billed Keanu Reeves (qv) gave his verbal agreement to  director Joe Charbanic (qv) 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 (qv) and Marisa Tomei (qv) 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 (qv)/_Boxing Helena (1993)_ (qv)  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.