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After a mysteriously long absence, actor Keanu Reeves is suddenly in the news again. (Was he sitting on a bench being sad for all that time?) The "Speed" and "Matrix" star hasn't been seen on the big screen since 2010's "Henry's Crime," but that doesn't mean he hasn't been busy in the interim.
The long-gestating third "Bill & Ted" adventure appears to finally be getting underway, with both Reeves and co-star Alex Winter ("Freaked") set to reprise the roles that made them famous -- or, in Winter's case, sort of famous.
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For those too young to remember, Bill S. Preston (Winter) and "Ted" Theodore Logan (Reeves) were a pair of teenage rockers from San Dimas, Calif., who were preordained to unite the world with their rock and/or roll. With a little help from the time traveller Rufus (the late, great George Carlin), the not-so-bright pair are able to pass their history test in "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" and battle evil robot doppelgangers from the future and Death himself in "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey." The movies became cult hits and made Reeves a genuine, if unlikely star.
When news of a sequel started circulating a few years ago, many fans of the originals began wondering if "Bill & Ted 3" would be another excellent adventure or a most heinous odyssey. With little in the way of details though, all that those fans could do was speculate. Until now.
Orion Pictures
In a recent Q&A with GQ, Reeves had quite a lot to say about the highly-anticipated time-travelling sequel, and things do not sound like they're going very well for the still clueless and now middle-aged duo.
"These two people have been crushed by the responsibility of having to write the greatest song ever written and to change the world. And they haven't done it," Reeves told the men's lifestyle mag. "So everybody is kind of like: 'Where is the song?'"
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Reeves, who seemed legitimately enthusiastic about the project, went on to detail more of "Bill & Ted 3's" plot -- and when the famously dour actor is enthusiastic about anything, it's probably worth paying attention to.
"We go on this expedition, go into the future to find out if we wrote the song, and one future 'us' refuses to tell us, and another future 'us' blames us for their lives because we didn't write the song, so they're living this terrible life," Reeves said. "In one version we're in jail; in another we're at some kind of highway motel and they hate us."
It all sounds surprisingly... good? Not that we would necessarily expect Reeves to associate with a subpar product, but after years of terrible sequels to classic franchises, audiences have a right to hold their expectations pretty low.
Viewers still might have to wait a few years to see Bill & Ted back in action, but those looking for a Keanu fix need not wait long: the Canadian actor has been testing his mettle behind the camera in recent years.
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Reeves has produced a documentary about digital filmmaking called "Side by Side," featuring interviews between the actor and some of Hollywood's most influential filmmakers, such as like Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Steven Soderbergh, Christopher Nolan, and George Lucas. The actor has also been busy directing his first movie, "Man of Tai Chi," in China, a Chinese-language martial arts film employing some seriously impressive new camera systems for the fight scenes. Some of that Wachowski magic apparently rubbed off on Reeves while he was making the "Matrix" movies.
You can see the trailer for "Side by Side" and proof-of-concept footage from "Man of Tai Chi" below.