Keanu Reeves was tricked to star in failed 2000's thriller film 'The Watcher'?

Watcher is a thriller film released in 2000. It stars James Sper, Marisa Tomei, and Keanu Reeves. Set in Chicago, plot is about a retired FBI agent (Sper) who is stalked and taunted by a serial killer (Reeves). Directed by Joe Charbanic, movie was bashed by viewers and failed to perform at Box Office. re were questions on why a popular actor like Reeves boarded project and it was later revealed that he was tricked in doing so.

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Keanu Reeves was misled to star in ' Watcher'

According to a report in Fortress, Keanu Reeves was tricked to star in Watcher. He was absent from red carpet and press events designed to promote movie. When film hit atres, it earned criticism from audiences. People wondered why Reeves was missing from promotional events and eventually its failure.

Months later, it was revealed that Keanu Reeves got tricked. incident happened as director Joe Charbanic and Reeves were playing hockey and latter verbally agreed to play a small role in Watcher so that filmmaker could use his star power to obtain financing. project’s budget rose to around $30 million and it is when things went haywire. Without his knowledge his character was rewritten, making him one of le actors in movie. 

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As it was not part of original arrangement, Keanu Reeves considered backing out. But his legal team warned of a prior case in which an actor broke a verbal agreement and ended up in a protracted legal battle. In end, Reeves decided to make film, but upon discovering that his co-stars were paid a million dollars each while he earned less, he was furious.

Universal Studios tried to do some damage control as y decided to exclude Keanu Reeves from press and marketing tours, as long as he agreed to wait one year to publicly reveal his issues with project. A year later, actor told whole story to Calgary Sun newspaper. He said that he never found script interesting, but a friend of his forged his signature on agreement. Reeves mentioned that he did not want to get sued, so he h no or choice but to do movie.

Image Source: A Still from Watcher

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Watcher cast also includes Ernie Hudson, Chris Ellis, Rober Cicchini, Yvonne Niami and Rebekah Louise Smith. story was written by Christopher Eberts, Elliott Lewitt, Jeff Rice and Clark Peterson. film has an IMDb rating of 5.3/ 10 and 11% score on Rotten Tomatoes.