Keanu Reeves celebrated one of his biggest successes with Speed, but he declined to shoot Speed 2. Not everyone was happy about that.
Which movie is it about? Although Keanu Reeves is probably more associated with Matrix and John Wick, another film was also a huge success in his career. We’re talking about Speed, an action movie from 1994.
The film grossed over 350 million US dollars at the international box office and was among the most successful films at the time, with a production budget of only about 30-37 million US dollars.
After the first film was such a success, work on the sequel, Speed 2, began shortly afterwards. But when Keanu Reeves went through the script, he came to the conclusion: this is not for him.
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Keanu Reeves turned down the role and caused anger
Why did he turn down the sequel? For the second part of Speed, they approached Keanu Reeves again. They offered him 12 million US dollars for the role in the second part. As usual, the actor read the script before deciding against the role.
Years later, he told on the talk show with host Jimmy Kimmel about the reasons that spoke against the role. A bus, like in the first part of Speed, you can no longer associate with Speed, but a cruise ship is even slower. In the end, he thought: This won’t work – and he was right.
How did the rejection go down? The producers and the director of the film initially tried to convince Keanu, but when he ultimately declined, they were really angry with him. As 3DJuegos reports, the anger from several in Hollywood apparently went so far that it jeopardized Keanu Reeves’ successful film career.
How did Speed 2 perform without Keanu Reeves? The film wasn’t a flop, but compared to the first part, it was a disappointment. The second part cost about 110-160 million US dollars and only grossed 164.5 million US dollars. A poor result, which probably also led to the fact that a third part of the series was never realized.
As it became known, Keanu Reeves would actually be available for a third part of Speed, “you just need a good script.” The film rights to the series are said to now belong to Disney, and so far, there has been no indication of a third film in the near future.
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