of the world's biggest bands at the time: the blonde-haired lead singer of the Police, Sting. Eventually the character was spun off into his own monthly book, HELLBLAZER, which has just celebrated its two hundredth issue. As a man, Constantine can prove to be just as deadly to his friends and relatives as the demons and hellborne adversaries he constantly faces. Nevertheless, it's his humanity to try and do the right thing -- no matter what the consequences may be -- that make John Constantine one of the more fascinating characters in comics today.

When asked by someone in the crowd what attracted him to play a character like Constantine, Reeves said that he likes characters that are "trying for redemption, trying to be better. I'm not doing that well on it personally, but I got together with Francis and hopefully we made a good picture.

"It's one of the best experiences I've ever had in making a film・I really like the character."

While it's quite apparent that the movie version of the magician won't sport golden locks or a British accent, director Lawrence said that they strived not depart from what works in the book. "[We] really stayed true to who Constantine is," said Lawrence. "He's a con man. He's a magician." Lawrence did explain that they had to change the film's title to avoid any confusion with Clive Barker's HELLRAISER series of films, but apart from that factoid and the decision to Americanize Constantine and his home turf, there are no other differences that he can think of.

Reeves added that he worked closely with the film's director and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman to get, as he puts it, the comic's "Constantinian Constantine" transported into the world of film. "He's not quite happy with the way the world works, and I can relate."

Vertigo group editor Karen Berger was there to witness the birth of the character when she edited SWAMP THING back when Moore wrote the title, so she's probably the most qualified person in the room to pass judgement on the cinematic version of Constantine. Berger told the crowd that she had just seen the movie on the Warner Brothers lot a few days ago, and she had already formed an opinion about it. "It really felt like HELLBLAZER," Berger said to the audience. "It really looked like a Vertigo world. The movie feels right."

Djimon Hounson, who plays Constantine ally Papa Midnite, also felt that the look of the movie was a big selling point for him. Said the actor, "The visual reality of CONSTANTINE hit home for me personally being as I came from a world that knows voodoo."

Even though a whopping 18 minutes of footage from the movie was shown, nobody wanted to talk in detail about what the film's storyline was, although it did come out that the picture incorporates story elements from HELLBLAZER writers Garth Ennis and Jamie Delano's runs on the book.

Finally, the question arose as to just how hardcore a CONSTANTINE movie could be without receiving a hard R-rating. While Francis Lawrence ducked around addressing whether they intended to make a movie with a PG-13 or higher rating, he did say that the movie was in the process of receiving its rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. Lawrence said that he wanted the film to be scary and intense, and he thinks they have succeeded. "I think the tone is dead-on for the comic," Lawrence finished saying.

CONSTANTINE is scheduled to open February 11, 2005.

Comic-Con 2004 Coverage(Part 1)

COMIC-CON: Keanu Reeves shows us CONSTANTINE (Part One) Today Warner Bros. held a special panel at the San Diego Comic Convention to promote their upcoming horror film CONSTANTINE...

By: PATRICK SAURIOL AND DEN SHEWMAN
By: Joint Task Force from Hell

Today Warner Bros. held a special panel at the San Diego Comic Convention to promote their upcoming horror film CONSTANTINE. The film's leading man, Keanu Reeves (John Constantine), as well as co-star Djimon Hounson (Papa Midnite) were in attendance to present footage from the film, discuss the movie and answer questions from the audience.

A special reel of footagee from the film, including the recently released trailer, was shown to the crowd. In total the material screened ran for 18 minutes and showed a number of scenes from what appears to be just the first half of the film. While what was shown was still in a rough form (some places used temporary special effects), the material screened suggested that CONSTANTINE will be a dark horror film, and that director Francis Lawrence's strong visual style will, at the very least, make for some intriguing imagery.

Please note that, since this report describes the footage shown in CONSTANTINE, including describing certain scenes from the movie, a spoiler warning must be issued. Decide for yourself if you want to read further or not!

Seemingly
No, it's not a down-on-his-luck Neo, it's Keanu Reeves as CONSTANTINE. © Warner Bros. to address the controversial decision to make the John Constantine character in the film a dark-haired American as opposed to the blonde Brit he is in the comic series, the movie footage began with a shot of Constantine smoking. (The character is a chain smoker in the comics as well as in the film.) In fact, there were at least six shots of Constantine lighting a cigarette in the footage shown at San Diego.

Next came a scene set in a place that appeared to be an urban wasteland, where a man finds a peculiar object wrapped in a Nazi flag. The man unwraps the flag surrounding the object which appears to be a metal spearhead of some kind. Upon doing so, the man suddenly looks like he's possessed. He starts walking away, crosses a road and a car slams directly into him. Surprisingly, the automobile is totaled but we don't see if the mystery man suffered any wounds from the accident.

Next: Constantine is in his apartment's bathroom. He spits up blood into the sink. Black sigil-type tattoos cover both of his arms.

Then we're in a doctor's office or a hospital. A medical doctor tells Constantine he has lung cancer. It's terminal. True to his form, Constantine lights up after seeing his lung x-rays.

Next: We're inside a nondescript room. Some sort of religious relic hunter is trying to sell different items to Constantine: stones from the road to Damascus, a "screeching beetle," something called "dragon's breath" that Constantine thought this guy couldn't get. The man tells Constantine "I know a guy who knows a guy" ・Constantine holds out a metal sceptre rod/tube thing and flame shoots out of it.

Then we're introduced to Angela Dobson (Rachel Weisz), a cop that's investigating the suicide of her twin sister, Isabel. In Angela's apartment she looks up John Constantine in the police database ・his arrest record, mug shots, newspaper articles about occult occurrences on the rise. As she contemplates the information, one by one, all the phones in her apartment start ringing.

Intersperced with the footage showing Angela's research, we see Constantine performing an exorcism on a possessed girl tied to a bed. As he starts the ritual the girl is thrashing about, but shortly her body goes limp. Constantine thinks he's gotten rid of demon, but as he looks closer at the girl suddenly a toothy demon face lunges out of her throat at him.

Next scene: Constantine is on street (maybe in front of the hospital?) in the rain. A big guy in shadow approaches him and asks, "Hey, buddy, you got a light?" When Constantine looks closer, the "man" turns out to be a hulking creature made out of bugs. This may be a nod to Mnemoth, an insect demon seen in Jamie Delano's run on the HELLBLAZER comic.

Next: Enter Djimon Hounsou as Papa Midnite in his pink fur-collared '70s pimp coat. He's with Constantine, maybe in Midnite's office. Constantine is worried that demons are coming into our world. Midnite says that they can use us as puppets, not doorways: "Demons stay in Hell, angels in Heaven. The great detante of the original superpowers."

In the next scene we're treated to our first look at the character of Gabriel (played by Tilda Swinton, who doesn't look as androgynous as expected.) Constantine comes across as a little whiny here, which is somewhat out of character from his comic book persona; the occultist asks the angel in human disguise what he did to get cancer. Gabriel says it's because he's smoked 30 cigarettes a day for X number of year, then she adds here final thought on his chances: "You're fucked."

Now we're back in Angela's apartment. As she prepares to leave Constantine alone and go out, we see him hold a cat's head steady between his hands, staring directly into its eyes. For a moment you're not sure if he's going to snap the cat's neck. Constantine says, "God, I hate this part."

Constantine travels to Hell by looking in the cat's eyes.

Hell

John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) wanders Hell looking for someone in a scene from CONSTANTINE. is most stylized part of the footage, all red with high winds, burned-out cars and a post-apocalyptic landscape. Out of the shadows come some creepy half-headed demons with spindly legs that crawl about on all fours. They begin coming after Constantine who's come to Hell to look for Angela's dead sister, Isabel (also played by Weisz.)

Constantine finds Isabel. She has bandages around each of her wrists. The bandages start to come off in the high wind. As the demons start to close in Constantine climbs on top of a rock, reaches up and grabs the bandage from Isabel's wrist --

-- and he's back in the room just as Angela shuts the door.

A cool scene on the street follows next, with Constantine and Angela exchanging dialogue, then a huge swarm of flying demons attack them. Constantine wraps Isabel's suicide bandage around his hand (maybe doing something else, like lighting it on fire or whatever), and a blast of light emerges from his hand. The demons are shredded into bits and glowing embers.

Next: inside an office building, Angela and Constantine talk. Something grabs her and yanks the police officer backwards through the walls, crashing through offices and cubicles. There's a long tracking shot cutting horizontally across the walls and partitions of that floor as Weisz gets pulled/plows though all obstacles. Constantine gives chase. It ends with the big pull-back shot from the trailer where Constantine is framed in the hole in the outside of the building; he's at the edge and can't pursue any further, as the camera pulls back and above into the night. Angela's gone.

The holy shotgun is not seen much at all, just in Constantine's hand a couple times. Not as cool looking as one had hoped, it looks like something left over from the production of VAN HELSING.

We're then treated to a scene showing Constantine and Midnite in a room full of Midnite's collection of magical artifacts. Constantine sits in electric chair from Sing Sing (Papa says something like "Over 200 men died in that chair.") Constantine takes off his shoes and socks and then Midnite splashes vodka on floor around Constantine's feet. Constantine pulls his feet up ("It's cold"), takes a drag off bottle, then Papa lights the vodka on fire.

Next came a short but sweet scene. Constantine is inside a large room (an office building? Looks like florescent lights) full of vaguely menacing twentysomethings glaring at him. The fire sprinklers come on and, disturbingly, the water starts eating away at the workers' faces. The girl in front asks him, "Holy water?" as they dissolve.

Last sequence: a flashback showing Constantine as a young boy on a bus. Reeves provides a voiceover talking about how he's always been able to see strange things others cannot. Kid Constantine is staring at an old woman on the bus a few seats up. She turns around to look at him and her face morphs into a demonic visage. The young Constantine is taken aback, and when he looks again the old woman is gone -- because she's now behind him.

End of footage.

Next: in part two of our coverage of the CONSTANTINE movie panel we'll tell you what was said when the lights came back up. Look for quotes from Keanu Reeves, Djimon Hounsou and Vertigo group editor Karen Berger about the film.

Got a scoop? Know something that you need to tell us about? Send it to us!

CONSTANTINE MOVIE PANEL

SAN DIEGO -- DC Comics' "other" movie took the spotlight at Comic-Con International last weekend.

Warner Bros. presented a 17-minute montage of clips from Constantine and then stars Keanu Reeves and Dijmon Hounsou, director Francis Lawrence and DC/Vertigo Karen Berger fielded questions from the audience.

Below is an edited transcription of the question-and-answer session.

Question: How do you deal with your status as a celebrity and does it affect your roles?

Reeves: I don't think of my status as a celebrity. I'm just trying to make good films and act and have a career. In terms of the reluctant hero or anything like that, they're great roles to play and theyｹre roles that oftentimes speak about ... I don't know ... trying to do good things in life, trying to be better, redemption. I'm not doing so well with that personally, but I got to work with Francis and hopefully we did a good picture.

Question: Can you talk about your process as an actor and preparing for the role?

Reeves: I had the great fortune of working with some really great collaborators. Francis allowed me to work with him and kind of form the script, and he's a really good jist of what Constantine is, that kind of hard-boiled guy. His humor. I got work with the writer Akiva Goldsman. That allowed me to really have input and try to get that Constantinian Constantine, you know. That hard-boiled, (in character), "It's the sulfur."

And the character itself is so beautiful. I mean it's a wonderful role for an actor. There's a lot to do. He's a guy who's been dealing with issues of heaven and hell and the kind of rule of the way life and the world works. And he's not quite happy with the way the world works. And I could relate.

Question: For Keanu, why didn't you bleach your hair for the role?

Reeves: Or have an English accent? Francis?

Lawrence: I think what was key to this character is the heart of the character, not the sort of the surface issues. We get asked a lot about why he's an American and why it's not set in London. And this movie is an adaptation and what we did is really stay true to who Constantine is. He's a magician, he's a con man, that he is world weary, he is haunted by his past, he is sarcastic, that he's self-serving, that he's manipulative, he's elusive. And that, for me, to this movie means a great deal.

Some of the choices were custom-fit for the actor and for what I felt fit best for the look and the feel of the film.

Question: How do you get ready for physical roles, like this and The Matrix?

Reeves: Train. I mean, I just really enjoy it. I like the physical aspects. But, yeah, just training.

Question: What was the best part about Constantine?

Reeves: Going to hell and back? This was one of the best experiences I've ever had in making a film. It was because of the role itself and the people I got to collaborate with. It was just a great experience: the crew that I worked with, the script that I got, the character that I played, the actors that I got to work with ... all-around, just a great experience. I really like the character. I like John Constantine. I like him.

Question: You deal with the Spear of Destiny. Do you dig into the Christian lore?

Lawrence: Very deeply, actually. The Spear is actually through-line that goes all the way through the film. So you learn about the legend of the spear, some of the tales, some new things, as well, things only Constantine would know.

Question: How do you feel about the green-screen work?

Reeves: The thing I liked about it is that you do have a sense, a kind of control in it. But at the same time, you miss the interplay, you miss the surprise, you miss the other kind of interaction. But it's also fun in the same way, too, because it's an element of make-believe. But if you too much of it, oh my God, it's a nightmare. But I love it. It's fun.

Lawrence: One of the key things for me in working with green screen is really making sure you can help the actor create the world that's around them, so they really know what's around them. If there's wind, you can have wind. If there's dust, you can have that. Any of the elements you can add really help create things, and point out very specifically what's going to be in the environment around them. And having long discussions about it and pre-visualizations so you can show the actor action sequences and they can know what's going to be happening that way as well.

Question: Is the film going to PG-13 or is that still being decided?

Lawrence: It's still being decided. We'll submit the film and see what the MPAA thinks. I sort of, in a weird way, feel like we've gotten away with something with this movie. I don't think we've held back at all. The movie's scary, the movie's intense and I think the tone is dead-on to the comic. So feel very good about it. For a big-budget movie, this isn't pop. We're dead-on.

Question: Karen, how do you feel about how far this film has come?

Berger: It's pretty incredible. I saw a rough-cut of the film a few days ago at Warner Bros. and I was really impressed with how close the film stuck to the spirit of the comic, how it really felt like Hellblazer and how it felt like a Vertigo book. Smart, edgy and it's weird. The cinematography was wonderful, and the special effects are great. And it really pulls from the great source material of the comic. It really pulls from the right stuff.

Question: Will you be working with Andy and Larry Wachowski again?

Reeves: I hope so. I really hope so. I love those guys to death. I just think they're wonderful people and such great artists.

Question: Dijmon, congratulations on In America.

Hounsou: Thanks ... selling Constantine here (laughs). Constantine hit home for me personally, the fact that I came from a world that knows about voodoo in Africa and so forth. This is the visual reality of that world, a Western point of view the occult world.

Question: Why the title change? Were there other changes?

Lawrence: The title was changed originally because nobody wanted the title to be connected to Hellraiser at all. It was a little too similar and nobody wanted any confusion.

I don't think there are differences that I can think of off the top of my head. Again, I think it's really close to the spirit of Constantine and the Hellblazer stories. He's a tad younger than the comic, and I think that's about it. We didn't pull an exact story from the comic book. We kind of pulled pieces from different stories and made our own, so it's not an exact replica of one of the graphic novels, although there are definite pieces.

Reeves Talks Constantine

Keanu Reeves—who stars in the upcoming Constantine, a film based on Vertigo Comics' Hellblazer series—told SCI FI Wire that the movie deals with redemption in a world that's not always a great place. "He's fighting for his life," Reeves said of his character, John Constantine, in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego over the weekend. "Constantine committed suicide to get out of here. He can see things and has knowledge about how the world works that is distressing to him. He committed suicide. Now he's trying to find his way into heaven and the Lord's grace, and I think that's symbolic of him trying to find ... a better life. It's a struggle with his own nature, because he's not the nicest guy all the time, which is fun."

Reeves plays supernatural detective Constantine, who has had to strike deals with demons in his work and now faces death due to lung cancer, with hell lapping at his feet. Reeves, who plays the blond British comic character as a brunet American, added, "I really love the guy. I love his anger, and I loved his wry sense of humor about the awfulness of the world and having to deal with [it] day in and day out, and what that's kind of turned him into. [Co-star] Djimon [Hounsou's] playing Midnite [a witch doctor], and we're like warriors in this world of s--t, just trying to deal with it. And I like that." Constantine, directed by Francis Lawrence and co-starring Rachel Weisz, is slated for release in February 2005.

INTERVIEW: COMIC-CON 2004: Keanu Reeves, Djiimon Hounsou, and director Francis Lawerence talk Constantine!

Sunday, July 25th, 2004

On Friday morning, I got a chance to sit down with some of the crew members from this year's hotly anticipated Hellblazer adaptation. In attendance where Keanu Reeves, Djiimon Hounsou, and director Francis Lawrence...

(Go to the bottom for a Movieweb exclusive about the fate of Bill & Ted...)

Q: How far along is the movie?

Francis Lawrence: We're still working on it in post. We're pretty far along. We've tested it a couple of times, and it's tested really well. We still have a lot of effects work to do. And we haven't hired a composer yet, we're still working on that. But, it's in really good shape.

Q: How many effects shots are there?

Francis: I don't even know the final count right now. I think it's around 420 shots of CGI. It's coming together really well and it's getting a great response. Which is really exciting for me. It's a unique movie, and it's really different. And I think people are really responding to that. That's very exciting to see. That people are feeling it, and are with it. And that they get it. You try to do something different, and you always worry that people might not understand it. But I think they really do. And I think they really connect.

Q: Keanu, have you seen it? And how do you feel about it?

Keanu: I've seen some shorts cut together before events like this. And it looks really beautiful. I think it was shot really beautifully. I think the crux is the camera angles. It gets you inside a scene, and lets you come out of a scene. It feels very fresh. And yet, we really connected to the storytelling on it. It's not just a bunch of quick cuts. There's something very fresh about it.

Q: How does it compare to the comic?

Keanu: I'm probably not the best judge of that.

Francis: He hasn't seen that much of it.

Q: What was your approach to the character? How did you make it different?

Keanu: Well, I ditched the accent. I can't really...I have to wait and see. I really loved the guy. I loved his anger. And I loved his rye sense of humor about the awfulness of the world. Having to deal with that day in and day out. I mean, Djiimon is playing Midnight. We're kind of like warriors. And we're in this world of shit. And just trying to deal with it. Really, I liked him.

Francis: It wasn't pleasant being around Keanu when he was liking Constantine so much.

Q: Did you stay in character?

Keanu: No.

Francis: Not that much, not that much...

Q: Do you have an idea about who you want to hire for the composer?

Francis: No, I don't have any idea yet.

Q: What kinds of effects are you working on?

Francis: We have lots of different kinds. We have rig removals. And dot removals. And stuff like that. That's the simplest kinds of stuff. You know, all the way to complete environments that we've built, character animation, and things like that. There are some creatures that we built in CG. We've got that. There's a whole world that you'll see today (at the panel), that we created mostly digitally. And then there's a lot of stuff in-between that.

Q: Is this the first time that you guys have been at Comic-Con?

Keanu: It's my second.

Djiimon: It's my first.

Q: What are you hoping to bring to it?

Djiimon: I have to say, my connection to the story has more to do with how ironic it is to my culture, coming from Africa, and knowing a lot about religion and the occult. And our view of the occult, and how it is seen in the Western world. It's just amazing to see the connection, and how real it is to me, and how it is like some of the stories I've heard back home. It's intriguing.

Q: What's it like being here?

Keanu: I think it's awesome. I mean, anything where there's great enthusiasm, and a place to come share what you think is cool. And you have this opportunity to come together and share whatever you're into. I mean, it's awesome.

Q: Keanu, did you ever read comics as a kid?

Keanu: I read a couple, yeah...I followed...What did I like? When I read Frank Miller, I was like, "Oh, my god! What is this?" Then when I saw Dark Knight, that series? Then when I went back to X-Men, and Frank Miller's Wolverine series, that was just awesome stuff to me. I collected some New Mutants, which came off of the X-Men. When I was a kid, it was Spider-Man. There were a couple of things. The whole idea of a graphic novel when I was a kid was just...Awesome.

Q: So, no Archie's...

Keanu: You know what? When you're in the bus, going to camp? Richie Rich...Remember Richie Rich, right?

Francis: I used to collect Richie Rich when I was a kid.

Keanu: Yeah, that's where I'd run into that.

Q: Francis, which books are you into?

Francis: I really liked Sin City a lot.

Q: Do you still read comics at all?

Francis: I do. Occasionally. I don't really collect. Nothing really comes to mind. I like Sin city a lot. Mostly for the art.

Q: Which specific story is Constantine based on?

Francis: Off of this one? It's Dangerous Habits. There's little pieces from different things. I mean, there's pieces from Original Sin. But the big through-line for this movie is Dangerous Habits. There are some definite pieces from it.

Q: Does this movie feel like a graphic novel?

Francis: No, my approach from the very beginning was to never shoot it like a comic book movie. I think that's been done before. I think it was done really well with Tim Burton's original Batman. From there, I don't think anybody has really topped that. Everyone has just built Gotham City again, whether or not it's called Gotham City or not. Everyone has done the dutched angles, and the bright colors, and made things super campy. What I wanted to do, and what I loved about the comics, is that it is rooted in reality, and rooted in real places. That's what I wanted to do. I wanted to make it feel real. And it seems to be working. That's what people seem to be responding to. It's not all hyper real. It's not super stylized. It's kind of rooted in a gritty reality.

Q: Are there elements of horror?

Francis: There are plenty of elements of horror in this. There are plenty of scares. It's creepy throughout. One of the things I'm really proud of is that it's not genre specific. It's not a supernatural thriller. It's not just a horror film. It's not four kids in a van going off and getting chopping up by an ax murderer. It's not just fantasy. It's a weird blend of all these things, and I think it works.

Q: Are you looking solely to please the fans of the comic?

Francis: Yeah, I mean, I think there's a mix. One is; Hellblazer has a very small fan base. But it has a very hardcore fan base. So I think we have to build awareness amongst people who may not be aware of Hellblazer, or aware that Constantine has something to do with Hellblazer. And the other thing is; a lot of the Hellblazer fans are hard core. They've been tough on the movie, and they've been tough on certain things. We want to show them that we have not made Van Helsing. You know? It's not a straight-up Pop movie. I believe that the heart of the character is in this movie.

Q: Keanu, why are you passionate about the character of Constantine?

Keanu: He is fighting for his life. When I was traveling here this morning, I asked, "So, when they ask us what this film is about..."

Francis: I told him not to say. That you guys have to see it. Honestly, if you look at Dangerous Habits, and you know it's based on that, it's sort of clear what the film is about.

Keanu: Constantine, you know...He committed suicide to get out of here. He can see things, and has knowledge about the way the world works that is distressing to him. And he's trying to figure a way out. And now he's committed suicide. And he's trying to find his way into Heaven, into the Lord's grace. He's trying to find his life. A better life. And he struggles with his own nature, because he's not the nicest guy all the time.

Q: How do you walk the line between what the fans want, and your own vision of the project?

Francis: Number one, I don't think we'll make everyone happy. There's no way to do it. When I first came on this movie, it was an interesting script. And it's really different. It has an interesting tone, a different tone. And it goes to weird places. The story. And that was really interesting to me. And it's got all these great layers. Just because it's not in England, that he doesn't speak with an English Accent, that he's not blonde...That's going to piss some people off. And they will never get over that. But I think the heart of the character is there. And I want to make sure that gets conveyed.

Q: To the actors; did you feel a certain pressure from the Internet Community?

Djiimon: More or less. You just have to forget about that and worry about the story. And where you are at. And hope that it does some justice.

Q: Can you tell us about your character for people who are not familiar with him?

Djiimon: Midnight...I can tell you that he is very Rico Suave. He's a rich doctor. With his back story, I think he's gone through so much with Constantine, and death is such a presence.

Keanu: He's sort of a mid-way person, between Heaven and Hell. He deals in icons. And he's a bit of a thief.

Djiimon: He's a businessman.

Francis: It's kind of nice, because there's a noir structure to the story. Midnight's introduced, and you know there's a history between the two. He's presented as somewhat scary. You don't know if these guys really trust each other, or if they really like each other.

Q: Why the name change?

Francis: Honestly, it's because of the movie Hellraiser. And when you say Hellblazer, they say, "Hellraiser? The movie with Pinhead?" I think that was the biggest thing.

Q: Do you think Hellblazer fans will be confused?

Francis: No. I think every single Hellblazer fan knows that this is a movie with John Constantine. I think they are all very aware.

Q: What about educating non-comic fans?

Keanu: That's why there's so much security here today.

Q: What is the soundtrack going to be like?

Francis: It's mostly score. There are going to be a few parts in the movie where there are some songs. There's two. They are in a nightclub. Someone turns on a stereo at some point. But the rest is score. It's dark. It's atmospheric.

Q: So, Keanu, no plans for your band to appear on the soundtrack?

Keanu: No.

Q: Are you aiming for a PG-13?

Francis: The studio would like it to be PG-13. I don't know where it's going to land. The movie's scary. I don't know where it's going to land just based on intensity.

Q: What would your preference be?

Francis: That it is left in whatever form it is now. So that when the MPAA sees it, hopefully they won't make me cut it. It's defiantly not an NC-17 movie. There's no graphic sex, there's no graphic violence. It's about fantastic creatures, and those kinds of things. There's no blood spurting everywhere. It's not a splatter movie in any way.

Q: How is the chemistry between you and Rachel Weisz?

Keanu: Lovely. Yeah, she's lovely. It was fun to work with her again, and see her again. We had a good time.

Q: Do you reference any other movies in Constantine?

Francis: Honestly, the reference...I'll give you a strange reference, and I don't know if you'll be able to connect it. The gritty sort of realism I was talking about, a lot in the beginning of the process, I was referencing the movie Training Day. Because we were shooting in LA. And it's this different side of LA that you don't normally see. It's a little more ethnic. It's a little more of a realistic LA. It's not just the landmarks of LA. I sort of took the colors of Training Day. The texture and the feeling of that. I actually worked with the production designer of that film. If you want a reference, it comes form that. The noir comes from the tone. From the character, and how Constantine interacts with people and deals with the world around him.

Q: Why did you choose to shoot in LA instead of England?

Francis: First of all, there are various pieces pulled from different Graphic Novels. Constantine, in my eyes, has always been universal. He's in London, he's in America, there are pieces that happen in Africa. It's not just a story that takes place in London. And LA is a classically noir city.

Q: Keanu, can you talk about the physicality of this character? He's dying, he's sick...

Keanu: Oh, it was really fun to play. It was a breaking down. The character, throughout the film, gets broken down...

Francis: Throughout the film, you got skinnier, and skinnier, and skinnier...

Keanu: No I didn't.

Francis: Yeah, you did. You got skinnier.

Keanu: Really?

Francis: And everyday, we tried really hard to shoot this in order. We literally met the Friday before we started shooting, and he gave us a lesson in lung cancer that you would not believe. About people drowning in their own blood. We had that.

Keanu: That was our Bon Voyage...

Q: Are you ever going to quit smoking.

Keanu: Well, I'm turning forty, so maybe after that...

And with that, or short discussion on the future of the could-be-a-hit film Constantine came to a close. I went over to Keanu and asked him a question I personally want to know...

Orange: Keanu, do you think you're ever going to work with Alex Winter again?

Keanu: I hope so. Yeah.

Orange: Do you know on anything particular?

Keanu: Um, not right now. I just saw him the other day. And I know he has some projects going. But as far as what we'll be doing, there's nothing specific set...

Orange: Okay, great. Thanks.

Keanu: Sure. See you later.

Empire at Comic-Con: Day 2

Empire at Comic-Con: Day 2
24 July 2004

Friday marked the day that the big studios really unleashed their annual onslaught on the San Diego Comic-Con. There was a Batman Begins presentation, with input from David Goyer and Cillian Murphy. There was a panel for The Incredibles, with director Brad Bird presenting footage of Pixar痴 latest masterpiece-in-waiting.

Goyer then showed up again, this time with the endlessly charming and frankly endlessly attractive Jessica Biel and Ryan Reynolds in tow, to plug Blade: Trinity, while Blade II director Guillermo Del Toro was around to present details of the Hellboy DVD.

So who would have guessed that one of the previously most-maligned comic book adaptations around would steal the show? For Keanu Reeves popped into San Diego yesterday to plug his latest flick, Constantine, in which he plays a world-weary and amoral mage who must thwart a demonic plan to destroy mankind・while trying to figure out a way to defeat his own terminal lung cancer.

So far the project has been much-maligned by fans of Hellblazer, the comic upon which the $100 million movie is based. Mainly because the title character, John Constantine, is British and blond. Reeves is neither of those things. On such small details can fanboys turn, the thinking being 'If they can't even get that right, there's no telling what damage can be caused'
Well, it was damage limitation time today, as Reeves, director Francis Lawrence and co-star Djimon Hounsou brought with them an astonishing 17 minutes of footage. And boy, did that damage limitation work.

The length of the montage of clips from the movie indicated a refreshing confidence in the movie and so it proved. When the lights had been brought back up in Hall H at the San Diego Conference Centre, the mood had changed from palpable scepticism to unalloyed optimism. Of course, we're yet to see the remaining hundred minutes or so, but right now Constantine's looking pretty damned good.

Without going too far into spoiler territory, the footage included: one of the best 'out of the blue' car accidents committed to film; Tilda Swinton as an androgynous Archangel Gabriel, sporting a lovely pair of wings; a fresh and feverish depiction of Hell, through which Constantine takes a small detour; several unnerving sudden demon attacks; an exorcism more terrifying than anything hinted at in the Exorcist: The Beginning trailer (which also played at the Warner Bros. presentation); and a fun sequence in which Constantine takes out a roomful of demons armed with a crucifix gun and a sprinkler system filled with holy water.

Yet this isn't simply The Matrixorcist. Yes, Reeves does get to do the action thing, but this is dark, brooding, deeply twisted and disturbed, visually stunning (and we're not talking wildly spinning cameras, as you might expect from a former music vid director, but a locked down camera and superb use of shadow, creating a sense of overwhelming menace) and most of all, very scary as Constantine is assailed from all sides by demons of all kinds. Imagine if David Lynch had directed Ghostbusters and you池e on the right track.

"We wanted to show the fans that we have not made Van Helsing," said Lawrence. "My approach from the beginning was never to treat it like a comic book movie. Everybody's done all the dutched angles and all the bright colours, and made things super-campy. There's plenty of elements of horror in this. There's plenty of scares. It's creepy throughout"At the heart of it all, though, was Reeves, whose gritty, SFW turn as the nihilistic Constantine (rapidly encroaching lung cancer and all, a storyline taken from Garth Ennis・run on Hellblazer) had the geeks eating out of the palm of his hand.

And, as if to reciprocate, the notoriously private and often prickly Reeves was personable and fun during the presentation (during which he was asked 90% of the questions), flashing a constantly bemused smile as his every word was greeted with shrieks and shouts.

At one point he even leapt down from the stage to receive a present from an endearingly eager fan, who declared that 'You are DA BOMB!' Luckily, it turned out to be an actual present and not a thinly veiled bomb threat.

"Anything where there's a great enthusiasm and where there's a coming together to share what you think is cool, I think it's awesome,・said Reeves of the Comic-Con experience, before expounding further on the appeal of Constantine.

"I ditched the accent," he laughed. "But I really loved the guy. I loved his anger. I loved his wry sense of humour about the awfulness of the world and what that's turned him into. He's like a warrior in this world of shit, and he's trying to deal with it.・

Constantine is released in the UK next February. For more details on the movie, check back next week. And yes, we are aware that our pic is from Matrix Revolutions...