Is it just me or does Keanu Reeves have bad luck getting a film off the ground? 47 Ronin went through one too many iterations and Bill & Ted 3 is hovering in a movie netherworld. Now Passengers, which Reeves commissioned back in 2010, is going through a few more growing pains.
While things had appeared to be shaping up for the sci-fi movie, with Reeves in the lead, there’s been a slight set-back resulting in a cast change. Co-star Reese Witherspoon is out of Passengers, and Rachel McAdams is in.
Reese Witherspoon was forced to bow out of Passengers due to scheduling conflicts, leaving the way open for McAdams to take up the role. The film will tell the story of a passenger (Reeves) on a space-ship who’s put into deep freeze for a very long journey to another planet. Things go wrong and he’s accidentally awakened ninety years too early. Horrified at the thought of spending the rest of his life alone in space, he awakens a lovely fellow passenger (McAdams) and romance, apparently, ensues. It sounds a little bit like Gravity, only with potentially sociopathic romance.
The switch from Witherspoon to McAdams is unlikely to hold up production as Passengers is set to begin shooting next year in Germany. Director Brian Kirk (Game of Thrones) is at the helm for this one, from a script written by Jon Spaihts (Prometheus).
When all is said and done, the project sounds like a good one. Serious space movies are all the rage right now, what with Gravity this year and Prometheus a few years back. Reeves and McAdams are likable performers when they have a good script to go on and it will be interesting to see how well they work together.
We’ll keep an eye on the future of Passengers and let you know how it’s going. For now though, tell us, does this sound like an intriguing project to you?
