Keanu A-Z News Reports
Monday, September 18, 2000
Keanu hangs on to top spot
Reeves in The Watcher: The movie took the lowest takings for a number one this year
Keanu Reeves' new movie The Watcher topped the US box office chart for a second week - but the real star of the weekend was Almost Famous from director Cameron Crowe. Reeves' psychological thriller, which also features James Spader, maintained its lead but with only modest takings of $5.7m (£4m) - the lowest weekend takings for a number one movie this year.
However, Almost Famous - which was only on limited release - came in at number eight in the charts with takings of $2.3m (£1.6m).
It was being screened in just 131 cinemas across the US and Canada, giving it an average of $17,557 (£12,500) per site.
By contrast, The Watcher played in 2,745 cinemas and averaged only $2,077(£1,400) per venue.
The Watcher, from Universal Pictures, sees Speed star Reeves playing a serial killer.
Spader plays a police officer who, traumatised by his failure to catch the murderer, moves away to begin a new life. But he soon discovers Reeves' character is in hot pursuit.
Monday, September 11, 2000
Bad guy Keanu tops US box office
[BBC News 11/09/2000]
The Watcher, starring Keanu Reeves in a rare bad-guy role, is the number one film at the American box-office. The serial killer thriller took just over $9 million (£6.3m) at the weekend.
The film co-stars Marisa Tomei and James Spader as the FBI agent hunting Reeves.
Nurse Betty, the quirky comedy starring Renee Zellweger and Morgan Freeman, took second place with $7.3 million (£5.1m).
The previous number one, Jennifer Lopez's The Cell, fell to fourth place.
Sunday, September 10, 2000
"The Watcher" Pulls in Watchers
[E! Online 10/09/2000]
First the good news, Keanu. Nobody much watched The Watcher. Now the bad news. Enough people watched to make it number one at the box office.
The slasher movie, in which Keanu Reeves wishes he could have been a no-show, debuted with just an estimated $9.1 million.
Reeves, who was virtually MIA from the film's marketing campaign, reportedly was miffed about his role in the film. When he originally agreed to do it some 10 years ago, he signed on for a small role. But, thanks to his recent box-office bankability from The Matrix, filmmakers inflated his role and, although Keanu couldn't extricate himself from the flick, he refused to do any publicity.
Saturday, September 09, 2000
Keanu Reeves, Reticent "Watcher"
[E! Online 09/09/2000]
 | Keanu Reeves has a movie opening this weekend, but he doesn't want you to know about it.
In The Watcher, Reeves makes his first foray into villainy, playing a cunning serial killer who toys with an obsessed detective (James Spader). |
Coming on the heels of Reeves' superstar turn in The Matrix, you figure Universal would be publicizing the heck out of the actor's involvement--however, Keanu is virtually MIA from the movie's trailer and advertising (where he ranks--gasp!--below Spader, who's better known for indie fare like sex, lies and videotape). And he hasn't done any interviews to hype the project.
According to Inside.com, the reason Reeves is so reticent about Watcher is because he thought his part would be substantially smaller.
The history of the movie goes back about a decade, Inside reports, to a verbal agreement Reeves made with the film's director, Joe Charbanic (then a fledgling music video producer), during a street hockey game in Santa Monica.
When Charbanic approached the budding actor with a screenplay, Reeves gave it a read and agreed (without consulting his agents) to play a small part to help him get financing. Little did Reeves know what was in store.
Having Reeves on board was a coup for the film's producers, who were able to raise more money. The budget soared to approximately $30 million, and the script was reworked to gives Reeves, now a marquee star, a more visible role.
"The script did change," Charbanic, now 34, and making his feature directing debut with The Watcher, tells Inside.com. "It got bigger than [Reeves] wanted. He wanted it to be a little boutique film."
Boutique, it was not. When he discovered his cameo role had ballooned into a headlining role, Reeves reportedly threatened to drop out before filming began in Chicago last fall.
However, his attorneys recommended the actor not back out of his commitment to The Watcher. They cited Kim Basinger's disastrous court case in which she was ordered to pay $8 million to filmmakers for backing out of a verbal agreement to star in the indie flick Boxing Helena.
So Reeves became The Watcher's reluctant star. Inside.com reports there was tension on the set, especially once Reeves, who was working for scale, found out Spader and costar Marisa Tomei each nabbed $1 millionfor their participation.
Not wanting to tick off an A-lister like Reeves, Universal tried to make nice--and make Keanu virtually disappear from all the marketing. The studio reportedly agreed to feature the actor in no more than 30 percent of the trailer or other ads on the conditing he laid off from publicly lambasting the film.
No immediate comment from Reeves' publicist on report.
If the reviews are any indication, Reeves was right in distancing himself from Watcher.
"The acting is terrible. After The Matrix, we somehow imagined Keanu Reeves had taken his skill to another level. But The Watcher reminds us that Pinocchio is less wooden." (ABCNews.com)
"The Watcher is a meticulously crafted but resolutely routine serial killer suspense thriller...neither acutely suspenseful nor particularly thrilling but instead mainly numbing." (Los Angeles Times)
"A crass mechanical attempt at a thriller that should have gone straight to video." (New York Post)
"Reeves deserves credit for tackling an offbeat role. But his performance seldom rises above the level of a good try." (Daily Variety)
At least Keanu has something to fall back on: He is due to begin working on not one but two new sequels to The Matrix.
Friday, September 01, 2000
Protests arise over Keanu's new film
[JAM! Movies 01/09/2000]
It seems everyone wants to play hardball with Keanu Reeves' upcoming film, "Hardball."
The movie, which tells the story of a ticket scalper sentenced to coach baseball in Chicago's tough housing projects, recently faced a lawsuit from the coach whose life reportedly serves as the basis for the story. Now, Chicago's politicians are jumping on the bandwagon, denouncing the film for its portrayal of the city's inner-city kids.
Variety says Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and schools head Paul Vallas told reporters the film's profanity-laced dialogue and negative portrayal of the kids is wrong.
"This is not 'The Bad News Bears' that we're filming here. This is an R-rated movie that seems to be reinforcing negative stereotypes about inner-city children," Vallas told Variety.
Bob Muzikowski, one of the coaches portrayed in the movie, told the Chicago Sun-Times his kids weren't allowed to swear.
"We are kind of heartbroken," Muzikowski told the paper.
"They have come into our town and taken a wonderful story and dirtied it up because they think they know how black kids act."
The Sun-Times headline on the story read: "Hey Keanu: Clean up your movie."
