17 years after the release of “Constantine”, the sequel was officially announced. Back at the controls of the project, Francis Lawrence hopes to be able to make a second opus much darker, violent and cynical than the first.
Constantine : Keanu Reeves between Earth and hell
After Neo and before John WickKeanu Reeves embodies another of the emblematic characters of his career in Constantine, adaptation of the comics hellblazer released in 2005. Detective suffering from lung cancer, John Constantine is in charge of sending demons back to hell. In the first part, the anti-hero comes to the aid of Katelin Dodson (Rachel Weisz), a police officer who is investigating the suicide of her twin sister. Which leads him to cross paths with many creatures, but also that of Lucifer (Peter Stormare).
This cinematographic adventure is not a huge success in the dark rooms, since the film brings in only 230 million dollars in worldwide receipts for an estimated budget of 100 million. But Warner Bros. is still apparently convinced that the magician created by Alan Moore, John Totleben and Steve Bissette can find his audience, since a sequel was formalized last September, 17 years after the release of the first part.
A new direction wanted by Francis Lawrence
Director of Constantine but also of I’m a legend and of Red SparrowFrancis Lawrence will be back at the controls of this second opus. In full promotion of Little Nemo and the Dream Worlda feature film produced by Netflix and worn by Jason Momoa, the filmmaker confided on his main regret about his adaptation ofhellblazer.
Asked by The WrapFrancis Lawrence said:
On the first film, we followed, on the indications of Warner Bros., the rules for making a PG-13 movie, whether in terms of violence, blood, language and sexuality. But the classification body gave us an unfair R. My biggest regret is making an R-Rated movie that’s actually a PG-13 movie. And if I had known I was going to get an R, I would have made a real R-Rated movie. I would have made it much scarier and much more violent.
Francis Lawrence therefore hopes to be able to deliver a much darker feature film than its predecessor with Constantine 2. He also wants the film to be funnier than the first and more representative of the “sarcastic and ironic” spirit of the character.
Regarding the progress of the project, the director assured that the script is not yet written, but that screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, Keanu Reeves and him already have ideas:
Keanu and I had been fighting for a while, we always wanted to do this sequel. (…) From now on, we can go ahead and dedicate ourselves to it. All that remains is for us to roll up our sleeves. But we have lots of ideas.
