When Mary refuses to testify against Neal, the charges are dropped. The police nevertheless hold him on the false premise of suspicion of burglary. After spending a two weeks in jail, Neal is released. He goes to Joan's house, but finds it empty; he waits, but eventually it is obvious she isn't coming back. He walks back down the porch, steals a car, and disappears. Neal finishes writing the letter and places it in an envelope. Walking away, he throws the pages of his novel into the air, paper flying and landing everywhere. In a June 1997 interview with "E!", Keanu Reeves recalled "I knew Stephen. He had written this script about Neal Cassady. I told him I dug it. "I dug it, brother"—one of the most fun things about the piece was calling everybody "brother." I love that fraternity. "Hey, brother." "Hey, brother, man."—and a couple of months down the road, Stephen asked if I was interested in playing Harry." He also revealed he was a fan of Cassady and other Beat writers as a teenager, reflecting that "To me, these writers represented the epic language they used invoking the Greek and Roman gods. That Bacchus and Dionysian aspect resonated with me, and I used that to try and read my life and break out of myself, search for new sensations--living the moment, staying up late, traveling, experiencing." To better suit the role of Harry, Reeves allowed his weight to balloon out to 200 pounds. However, he had already gained a substantial amount of weight prior to accepting the role; this was due to a back injury he sustained in a game of hockey during the lead up to the filming of 1996's "Chain Reaction". Reeves appeared at his normal weight in "Feeling Minnesota"—released on September 1996 between "Chain Reaction" (August 1996) and "The Last Time I Committed Suicide" (June 1997)—since it was filmed prior to "Chain Reaction" and the hockey injury. After screening at the 1997 edition of the Sundance Festival in Utah, "The Last Time I Committed Suicide" was picked up by indie distributor Roxie Releasing. Their strategy for the film was to give it a platform release. Producer Peter Locke stated in early 1997 that "this is a film that appeals to a select niche and will be review-driven." The film would end up making only $46,362 against a budget of $4 million, following its release on June 20, 1997.