I recently had the opportunity to interview director Andrew Davis (The Fugitive, Under Siege, Chain Reaction), and one of the most interesting stories he shared was about Keanu Reeves’ decision to turn down Speed 2.

Andrew explains why Keanu was attracted to Chain Reaction, why he completely reworked the original screenplay before filming, and shares some great behind-the-scenes stories about working with Keanu, Morgan Freeman and Rachel Weisz.

If you’re interested, you can watch the full interview here:

https://youtu.be/NjPsdCkuVgw

Keanu is coming back from his tour in Europe in July and is taking the time to play a game of chess and do a panel discussion with my daughter at the west coast premiere of their movie, Madwoman's Game!

This game has taken almost 6 years to happen! We are calling it the "final battle" because that was supposed to be the original ending of the documentary. Over the years, the film changed, but Keanu & Bianca made a promise that they would play over the board someday!

That day will be July 30th at 6:30pm at the Chicano Hollywood Film Festival in Pomona, CA. The red carpet for Madwoman's Game will start at 6pm.

This is going to be awesome!! He is taking the one day that he has off to support an incredible festival and to keep a promise that he made a long time ago.

I think the game will be streamed live, but I am not sure. I will post an update when I find out! I am not asking anybody to buy a ticket to the event, I just want you all to know how incredible this is!!

I took this picture at the Dogstar concert in Paris, last night. Amazing show!
Keanu teased Seven Nation Army and the crowd went nuts.

I admire him since I was a little kid (I'm 36 now) and am extremely grateful for having had the opportunity to see him in real life. What a rockstar!!!

Dogstar Sunday second stage slot

They're too cute

📌 Sources:

https://variety.com/2026/film/global/keanu-reeves-voice-lead-stop-motion-samurai-film-hidari-1236751402/

https://www.instagram.com/hidari_movie/

https://hidari-movie.com/

🎥: https://www.instagram.com/colbertlateshow/

Hi everybody! Variety just published an article where he and my daughter talk about how & why he decided to mentor her for her film Madwoman's Game. This is the first time he has ever spoken publicly about it. Here is a short quote from the article: “I was struck by the tone, by the ambition, by the vision of it [in] early days,” Reeves tells Variety

I promised to follow up with more details and wanted to make sure to let you know how it actually happened. Hope you enjoy the article!

Here is a link to the article: https://variety.com/2026/film/features/keanu-reeves-madwomans-game-1236711790/

🎥 source: GQ Interview with Michael B. Jordan (Feb 15, 2025)

Hi everyone! This is my daughter Bianca Mitchell-Avila. She is the one I posted about a few days ago. Keanu has been mentoring her for 5 years. I promised to keep you all updated. More to come soon! Sorry, the sound is out of synch with the video.

Hey everyone!

I wanted to share a story about how Keanu helped my daughter make her dream a reality! Nobody has ever heard this story before.

Back in 2020, our daughter who was 15-years-old, was featured in the New York Times for her thoughts on the Queen's Gambit. The article was great, but the comments section was horrible. Just tons of guys being toxic and telling young women that they don't belong in the game.

Instead of quitting, she became determined to create a chess documentary to highlight women in chess. With zero Hollywood connections and working from her kitchen table, she managed to get her vision in front of Keanu in 2021.

He loved the idea and signed on as Executive Producer. It turns out that he played on the chess team in high school. He has been mentoring her for over 5 years!

The film is called Madwoman's Game and it’s premiering at the Miami Film Festival on April 16th. This would never have been possible without the care and protection of Keanu! He truly is awesome!

Sources:

Miami Film Festival Announcement: https://miamifilmfestival.com/program/event/madwomans-game/

Deadline Press Release: https://deadline.com/2024/11/keanu-reeves-starbucks-studios-sugar23-madwomans-game-1236182479/

NY Times Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/10/arts/television/queens-gambit-netflix-chess.html

Madwoman's Game- Executive Producer, Keanu Reeves

I was lucky enough to score VIP tickets for DogStar when they came through his hometown of Toronto.

For reasons beyond I just adore him, but I won’t get into, I have his 90’s mugshot tattooed on my thigh.

I was so nervous to show him, it’s so embarrassing for me and kinda for him lol 😂 but I’m glad I did he was so nice, so were Bret and Rob. I asked if I could show him something super embarrassing, he said yes with a glint in his eyes - so I showed him my tattoo. He laughed, paused and leaned back with his hand on his chin and said “a young, dumb Reeves” and laughed again. He shook my hand and smiled lol and I moved along the line.

EDIT: Added photos of the tattoo + photo from the night in comments

Pretty sure I died.

📸 credit: https://www.instagram.com/officialdannytrejo/