In the past couple of days Keanu Reeves has done an interview with
ComingSoon.net about Bill & Ted 3, I personally LOVE reading interviews with Reeves the man has such an insight into that world and is open to talk about it. He knows exactly how to give us fans what we want and need to hear. The interview is a longish read, but an enjoyable one if it is your thing.
CS: A sequel you always wind up talking about is Bill
& Ted 3, you're very candid about it. One big draw is having the
original writer/creators back, Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon. Their
voice, their sensibility is so off the wall and fun. There's a story
about Solomon getting fired and rehired multiple times by Walter F.
Parkes during Men in Black because his sensibility was so weird, but
that made that movie click. Is that oddball sensibility part of what's
holding a third Bill & Ted back?
Keanu Reeves: We have to get the script in the right place. Chris
and Ed have been working really hard over a couple of years to get the
draft in the right place. What is the reason to make this movie besides
nostalgia or the love of these characters. Where can they be in their
life that can be a story that is worth telling or has something in it
and is funny? They have that. It didn't help that the first script that
they brought in was probably budgeted at $150 million dollars. I don't
know if Bill & Ted carry that much weight. Part of the argument is
that it's not that popular internationally, that's where so much of the
funding for movies comes from these days. They've worked on the script
and the budget, just trying to get the right script and then get the
business side wrapped up, financiers and rights, all the show business
stuff.
CS: The director you guys picked out originally, Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest) was a great choice. Is he still involved?
Reeves: Yeah, Dean's re-read it and I think he likes it. It's kind
of like… I call it "gravity," you have to get this mass together to make
it happen. In terms of the writers' voices being too peculiar, in this
case no. I think they've really crafted something that's funny. [Bill
and Ted have] been weighed down by the burden of having to save the
world by the song, and they just can't write it. They're losing their
wives and their children, they're losing their families.
CS: Just getting too wrapped up in their own dilemma?
Reeves: Yeah, they're just like, "Dude, we have to write the song!"
The future comes back and says if you don't write the song by this
certain time the universe is going to unravel and history and everything
is going to change and dinosaurs are gonna walk the Earth. Jesus is
playing baseball! All sorts of weird things start unraveling and
wormholes are twisting. We have to kind of bring order back, and it's
connected into bringing our families together by writing a song.
CS: Obviously you don't want to homogenize that to the point where it's not even worth doing anymore.
Reeves: No! I mean, it's edgy. There's a great scene where Bill and
Ted are in jail and we're seeing our future us's and they're all tatted
and hard. They're like, [tough sounding] "What's up, dude? Hey dude. Hey
guy." "Stop calling me dude!" They want to beat up Bill and Ted because
they've inherited the life that they f**ked up. They're miserable and
they hate Bill and Ted. There's some funny stuff!
CS: I'm super psyched, but a project I'm excited for even more is
Passengers. I've read a lot of Black List scripts, and that one is
probably the best I even read. I describe it to people as like WALL-E
for grown-ups.
Reeves: Yeah, with edge.
CS: A lot of edge, just beautifully crafted, very satisfying. It's shocking you've had so much trouble putting it together.
Reeves: This is where you read, "Keanu does a heavy sigh." [sighs heavily] Yeah, I know. We're still trying.
CS: Is the road block just finding the right leading lady?
Reeves: Yeah, it's leading lady and financing and all that show
business sh*t. We need someone who's a financier who believes in the
movie at the budget and we haven't been able. We've come close to that
and we've had some hard luck with actresses not being able to do the
film.
CS: Reese Witherspoon was the last one, right?
Reeves: No, there was Reese then there was Rachel McAdams.
CS: It's such a really rich world, and it did great stuff for the
writer, Jon Spaihts, who's now doing these big tentpole movies. There's a
reason he got hired for Prometheus or The Mummy or Doctor Strange, and
that's because Passengers is such a damn good script.
Reeves: Yeah, he's a great writer and a cool guy. Hopefully in five
years we can be having a conversation, "I saw 'Passengers'! It's better
than the script I read!"
CS: During the screening, you did a Q&A at the other night
somebody actually shouted out "Doctor Strange!" at you. Did Jon ever
talk to you about that property?
Reeves: No, is he doing it? He's doing that! I didn't now that. I
didn't know that Doctor Strange was a comic book, I never read it. Do
you know the character?
CS: Yeah, he's a doctor whose hands get mangled and he winds up going
to a temple in the Himalayas and training with a master sorcerer to get
powers. It's set in the world of the occult… I feel like that's
territory you already explored with…
Reeves: Constantine? Is Doctor Strange a good guy or is he good and bad? What's his thing? Is he a loner?
CS: Yeah, he's a bit of loner, he lives in Greenwich Village.
Reeves: Oh groovy. So he's a New Yorker? Is he keeping evil magic at bay? Is he like the protector of the threshold? (laughs)
CS: Exactly, you know the deal. And recently they announced "Rain,"
your TV show about another cunning hitman. It's fascinating because you
see big stars like Matthew McConaughey, Scarlett Johansson and now you
going to TV. Do you guys know something we don't know? Is this like rats
fleeing the sinking ship that is cinema?
Reeves: (pause) I don't know. I hope not. I mean, there's so many
opportunities in terms of content possibilities, right? There's so many
ways to view content and those people are producing content. There's a
lot of great writers. I think, in a way, television is taking on the
cinematic language and using movie language to tell television stories,
which is fun. The serialization, you've got great creators doing fun
stuff, cinematically and writing-wise. Television has always been a
great proving ground for writers and filmmakers. I don't think movies
are dead. I don't think the 90-minute storytelling form has run its
course, but in order to have that four-wall experience, to go to the
movies and see that, I don't know if that's the goal for everyone
anymore. That used to be the goal.
CS: Conversely, the quality has gotten so good that a show can't just
be "good enough for TV," it has to be "better than a movie." How is
"Rain" better than a movie?
Reeves: Yeah, I mean I think it's using the cinema language and
having the chance to explore the character MORE. To serialize that, not
to tell one story but to tell… for me our going into it is really just
to tell a man's life. The books cover, like, ten years of his life, so
the vision of this series is we're investigating this man's life, not
just a part of who he is but his life.
CS: The whole span?
Reeves: Yeah, this whole journey with him. Also, television is using
the same tools as movies. They're using the same camera, they're using
the same lenses.
