Keanu Reeves to star in upcoming sci-fi film 'Replicas'

Keanu Reeves will star in the upcoming film "Replicas."YouTube/Freestyle Digital Media

Keanu Reeves unveiled the first trailer for his upcoming film "Replicas" at the New York Comic-Con. The movie is a sci-fi thriller about human cloning and is set to drop next year.

The movie is about a neuroscientist named William Foster (Reeves) who, after losing his wife and three kids in a car accident, proceeds to clone their bodies and transfer their consciousness to the new ones. The film looks to be quite an adrenaline rush, while also raising big moral and ethical questions about life, death, and human cloning.

Aside from the legal trouble he risks by running an underground cloning facility, the movie raised the moral stakes when Foster confessed to his wife about the reality of her being. "I didn't defy every natural law there is just to lose you again," the protagonist said at the end of the trailer.

"There are some moral questions, some ethics questions about bringing someone back," director Jeffery Nachmanoff said in a report from Deadline. "You always have a price to pay when you fool around with Mother Nature."

"It's been a process I really love," Reeves told the audience at the New York Comic-Con. "Developing an idea, a character and a world." The potential of the story can be seen in the trailer, and it will not be surprising if the world that "Replicas" builds will spawn more future films.

Interestingly, the family-based narrative makes room for a lot of heart while remaining in the context of futuristic science fiction. "I love science fiction," added Reeves. "I love the Trojan horse of it ...all other genres can fit inside science fiction."

"Replicas" will mark the return of Reeves to sci-fi. The actor is considered as Comic-Con royalty for his role as Neo in the iconic sci-fi classic "The Matrix." He also served as executive producer for the new project, which also stars Alex Eve and Thomas Middleditch.