Warren Ellis may just be my new John Varley. We'll have to see how the movie goes.

Keanu. Playing Constantine.

If they ever make a Sandman movie that's one piece of continuity they can leave in the crapper.

Keanu. Playing Constantine.

Whoa.

Well, he has his own series, which Neil stole him from, but yeah...

Gaiman borrowed him from Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing; John Constantine didn't get his own series (Hellblazer, various writers) until after his appearance in The Sandman.

For those interested in Warren Ellis's opinion, this is from his mass mailing list, Bad Signal:

Anyway. And then I ended up drinking with Tilda Swinton. This was one of those weird moments; she kept saying "serendipitous," which is not a word I would attempt after mixing that much whisky and beer. She's just been offered the part of the angel Gabriel in CONSTANTINE, the film of the comics series HELLBLAZER, which I wrote for a year. So we had an hour of discussing the character, the book, the selection of Keanu Reeves (which is actually a big part of her interest. I've always said that Reeves is a better actor than anyone gives him credit for -- watch him carefully, and you'll see him deliberately creating a space for other actors to work in), and the possibilities in the role in relationship to America today. She said something I found fascinating: in an America where a president again invokes the term Evil in public statements, there's the potential to say something very interesting in a major-studio film about Biblical good and evil. To present the angel Gabriel as a figure of horror; there's space to say something that in the mainstream of American culture is certainly subversive. She characterised Reeves as an intelligent, "spiritual" man, and thinks there might be the possibility, with Reeves there, to do something challenging.

This, by the way, is the answer to the almost-daily emails asking what I think of Keanu Reeves cast as Constantine. First; the film is never going to be the same as the comic. American or English, the film will succeed if it's true to the core of the man, because that's what hooks people into the book. Nicolas Cage, I maintain, would have made a good Constantine because he can do the ravaged, shattered side of the man. I think Reeves is an interesting choice because he can get at the other part of Constantine, the part that demands social justice and exists in ethical turmoil. His partner for the story is being played by Rachel Weisz, whom people seem to have forgotten can act -- she broke out of British television in the same piece as Ewan McGregor, THE SCARLET AND THE BLACK. With Tilda Swinton as Gabriel, this is all far from a bad proposition.

But, of course, I haven't read the script.

That's not the unfaintest praise.

I can't parse that, ita. My parser is broken. You broke it. Is it because I'm dead to you?

Nicolas Cage, I maintain, would have made a good Constantine because he can do the ravaged, shattered side of the man.

Yes. That's what I love about Constantine, when I love him, his utter brokenness.

Keanu. Playing Constantine.

Kill me.

Victor, with death wishes, as with presents, 'tis better to give than to receive.

Hasn't Marsters basically been playing Constantine since Spike got the chip? Certainly always felt in the same ballpark. Oh well, not a big enough name (and probably considered too old for the part - rolls eyes).

Well, Keanu turn 39 next week, so he's not that much younger.