Being a relative late comer to Keanu fandom, I missed out on seeing his earlier works in the theater and a lot of the scuttlebutt that went with some of them as they were filmed. I have been building a DVD collection of Keanu’s films and watching them as I acquire them. While The Watcher was panned by critics, I was taken with his character, David Allen Griffin. The story was weak, just your run of the mill thriller, but there was something about seeing the cherubic faced Reeves play such a bad ass that caught my attention – in my opinion I thought he did that well.
In the process of collecting links to Keanu related news, I came across a few pieces recounting some of the drama surrounding The Watcher. Here’s a recap for those who want a trip down memory lane.
At the time of the film’s theatrical release in September 2000, eonline reported that Keanu was MIA from the film’s trailer and advertising and he failed to do any press promotion for the film. Turns out Keanu verbally said he would do a small cameo in the film after reading the script. The director, Joe Charbanic changed the script substantially making Keanu the star and used his name to get financing and the other costars. Keanu wanted to drop out but was advised not too. In an attempt not to alienate an A-list star, Universal made Keanu disappear from all of the marketing and Keanu in turn had to wait a year before talking about the incident.
In September 2001 Keanu got his side of the story out at the Toronto International Film Festival during an interview for Hardball saying:
“I never found the script interesting, but a friend of mine forged my signature on the agreement,” he told the Calgary Sun newspaper. “I couldn’t prove he did and I didn’t want to get sued, so I had no other choice but to do the film.” Reeves says that other legal stipulations mean that he has had to wait twelve months after the film’s US release before being able to go public with his anger. “If it’s September that means it’s been a year, so I can finally talk,” he told the newspaper.
It turns out that Joe Charbanic was a former roadie for Dogstar and directed one of their music videos. By all appearances Keanu verbally agreed to do a small cameo. Whether Charbanic forged Keanu’s signature remains to be seen but considering Keanu’s Virgo tendencies, I think he would remember signing a contract. With regard to Charbanic, he most likely had access to Keanu’s signature from the contracts for the Dogstar video and considering he pulled a bait and switch with the script at the very least, you can say he had the opportunity and a template.
While most critics hated the film, the reviewer for Best Movies Ever liked it and had an interesting take.
Additional articles used for this post are here and here.