Director Francis Lawrence Updates Constantine 2

December 1, 2007
Source: ShockTillYouDrop.com
by Alex Billington

Francis Lawrence (in the middle in the photo above), who directed Constantine, is just about to release I Am Legend, and it's a solid step up from Constantine in terms of his filmmaking abilities. Back in November of 2006 there were rumblings of a Constantine sequel being in the works and today while doing press for I Am Legend, Lawrence was questioned about his involvement and an update. The good news is that Lawrence would consider directing it, but the bad news is that it hasn't had any traction yet, even a year since the news first came out.

In the original report, producer Lauren Shuler Donner said that Keanu Reeves would be back but Francis Lawrence would only produce, not direct. Today in a press conference for I Am Legend, Lawrence said that he would love to helm the sequel as long as the story is right. ShockTillYouDrop.com followed up with Lawrence in a one-on-one interview where he elaborated further on what exactly he meant.

"I like origin stories, that would be cool. What worked for me is the film came from the 'Dangerous Habits' storyline - he had cancer and he was dying. To me that was the core of the story. It's why the movie works for me, because the story couldn't be more personal. People have thrown concepts around [for a sequel] and I go 'Why does he give a f**k?' In the first film he's trying to save his own skin. Everything else, you can come up with these stories where he goes to different lands and fight the bad guys or witch doctors, but I think it all falls flat. Until someone comes up with a great idea, whether it's earlier [in his life] or later, we'll just have to see."

From the sounds of it, Constantine 2 hasn't moved along in terms of getting geared up for production. Lauren Schuler Donner had said that they were getting a team of writers together to work on a story, but I guess nothing worthy has come together in a year's time. For the sake of making a better sequel, this all sounds actually pretty good. I appreciate directors who say they'll wait it out until they get a real story actually worth telling. I don't mind waiting for a good story and after seeing how much Francis Lawrence has improved with I Am Legend, it would be good to have him back, too.

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