Dennis Hopper has apparently been talking about a return to one of his more successful movies — in 1994’s “Speed”, where he played a mad bomber. The film also starred Keanu Reeves as an L.A.P.D. Swat cop who must stop a runaway bus filled with explosives designed to go ka-blooey if the bus slows down past 50 miles per hour; co-star Sandra Bullock, who became a star after the movie, played a Good Samaritan who ends up driving the runaway bus. Now, The Guardian (via) is reporting that Hopper is preparing to return to the land of runaway vehicles (a bus in part one, a cruise ship in part two), but how can that be, when Hopper’s character was killed at the end of part one?

It’s a pretty long, boring article, but here’s the important part to us:

He certainly isn’t in the mood to discuss any of the half a dozen films he is due to appear in this year, a roster which is due to include a performance in Speed 3, even though I have plenty of questions about that. Surely his character Howard Payne died in a decapitation incident in the last reel of Speed 1? “It’s a river of shit,” he tells me pleasantly but firmly, “from which I have tried to extract some gold.”

Interesting…

The 1994 original and the 1997 sequel were both directed by Jan De Bont, and both starred Sandra Bullock. Reeves left after part one, and was replaced by Jason Patric as a kinda/kinda-not same character as the one Reeves played. It’s really confusing, and since most people are in agreement that Part two kinda really sucked, not worth going into.

I’m guessing Hopper won’t be playing the same character as his mad bomber. That just wouldn’t make sense. There’s no reason why he can’t just play another character completely, say a boss of the hero or something, and continue the formula from the previous two films. May I suggest a runaway ice cream truck this time?