Keanu Reeves “didn’t write any” of his new novel.
Keanu Reeves has worked on a novel
The ‘John Wick’ actor has teamed up with one of his favourite authors, China Miéville, on ‘The Book of Elsewhere’, which is inspired by his own ‘BRZRKR’ comic books and features the series’ protagonist, immortal warrior Unute aka B, but he left penning the story to his collaborator.
He admitted to The Guardian newspaper: “I didn’t want to write the book. I wanted another creator to take that journey. So, ultimately, China has written the novel. It’s not, like, we could look at page eight and say, ‘Oh, I wrote this section.’ I didn’t write any of the novel.’”
The pair first met face-to-face in Berlin in 2021, and went through China’s first draft in a series of Zoom meetings, with the 51-year-old author admitting it took him some time to grasp Keanu’s ideas, but ultimately he realised the 59-year-old star’s suggestions were “absolutely right”.
He said: “What I felt he was particularly perspicacious about was questions of character – which shouldn’t be a surprise because of the acting.
“But the way we talk about things structurally, and in terms of character, isn’t necessarily the same. We don’t come with the same vernacular.
“So there was a process where I had to learn to understand what was being put to me. I remember a couple of times when you were saying things about B, and I was like, I know I’m not getting what he’s saying.
“Then after a couple of goes around – oh, OK, I get it. And every time that happened – I can think of three times very particularly – I was, like, oh: he’s absolutely right.”
The ‘Speed’ actor couldn’t be happier with the end result of their collaboration.
He said: “I’m reading a ‘BRZRKR’ China Miéville novel! Yeah! What, what, what? And then like, why am I crying? Why am I feeling so much? And then what is that? And then? Wait, I need to like … what’s that f******word? Oh, yeah. Great.”
Keanu released the first volume of -BRZRKR’ – which he created with writer Matt Kindt and artist Ron Garney – in November 2021. The second volume in the series was released in 2022 and the third volume was released in October 2023.
In 2021, it was announced that Netflix would develop a live-action film based on the comic book, which Keanu is attached to star in.
‘The Book of Elsewhere’ will be released on 23 July.
