Keanu Reeves wanted to explore immortality and loneliness in debut novel The Book of Elsewhere

Moving beyond the comic's action-packed panels, the novel dives deep into the heart of a character who's lived for centuries, yearning for meaning.

As Keanu puts it, "I wanted a character who’s not like, 'Oh, I'm so bored,' but it’s like, 'F**k, this is gonna end badly again.'"

How did this collaboration of Keanu Reeves the movie star and China Miéville the writer come about?

Keanu: The first works I read of China's was Three Moments of an Explosion, which is a collection of short stories – and I was, no pun intended, blown away... just the varieties of tone, the emotions that I felt for the characters and in the stories, the pleasure of these fantastical circumstances... it was just a delight to read.

So when the opportunity came to consider a novelisation based upon a comic book which I was involved with called BRZRKR, I was asked who would I think of to write the novel, and immediately I thought of China.

China: Keanu approached me, and I was incredibly moved and excited. His work has been very important to me – it's not just that it's fun, exciting entertainment, but especially some of the science fiction works have also focused on some of the deeper questions and the philosophical aspects... Keanu's work for me has always bridged that gap between entertainment and thoughtfulness in a way that the best pulp can do.

How did the writing process work – and how did it work transforming a comic book into a novel?

China: I was pleasantly surprised by how unrestrictive it was, that was one of the key takeaways for me of our first conversation. In terms of the nuts and bolts of the storyline of the comic, that was all pretty much open for play.

Keanu: I always wanted them to be have an independence, that you could read the novel and enjoy it without reading the comic, and you could read the comic without reading the novel.

China: We're always keen to say this is a novel inspired by the comic book, it's not a novel set in the same universe. It's a different take on the same characters, so it was a question of establishing boundaries: what was important to Keanu, and what was up for discussion and debate.

How else is The Book of Elsewhere different to the BRZRKR comic book?

Keanu: In the comic book, you're with the character, but really, it's like, how do other people react to him? Do they want something from him? Do they want to use him? Do they want to kill him?

China: Whereas you have more space for interiority with a novel. Comics are also very good at displaying violence, because you're literally seeing these almost balletic images, which becomes very farcical if you do it in prose. I never burdened Keanu with these drafts, but some of the very early drafts of the fight scenes I rewrote, because it didn't work as prose. It just wasn't doing the same thing.

The book explores life, death and immortality… what themes did you hope to explore through the character of 'B'?

Keanu: I would say this is quite a personal work for me… The loneliness of the character I feel is much more of a lynchpin in the novel, more explored than it is in the comic book, which I really appreciated. That yearning for company, someone who feels so alone for 80,000 years... that emotion is very much amplified and explored in the novel, so I really enjoyed that.

The only thing for me was I didn't want to have an exhausted immortal. I wanted a character that's looking to regain their humanity. I didn't want them to be bored with humanity, or with life, so I thought that China played a nice tonal level with... not exhaustion, but a weariness born from experience and outcomes.

Keanu, there's a live-action film based on the comic in the works at Netflix, as well as an anime series... what's next?

Keanu: My hope is that other artists and other mediums can tell stories from this source material, so yeah, we're working on an anime, working on a film... China has a wonderful idea of doing an epic poem – not that he would scribe, but that idea of having another artist explore that idea... that's all we got so far!

Is this book the beginning of something? Do you have plans to collaborate again?

Keanu: I wouldn't say no! But China's very busy…

China: I mean, I wouldn't say no either!

Keanu: We’ll have to see – but I wouldn't say no.

China: It was such a pleasure collaborating... We're both very busy people, but if we could make something like this work in the future, I'd be delighted.

Keanu: Let's do a comic book…

China: I'm in. OK, done!

The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville is available to buy now.

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