The character-based HBO Max series from J.J. Abrams is no longer progressing at the streamer.
Warner Bros. is renewing another another Keanu Reeves movie, following the revival of The Matrix last year. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio is working on a follow-up to the spooky DC property movie Constantine from 2005.
Reeves and the original film’s director Francis Lawrence will work together again on this project. Veteran screenwriter Akiva Goldsman will pen the script this time. In addition, Goldsman will produce through Weed Road Pictures, with J.J. Abrams and Hannah Minghella producing through Bad Robot. The news was initially reported by Deadline.
A Constantine TV series that Abrams had been working on for HBO Max won’t be continuing there. It could possibly survive somewhere else. Madame X, another Abrams-produced DC movie, shares the same situation and will no longer air on HBO Max.
There has been a change in approach under the recently combined Warner Bros. Discovery, with a focus on theatrical productions for DC characters. Cost-cutting measures have also been taken, as evidenced by the earlier this summer cancellation at HBO of the expensive J.J. Abrams-produced Demimonde. The animated Batman: Caped Crusader series, which was created for HBO Max but is no longer coming to the service, has been in the hands of Abrams and colleagues as they pitch it elsewhere.
Constantine made $230 million worldwide, and the audience has continued to recognise the character. Matt Ryan portrayed John Constantine in an NBC series and then on The CW’s Legends of Tomorrow after Keanu Reeves’ rendition of the anti-hero, who according to DC fiction is an occult detective.
Reeves’ star power has increased steadily since the first Constantine movie, and he now stars in many franchises, including John Wick. The fourth episode premieres in March.
Lawrence, on the other hand, is quite busy. He is now in production on The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, the prelude to The Hunger Games, and he will also be helming the Netflix version of the video game Bioshock.
WME, Sugar23, and Ziffren Brittenham are Reeves’ agents. Hansen Jacobsen, 3 Arts, and CAA are Lawrence’s agents.
