Keanu Reeves Voices Keanu in Key and Peele Cat Caper

Keanu Reeves will fittingly voice thetitular cat inKeegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peeles upcoming movie, Keanu.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, director Peter Atencio explained that he, Key and Peele were initially wary about reaching out to Reeves due to thesimilarities between their movie andJohn Wick(beyond the name itself): In Wick, Reeves character seeks vengeance on Russian mobsters who kill his dog, while Keanu finds Key and Peele trying to track down a kitten stolen by gangsters.

At the behest of Warner Bros., however, Atencio said they reached out to Reeves, but his representatives declined. Who knows if he ever even heard about the offer, Atencio said. But then we got a call after the trailer came out apparently, his sister showed him the trailer and said, Hey, you gotta see this. Youre gonna love this! He flipped out and got in touch with us directly to say If theres anything I can do, lets make this work.'

To fit Reeves in the nearly completed film, Atencio said they expanded a scene where Keanu the cat guides Peeles character through a drug trip. With Reevesfilming John Wick 2 in Italy at the time, he went to a Rome recording studio and spent about an hour recording dialog with Atencio, who called in via Skype.

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The studio [Warner Bros.]was wanting him to drop a bunch of references to his old movies, Atencio said. But we didnt want to make it overt or too pointed. We dont want him to do, like, his Bill and Ted voice and beat you over the head with it. And he had great ideas for lines. He was having fun with it.

Atencio added that while the cat, and movie, were named forReeves as an act of love for his movies, and especially the kind of movies that he makes, Keanu doesnt try to make a big deal out of theconnection. We didnt want it to be something where youre just kind of waiting for the big Keanu payoff, which is why its cool that hes involved in this way its a subtle way of acknowledging that of course hes the direct inspiration for that name.

Keanu premiered at SXSW in March, and opens in theaters on April 29th.