You know what sounds like a hard sell to a Hollywood studio? A chain smoking antihero with a bad attitude and terminal lung cancer whom God himself doesn’t like. Dipping in and out of actual Hell. Where, by the way, Satan can’t wait to torture him for eternity. Oh, and it’s a large-ish budget superhero movie based on a DC/Vertigo comic. It’s a road that would include lawsuits, a music video director, a comic book creator who would rather leave free money on the table than be involved, and the MPAA gumming up the works. But where there’s a Keanu Reeves….there’s a way. This is what happened to Constantine.
The origins of Constantine began in June of 1986 when famed comic creator Alan Moore introduced him in The Saga of Swamp Thing #37. The occult investigator from England was on the hunt for information about something big happening in the supernatural world, (something that might even be Satan himself) when he crosses paths with Swamp Thing. The smart-ass, cigarette smoking character proved to be a hit among fans and achieved his own series three years later titled Hellblazer. Running from 1988 to 2013 and becoming Vertigo’s longest running title. Constantine’s Hellblazer had become a major staple for the label that allowed DC to explore darker, more adult fare in their stories.
When the idea to produce the film came across Producer Lauren Shuler Donner’s desk, she saw it as an opportunity to turn a comic book into a classic horror movie such as The Exorcist. She began development in 1997 and would at one point attach Bulletproof Monk director Paul Hunter to the project before pivoting to visionary director of The Cell, Tarsem Singh. Needless to say that didn’t work out. Singh left the project around 2001 and was promptly sued by Warner Brothers for violating the terms of his contract. Singh retorted by counter suing them, claiming that they didn’t live up to their end of the bargain. He claimed Warner Bros took away his creative rights on the film and wouldn’t allow him to make changes to the script nor meet with the writers.
Speaking of the writers, you wouldn’t see creator Alan Moore’s name attached to the project at the time, either. He’d become jaded with the industry after adaptations of his work on League of Extraordinary Gentleman and From Hell. He not only demanded not to be credited for the film, but requested his royalties be dispersed among the others who had worked on the character. He really meant that sh*t!
The story would be written by The Glimmer Man writer Kevin Brodbin as well as writer Jamie Delano, with a screenplay by Frank Capello based loosely on the Hellblazer stories, with a particular focus on The Boys writer Garth Ennis’ Dangerous Habits story arc. This was something pitched by Cappello, who was fascinated with the idea that a larger than life hero who had dealt with as many dark forces as Constantine had being bested by something as simple as a cigarette. The title of the film was changed from Hellblazer to Constantine to avoid any confusion with another dark story about death and the afterlife… Clive Barker’s Hellraiser. Side note: Would love to see Keanu in a Hellraiser movie.
One on hand, Warner Bros and company played with a lot of dangerous sins themselves. The writers and studio took multiple liberties with the character from the comic books. They moved the story from England to LA. And I don’t know if anyone noticed? But Keanu Reeves isn’t British. He doesn’t play the character British, either. He in no way resembles the musician Sting as the comic book had. Neither does Nicolas Cage, who was at one point attached to play the titular character himself. Which would have been equally cool. The character doesn’t even have his signature blonde hair, nor does he wear the same jacket color. He is still carrying the same shitty attitude. And for Producer Akiva Goldsmith, that’s all that mattered. Goldsmith quipped that he was more concerned with getting the spirit of the character right than anything else.
Finally, director Francis Lawrence began to win over the folks at Warner Brothers one by one in his pitch for the job. Though he had only done music videos up to that point, the studio didn’t mind. They wanted a director who could keep the tempo up and keep the film stylish and believed he could be the man for the job. Lawrence had a vision for the project and only one more person to sell his involvement to: Keanu Reeves. Who told the production specifically NOT to hire a music video director. When Keanu Reeves made it back from his work on one of the Matrix sequels, Francis filled a pitch room with his storyboards and vision for the film. And ultimately won Reeves over as well. The pieces were finally in play.
With Keanu fully on board, the character of Angela Dodson went to the very capable Rachel Weisz, who had just impressed in the thriller The Mummy with Brendan Fraser and its subsequent sequel. The character of Midnite, which was said to be the character the movie stayed the most faithful to, went to Djimon Hounsou. While on the opposite end of the spectrum, the character of Chas had been changed quite a bit. What was once Constantine’s only real adult relationship and mostly his equal had been switched to more of an immature understudy that went to the younger Shiah LaBeouf. The funnest casting of the film might just go to Bush front man and rock star Gavin Rossdale, who portrayed Constantine’s well dressed but demonic nemesis, Balthazar. Rossdale, who was impressive in the role, was given the job and sent that very same day to Stan Winston’s studio to have his prosthetic head built where face sculptors were likely biting their tongues not to make Machinehead jokes.
Tilda Swinton as half breed Gabriel and Peter Stormare as one of the most entertaining and off putting Satan’s you’ll ever see on screen rounded out the films villains. The two ended up being favorites of the director, who appreciated the fresh energy they brought to the end of a shoot full of otherwise tired and weary crew members. It’s an energy boost you can literally feel while watching the film.
Though Constantine is pretty CGI laden and wide in scope, according to Lawrence, the hardest shot to film was actually a simple conversation at a diner on a rainy day between Reeves and Weisz. This because all of the special effects shot were planned down to every tiny detail, including the impressive exorcism mirror stunt in the opening. Whereas the diner scene involved eight pages of dialogue and important exposition between their tow leads. Of which it was imperative to get right.
That doesn’t mean the special effects were easy. They did have to recreate Hell after all. Which, as we know can make or break a film like this (cough, SPAWN). Visual Effects Supervisor Michael Fink and Lawrence decided to go for a more personal approach, basically creating Hell as a parallel version of Los Angeles. Their Hell involved a highway (in another nod towards LA traffic) littered with abandoned cars and demons with no eyes (because half their skulls were missing). The creatures would gather in large groups, sniffing and feeling their way for humans to rip apart. Flying versions of the demons, called Seplatives had their bottom torsos ripped off, so they were cursed to stay constantly in flight. The producers came up with this idea after visiting a place in Yugoslavia that served their drinks in glasses with broken stemware so you couldn’t set them down and would to finish quickly. What the hell is up with the people who run that bar in Yugoslavia? Someone give me an address so I can go tell them how wrong that is.
Hell was given the same look as the bright heat wave that happens just before a nuclear bomb destroys everything. Everything was made to look as if it were slowly disintegrating alongside a constant, directional wind replicating the blowback of an explosion. Some of their hell was practical and included a large set full of rotting cars and highway debris. They then draped the walls in Green Screen and added all of the nastiness of a living, breathing hell on top of it. An animatronic puppet of one of the demons was made by Stan Winston to add a realistic effect, while the larger hordes were created with CGI.
For a really rad scene where Angela is swooped away from Constantine by demons, they built a full scale building floor and rigged the doors to explode and pull away almost all at once, the same way dominos would fall. They then hooked Rachel Weisz up to a pulley system with a green screen around it and computerized her into the shot, also building a miniature model of a bunch of cubicles on the sides to destroy. Later, they added a bunch of debris such as flying paper and staplers in post. These shots all paid off extremely well. Especially when watching the 4K restoration of the film all these years later. It’s not the CGI fest it was sometimes unfairly panned for years ago.
The props were given extra care as well, with Constantine’s golden cannon being comprised of eight different working pieces that came together to create the unholy shotgun. It also was equipped with a functioning light and the actual ability to fire blanks. The unholy bible was actually full of Latin copy from the script before it was wrapped in plastic and covered in black slime for effect.
The demon throwdown at the end when Keanu decides to have his own demonic wet t shirt contest was filmed all in one shot, with the stunt crew led by coordinator RA Rondell planning the entire fight sequence to a tee.
The character of Vermin Man, a demon comprised fully of crabs, bugs, snakes, and even a bird somewhere in there almost never made the film. He was set to be introduced as a mid-movie fight scene which is just the kind of thing studios sometimes find disposable. Especially for a character this expensive that took over a year to create for the special effects crew who did so using a man in an actual Vermin Man suit, as well as a lot of computer design. The character was especially difficult to create because his body composition was always in flux and full of gross, moving oddities. To make matters worse, once the crew had the shot in the can, the director realized that it wasn’t dynamic or eventful enough. They had to go back and shoot more, with Keanu this time having to dive around in the street, avoiding CG cars to be added in post.
Keanu didn’t mind, however. In a recent interview, the beloved actor said that every day on the set was a mixture of production design, cinematography, writing and performance. Which was the best kind of thing you could hope for when making a movie. Plus, it’s not every day you get to throw a middle finger right to Satan’s face.
The sounds of Constantine were contributed by composer Brian Tyler and featured what was basically a half music video by A Perfect Circle and their song “Passive”, as well a track by The Dave Brubeck Quartet. The movie was finally ready to be released in February of 2005 after multiple delays. Including the fact that they were shooting for a PG-13 rating and were given an R by the MPAA anyways, likely due to the religious content of the film.
Constantine opened to nearly $30 million in its opening weekend. The film went on to nab a total of $230 million worldwide on a production budget of around $100 million. It’s one of those flicks that has aged surprisingly well. Critics weren’t exactly gushing over it upon release but it has garnered a following over the years. A following that’s hard to call “cult” considering the initial moderate box office success….but you could definitely say it’s more widely appreciated currently than it was upon release. Constantine currently holds an audience rating of 72% positive on Rotten Tomatoes.
So with that being said, a sequel is definitely on the way, right? They’ve been talking about it since 2005. But it does seem possible we’re headed in a positive direction. Reeves just as recently as February of 2025 confirmed that both he and director Francis Lawrence had presented an idea to DC Studios, who gave them the go ahead to write a script that would be set in the very same world as the 2005 film.
And that my friends, is what happened to Constantine. With hopefully a lot more happening soon.
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