Recently announced, to almost everyone’s surprise, the sequel to “Constantine” is slowly taking shape. If the film with Keanu Reeves does not yet have a script, its director promises a more violent and frightening opus than the previous one.
To say that fans no longer dared to dream of it would be an understatement. Released in 2005, Constantine had certainly pleased and achieved an honorable score at the world box office (231 million dollars in revenue for a budget of 100), but obviously not enough for the taste of Warner, which launched Batman Begins the same year and did not seem in a hurry to bring back the demon hunter played by Keanu Reeves.
A series had since emerged, canceled after a short season, and another was in preparation for HBO Max, while the team had mentioned, not without regret, their ideas for an aborted sequel during a panel organized, for the 15th anniversary of the film’s release, at San Diego Comic-Con in 2020. An episode 2 which, finally, will see the light of day.
Announced, to almost everyone’s surprise, last September, in the midst of calendar upheavals from Warner and DC, this Constantine sequel does not yet have a script according to its director Francis Lawrence, back behind the camera. But the story has been under discussion for a long time and “we have finally overcome the main obstacle and can now move forward.”
With a major difference: the feature film will be rated R in the United States (prohibited for unaccompanied children under 17). Like the first, of course, except that everything had been done to ensure that the result was PG-13 (not recommended for children under 13, subject to parental consent), with regard to violence, rudeness and sex. In vain.
“The classification committee gave us an R based on their gray area regarding intensity”tells the filmmaker to TheWrap, as part of the release of Little Nemo and the Dreamworld, online on Netflix on November 18. “And my biggest regret is that we have an R movie that’s actually PG-13. If we were looking for the R, I would have gone all out. I would have made it more violent and scary, for it to deserve his status.”
My biggest regret is that we have an R movie that is actually PG-13
“The idea this time around, for me at least, is to really go out there and make a real R-rated Constantine movie. Which I think is what people wanted to see initially. Not that PG-13 version that came out with an R.” Eager to add a little more black humor in this sequel, Francis Lawrence does not know when he will be able to tackle it.
While Little Nemo and the Dreamworld is released on Netflix, he must then delve into the post-production of the Hunger Games prequel, expected in just one year at the cinema. Fans will therefore have to be a little patient. But those who have been waiting for this new Constantine for more than 17 years are no longer close to that.