It's been almost a decade since Keanu Reeves wrapped up 'The Matrix' trilogy, and over five years since his 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' remake, and in the interim Reeves has kept quiet. Sure, he's done some indie films, and produced a documentary, but he's been off the big screen for a while. But now he's signed on to star in 'Passengers,' which will return him to science fiction.

News comes from Deadline that Reeves will topline 'Passengers' for director Brian Kirk. Kirk is best known for helming episodes of 'Boardwalk Empire' and 'Game of Thrones' and was in the running to direct 'Thor: The Dark World.' They'll be working from a script by original 'Prometheus' scribe Jon Spaihts that's described as a story about

a spacecraft transporting thousands of people to a distant colony planet that has a malfunction in one of its sleep chambers. As a result, a single passenger (Reeves) is awakened 90 years before anyone else. Faced with the prospect of growing old and dying alone, he eventually decides to wake up a second passenger, marking the beginning of what becomes a unique love story."

More recently, Reeves is in post production with his directorial debut 'Man of Tai Chi' and we'll eventually see him in the long delayed '47 Ronin.' This sounds intriguing, and Reeves is usually good in sci-fi because it often allows him to look sad.

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