Trivia for
The Watcher (2000/I) More at IMDbPro »

• Third-billed Keanu Reeves gave his verbal agreement to director Joe Charbanic several years before production started, after reading his original script. With his involvement, the filmakers were later able to attract a bigger cast and budget than originally envisioned, and Reeves' part (originally meant as little more than a cameo) was substantially rewritten to feature him more prominently. Reportedly Keanu Reeves, who would be paid scale while his costars James Spader and Marisa Tomei would get $1,000,000 paychecks tried to drop out of the film but eventually changed his mind (apparently influenced by the legal precedent of the Kim Basinger/Boxing Helena (1993) debacle). He eventually agreed to do the picture and abstain from bad mouthing it in interviews on the condition that his involvment in the film be downplayed in all promotional material for the film, including trailers.
  
  
• In the opening scene, Keanu Reeves dances to the Rob Zombie song "Dragula" while doing kung fu moves behind green lighting. This is a homage to his previous blockbuster, The Matrix (1999).
  
  
• Universal reportedly paid $5 million to acquire the North American distribution rights of this movie.
  
  

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