Both were failures and Keanu was routinely mocked by the press up until Speed 2 was released, for stepping away from a blueprint for success. It’s easy in hindsight to understand his decision, as Speed 2: Cruise Control has gone down as one of the worst movies ever made - but in 1996 he was widely ridiculed for turning down the ‘surefire blockbuster hit of 1997.’ Reeves had followed up Speed with the so bad it’s almost perfect Johnny Mnemonic (1995) and then landed a minor hit with A Walk in the Clouds (1995), but as he turned down Speed 2, he had two stinkers about to be released in ’96 Chain Reaction and Feeling Minnesota.
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Speed 2 first encountered a massive amount of free publicity before a frame of the movie was even shot, when it was announced in June 1996 that Keanu Reeves turned down reprising his role which came with an $11M payday.
He was hired for the hack job sequel Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003), which remains his final picture to this day. It would be his follow up picture, The Haunting (1999) - which despite being a decent sized hit, was so awful that it harmed his standing as a reliable director. de Bont signed onto this bloated trainwreck, brought it in massively over budget and somehow survived its humiliating failure. Speed 2 was being developed as massive in scope and would be aimed at a broader audience with a family friendly MPAA rating instead of the first installment’s restrictive rating. Jan de Bont went from the mid-budget Speed, to the mega-budget Twister (1996) and after that box office smash, FOX was pressuring him to direct Speed 2 - with a bump in salary from $150,000 he received on the first pic to just over $6M for the sequel. What potential they saw will remain a mystery. Even though the narrative to Speed was contained and closed, FOX execs Peter Chernin and Bill Mechanic saw the potential to franchise the Speed property. The $31M budgeted Speed (1994) not only turned into a surprise smash that pulled in $350.4M worldwide, but it launched Sandra Bullock into a bankable actor and made cinematographer turned director Jan de Bont (his directorial debut) an in-demand helmer. Put that condescending smirk back on your face and let’s dive right into the legendary bomb Speed 2: Cruise Control - a sequel to a movie about a bus that had to SPEED around the city, keeping its SPEED over fifty, and if its SPEED dropped, it would explode! I think it was called … ‘The Bus That Couldn’t Slow Down.’ Cast: Sandra Bullock, Jason Patric, Willem Dafoe.Written By: Randall McCormick, Jeff Nathanson.
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