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Gabriele Muccino Helming Keanu Reeves' Sci-Fi Romance Film

by Ethan Anderton
January 26, 2010

Back in 2008 when the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still showcased Keanu Reeves as the alien Klaatu, it looked like the actor had finally found a role that allowed him to showcase his oddly "out-of-body" acting style that was on display so appropriately in The Matrix. Now Reeves will return to sci-fi, albeit in a completely different light in Passengers, a film described as a love story set on a spaceship which Variety reports Italian filmmaker Gabriele Muccino (Pursuit of Happyness, Seven Pounds) is looking to direct. The sci-fi romance was written by Jon Spaihts who also wrote the upcoming Alien prequel for Ridley Scott.

Muccino, who hails from Italy, has made a name for himself making average, crowd-pleasing dramas like The Pursuit of Happyness and Seven Pounds, so jumping to space seems like an interesting change of pace. The film is set in the future on a spacecraft making a centuries-long interstellar voyage to a new planet. Due to a computer glitch, a single passenger (Reeves) awakens from cryogenic sleep 90 years before anyone else. Faced with the prospect of growing old and dying alone, he in turn, awakens another beautiful woman.

It does sound like a pretty unique premise for a sci-fi romance, and the last time Reeves took a leap into a conceptually strange romance was his turn in The Lake House with Globes winner Sandra Bullock, which I ended up enjoying immensely. While it would be great to see Bullock team up with Reeves again to rekindle the tremendously genuine chemistry they have on-screen, Muccino said the love interest would be a "lesser-known" talent. I'm looking forward to this because Muccino has a very sleek, refined style, and I'd love to see that applied to the sci-fi genre, especially with an unconventional romance. Anyone else interested?

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Gill

What! A sci-fi romance? The only sci-fi Keanu Reeves should be focused on is Cowboy Bebop. Everyone wants it. They should be done the second draft of the script by now shouldn't they?
Mov

Haha Mr. Anderton thanks for the positive note on Bullock. FS.net is back on top of my bookmarks!
kippers

I actually read a draft of this script. It was very, very good. One of the top scripts on the Blacklist IIRC. It had a pure sci-fi flavor and reminded me of writers like Heinlein in tone and theme.
http://www.whoaisnotme.net Anakin McFly

Passengers is currently the best script I've ever read; Spaiht's "Shadow 19" is also excellent, and I'm looking forward to his Alien prequel. if you want a copy of the Passengers script, I have it uploaded here -> http://www.whoaisnotme.net/scripts/PSG_xx_UD.pdf
NMFilmgirl

Sounds like an intriguing project for Mr. Reeves, one which will showcase his dramatic talents. I look forward to reading the script and to following the film's development.
case

Huh.. not much for romances that aren't at least a little comedy-oriented, but since I love sci-fi and all its sub-genres, and I don't mind Reeves at all, I think I'll be keeping an eye peeled for this. Thanks for the heads up Ethan, any idea when this might be going into theatrical release?
http://www.whoaisnotme.net Anakin mcFly

Passengers does have some comedic content - at least, I laughed out loud a few times, and the entire premise is built on a sort of twisted dark humour. Again, brilliant script.
Brad

Shadow 19, seriously? That script was rife with problems and delved into too many concepts at once. He barely had a coherent story. The saving grace was the concept of the shadows, but they weren't enough to save the script. The script doesn't setup the problems on earth soon enough. There is too much over use of technology for sci-fi sake, much of which doesn't even serve the story. And how the fuck do they receive tracking information / satellite information about a planet they teleport people to because it's so far away. Huge and gaping hole... I could go on. The script was pretty lame overall. It sold on one simple idea. The shadows are duplicates.
http://www.whoaisnotme.net Anakin McFly

Sure, Shadow 19 had its faults and loopholes (like those you mention), but those could be fixed with not much trouble. It's also only a rough draft, and for a rough draft I thought it showed lots of potential.
case

After reading the script, I'm hoping to dupe a lady friend into going to see this with me, it seems like it'd be a fantastic movie if done right.