'Exposed' Release Date & News: Director of Keanu Reeves' New Cop Thriller Quits After Original Hispanic Storyline Gets Scrapped

The director of "Exposed," Keanu Reeves' latest movie offering, has removed his name from the project after claiming that its original Hispanic storyline was scrapped.

According to the NY Post's Page Six, Declan Dale, a pseudonym for indie filmmaker Gee Malik Linton, legally battled to remove his name from the movie because he disagreed with Reeves and production studio Lionsgate Premiere over the project's direction.

The tabloid reported that in 2014, Reeves signed up for "Exposed," originally titled "Daughter of God," with Spain-based actress Ana de Armas. The actor signed up as the project's producer as well.

"Daughter of God" tells the story of a young Latina and her Dominican family, with Reeves only intended for a small white male role, the news outlet added. However, the producers presented the idea to Lionsgate as a cop thriller and not as what Linton originally planned -- a serious drama highlighting the social issues experienced by women.

"It was [originally] a 60 percent Spanish-language film," a friend of Linton told Page Six. "(But) they wanted to turn the movie into a Keanu Reeves cop thriller, and the director was adamant against it."

When Linton submitted a version of the film to the editor, Herve de Luze, Lionsgate allegedly told the director that they purchased an action movie, not a drama, the source revealed to Page Six. Linton then bought the project back through a deal and it was reportedly sent back for the re-editing process, with Reeves acting as supervisor.

"It's Keanu's movie, it's all about him," the tabloid's insider claimed. "They took out the whole Dominican family. It went from 126 minutes to 102 minutes and (became) a boilerplate action thriller. That's his version."

Reeves' representative denied the issue and said that the actor "did not supervise any of the editing," Page Six reported. A source with knowledge of the film added that the project "is the same film it always was" and Reeves was "never in the editing room," the news outlet noted.

Aside from Reeves and de Armas, "Exposed" also stars Christopher McDonald, Mira Sorvino, Big Daddy Kane, Venus Ariel, Michael Rispoli, Gabriel Vargas, and Laura Gómez, Moviefone listed.

As provided by SlashFilm, the movie's official synopsis reads: "When a detective starts to investigate his partner's shocking death, he uncovers disturbing evidence of police corruption and a dangerous secret involving an unlikely young woman."

"Exposed" debuts in theaters and on iTunes on Jan. 22, 2016, the news outlet reported. Watch the trailer below.