Chapter 118: He Scares Me
....
The shooting of [The Hangover] had been put on hold following the completion of its first schedule - though in truth, this was something everyone had anticipated.
It wasn't an unexpected disruption so much as a calculated pause, understood by the Regal from the beginning.
The main reason behind the break was Keanu Reeves - and the relentless pace of his schedule.
Following the breakout success of [Following], directed by Regal and released just the previous year, Keanu's momentum in Hollywood had become undeniable.
Yet even with the flood of offers that followed, he remained selective, signing onto only five new projects since then.
The first of these, [A Scanner Darkly], had already premiered earlier in the year.
Though not the primary lead, Keanu played a major supporting role, and the film, with its striking rotoscope animation and philosophical themes, became a modest commercial and critical success.
His thoughtful, understated performance added an emotional undercurrent to the ensemble.
The second project, a psychological thriller titled [The Last Horizon], hit theaters about a month and a half before [Death Note], around December. Unlike [A Scanner Darkly], [The Last Horizon] faltered at the box office, failing to meet expectations despite an aggressive promotional campaign.
However, critics singled out Keanu's performance for high praise, highlighting his haunting intensity and magnetic screen presence as one of the film's undeniable strengths.
At present, Keanu was simultaneously working on three major productions. One was [Driftwood Cross], a grounded action-drama set in a windswept coastal town, where he played the lead, a disillusioned former soldier drawn into a web of corruption and personal redemption.