As fans await Keanu Reeves' highly anticipated return to sci-fi epic-dom for The Matrix Resurrections, the actor and comic book scribe has revealed one of his latest projects is that much closer to existing. Netflix's upcoming adaptation of BRZRKR, the limited comic series Reeves co-created with Mind MGMT and Dept. H's Matt Kindt, has apparently landed a high-profile screenwriter whose latest work involves Robert Pattinson in a batsuit.
While promoting the graphic novel release of BRZRKR's first four issues, Keanu Reeves spoke with Collider and revealed that Mattson Tomlin, co-screenwriter for Matt Reeves' upcoming comic saga The Batman, has been brought on board to bring Reeves' one-man killing machine to Netflix subscribers. Even if fans of the comic shouldn't expect a 1:1 replica. Here's how the actor put it:
They’re going to let us do an R-rated story which is cool. My ambition or hope is not to do a filmed version of the comic book so that they’ll have things in common, definitely the main character and his kind of rule set, but that we can take it to other places as well. . . . So I’m hoping to do a different version of a metaverse where in the sense having different storytellers with one set of rules but go other places with it. We’re working on trying to set up a company with the animation and we’ve hired a writer for the film Mattson Tomlin. He’s been cool and just starting to put things together. That’s where we’re at.
For an industry that often thrives on keeping details away from the public's ears, Keanu Reeves' update on Netflix's BRZRKR film (and its anime spinoff) are a breath of fresh and speculation-laced air. For one, he revealed Mattson Tomlin's involvement, which is a good indicator of how the producers are approaching this film. Beyond co-scripting The Batman, Tomlin also wrote Jamie Foxx's Netflix actioner Project Power, Chloe Grace Moretz's upcoming sci-fi thriller Mother/Android (which he will also direct), the pilot for the in-development Terminator series, and the upcoming Mega Man adaptation, on top of all of the short films he created.
As well, Keanu Reeves confirmed that the streaming service is fully down with keeping this an R-rated project, which is excellent, considering there's probably no way to pull the main story off for a PG-13 audience without turning all the blood green and making all the humans AI robots or something. There are some very fucked up moments on those pages, people! In the best way, of course.
For those who might not be too familiar, BRZRKR revolves around the Keanu Reeves-resembling character known only as B. With his long and mysterious backstory being unpacked with each issue, B is a half-man, half-god with a penchant for body-bursting violence. B's mission as a current day government operative is not only to do their deadly bidding, but also to learn the truth about himself so that he can put an end to his vicious streak.
With half of the series' issues still yet to come out, readers obviously don't know the full story behind BRZRKR, and it sounds like Keanu Reeves, Matt Kindt, and the comic's artist Ron Garney seek to take their story to different places for the live-action film and animated series. Considering the main character's age and his historical legacy, there are plenty of places for non-comic projects to take this story without treading to closely to the source material. So long as they keep in place the main conceit of "Keanu Reeves ripping someone's jaw off of their face and then stabbing them in the stomach with it," then I think fans will be pleased as (death)punch.
With the writer only now being made public, BRZRKR likely has a ways to go before it lands a Netflix release date, so it's a good thing the 2021 movies schedule is full of movies yet to debut this year. And it's also a good thing we'll have both more Neo and more John Wick in our lives before BRZRKR arrives.
