Carrie-Anne Moss signs on to sequels -- will she be joined by Jet Li?
April 24, 2000
It's been a while since we wrote about The Matrix so we figured it was a good time to catch up on all the news and rumors swirling around its highly anticipated sequels. The big news this week is that Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity) has officially signed on to both Matrix 2 and 3 (according to Variety), and will join the shoot this fall after wrapping up her current commitments.
These commitments include a film called Chocolat, co-starring with Johnny Depp -- its production begins in Europe this May. But before that movies opens, fans can catch Moss on the big screen in The Crew with Burt Reynolds, which opens this August, and then in another sci-fi flick (Red Planet) with Val Kilmer, opening in November.
Moss' return to The Matrix fold means that the core cast is back, as Laurence Fishburne (Morpheus) and Keanu Reeves (Neo) are already aboard for both sequels. The Wachowski Brothers will again write and direct, as previously announced, and uber-producer Joel Silver will be back to keep things honest. We've also seen scattered reports that Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith) might return too, but that's yet to be confirmed.
Trinity's return was expected, but a more surprising addition is the possible inclusion of rising star Jet Li. According to our sister site IGN Movies, Jet Li is enthusiastic about the franchise, and Silver is just as excited about bringing the box office draw aboard. Reportedly both sides are ready to start talking but negotiations have yet to begin.
While the cast is definitely firming up, actual plot details are few and far between. First, here's a breakdown of what seems definite at this early date: the city of Zion, last surviving stronghold of humanity, will almost certainly play a major role in the sequels. Evidence? The Wachowski Brothers themselves, while in an online chat with fans back when the DVD was released, were asked why we never got to see Zion in the first film. Their answer: "We're saving that for The Matrix 2."
Everything else we've heard qualifies as a rumor though, no matter how exciting these tidbits sound. After all, the scripts haven't even been written yet! Still, if you're even remotely worried about spoilers, you might want to skip down to the end of this article.
First off, the filmmakers' biggest concern has to be topping the remarkable special effects shown in the first film. As cool as the slow motion fighting and bullet dodging was in the first film, they can't just shoot another version of the same action. Audiences demand more, and it sounds like they'll get it.
The word is that special effects house Manex Entertainment (now known as MVFX) has been asked to come up with some killer concepts for the Wachowski Brothers before they even sit down and begin to work on the script. A while back IGN Movies posted an interesting report on what one of these alleged concepts was supposed to be -- a group of Agents are chasing Neo through some city streets. It seems that Neo with his newfound abilities can now outpace the Agents easily, except that the Agents keep warping into the bodies of different drivers, making them very hard to shake.
Another chase scene might be set in the free city of Zion. According to Dark Horizons, some storyboards have been spotted that show a pursuit around the city's 'Core Conscience', a mainframe computer that looks like London's Big Ben.
And finally, it sounds like Trinity is going to have a much rougher ride in the second film. According to the SF Crow's Nest, she gets kidnapped by Agents and taken into a different virtual reality, forcing Neo to go in after her in order to effect a rescue. This same source suggests we'll then find out that Trinity is a double agent who's been working for the Agents all along! A similar rumor popped up on Dark Horizons, leading us to believe there might be some grain of truth to this.
Still, how could Trinity be a double agent? She had plenty of opportunities to betray her comrades in the first movie but didn't, so what's the deal? It's not out of the question though -- perhaps the Agents get some kind of hold on her that forces her to change sides. Or maybe on a subsequent trip inside The Matrix she's replaced by an artificial intelligence programmed to look exactly like her. Stranger things have happened in film.
Or maybe -- and this is our favorite "What If?" scenario -- maybe the 'reality' that we were shown in the first film turns out to be only another layer of illusion. Just as we learned that the 'real world' is only a computer-generated Matrix created by rogue AIs, perhaps we'll learn in the second film that the Agents, the human batteries, and the freehold of Zion are also false, another illusion created by a third group whose hand remains unseen. Like a Philip K. Dick book, layers of reality keep peeling back like the skin of an onion.
So what's the real scoop? No one knows for sure, but we're confident that the Wachowski Brothers can at least top their previous outing in the second film and even keep the pacing up in the third film. Often times the third film in a trilogy is the weakest, since by that time everybody's completely burnt out on the whole thing, but here the Brothers are shooting the two sequels back to back, which should keep the cast and crew that much more fresh. And their plan to release the two sequels within months of each other also makes a cliffhanger ending for 2 a definite possibility.
The Matrix 2 and 3 will start production next fall.
Matrix 101 (copyright scifi.ign.com)
Keanu's spectacular blockbuster is now being taught as a philosophy course.
January 12, 2000
Watching Keanu Reeves back in the Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure days, did anyone ever think that there would someday be a college course based on one of his movies? Well, now there is. One word for that, and you all know what it is. OK, OK: "Whoa!"
Yes, The Matrix is now the focus of an introductory philosophy class at the University of Washington in Seattle. According to Sci-Fi Wire, instructor David Nixon based the class on the philosophical themes and religious archetypes of the film. Nixon got the idea after seeing the film five times in theaters and realizing that it served to illustrate such concepts as perception, the mind and free will.
"The movie presents a lot of good, concrete scenarios that serve as thought experiments for getting students thinking about these traditional philosophical problems," he told Sci-Fi Wire.
Nixon also notes that there are some aspects of the film which are not as, shall we say...academic. "I must admit, the last half of the movie is not as philosophical and has a lot more butt-kicking," he said. We should make a joke here equating kickass action to some kind of philosophical concept, but we're too busy formulating our lesson plans for a slate of companion courses: "Buffy as Pop Cultural Turning Point in the History of Women's Rights," "The Semiotics of Xena: Warrior Princess," and "Q or Spock? The Eternal Debate."
Matrix Goes Anime (copyright scifi.ign.com)
Joel Silver says the prequel is too big for film, should be animated.
December 23, 1999
A prequel to The Matrix is under consideration, according to producer Joel Silver, but the story might be too big and expensive for conventional filmmaking, leaving animation as the only alternative.
"[The Wachowski brothers] have a story that essentially gets us from our world today to the world of The Matrix," Silver told UK movie magazine Empire recently. "We're talking about dealing with that story in animation, because it would be really impractical to shoot a war between man and machine in live action."
If you recall the backstory in The Matrix, you know that intelligent robots created by humans eventually revolted, took control of the planet, and imprisoned humanity in organic battery packs. One way to present this massive struggle would be to follow the lead of Japanese animation.
"The boys are very big fans of Japanese Anime -- Ghost in the Shell and Akira -- and we may involve that style in some kind of animation," Silver said.
Another possibility might be involving the website in the prequel.
"We're very excited also about our web activity," Silver told the magazine. "The Matrix website was full of content, and we're discussing involving animation and the web site."
Currently, the official site is working on online comics created by such diverse talents as Neil Gaiman, Bill Sienkiewicz, Harlan Ellison, and Poppy Z. Brite.
As for the sequels to The Matrix, which would be shot as live action films, Silver said the Wachowski brothers are writing them right now. To read the complete interview with Silver, [see below].
Hot-shot producer Joel Silver reveals the secrets of The Matrix to UK's
EMPIRE magazine
One of the few producers alive who may lay claim to the title auteur, Joel Silver remains one of Hollywood's last heavyweights. A producer rivalled only in spectacle by the likes of the late Don Simpson and partner Jerry Bruckheimer, Silver's films have earned a combined world-wide gross of more than $3 billion, 14 of them taking over $100 million.
Released on VHS and DVD this week, the Silver-produced The Matrix breaks ground once again, the latter format revealed to contain an option allowing you to go behind-the-scenes while watching the film at various crucial points with Silver's making-of augmenting both formats. Empire Online tracked Silver down to his luxurious Claridge's suite to discuss one of the films of the year.
At what stage did you come on board on The Matrix?
I had acquired their script Assassins. .they saw me struggling to try to deliver what they intended and they said 'Why don't you read this other script we have, you might be able to help us with it. So I read [The Matrix] very early on. It even went further than the movie as it exists. They travel to Zion; you see another act of what will be the first act, I guess, of the sequel. It was a staggering read.
Of all the jaw-dropping sequences, the Kung-Fu fights stand out. What was the brothers' thinking behind these?
They were passionate that all four principal actors - Hugo, Keanu, Lawrence and Carrie-Anne - all be skilled in Kung-Fu, so that they could shoot those scenes in a style relatively new to Western audiences. Our style is to fool the audience to believe that they're watching the real actors in a fight when they weren't.
You wereresponsible for re-inventing the action genre with both the DieHard and Lethal Weapon films. Do you think The Matrix has donethe same?
I think that we intended to look at the action genre a little differently, and to approach the story of an action movie a little differently. Larry and Andy were able to take standard action genre fare, and tip it a little on its head. When we first showed the movie, people thought there was so much talk in the beginning that the audience wouldn't accept the dialogue. But since the directors were always fans of serial fiction, their intention was to continue the story and to literally create an arena where superheroes could exist in a realistic society, and not a Saturday morning animated television show aesthetic. The last shot is Keanu's character, Neo, flying past the camera. That allowed them to set up a series of movies that will now expand that idea.
At what stage are Larry and Andy at with The Matrix 2 & 3 ?
They're writing now.
There were rumours of a prequel...
They have a story that essentially gets us from our world today to the world of The Matrix. We're talking about dealing with that story in animation, because it would be really impractical to shoot a war between man and machine in live action. The boys are very big fans of Japanese Anime - Ghost in the Shell and Akira - and we may involve that style in some kind of animation. We're very excited also about our web activity. The Matrix website was full of content, and we're discussing involving snimation and the web site.
The DVD has the web-site on it - why?
The website that existed for the movie will be preserved forever. We planned to do things with the DVD early on in making the movie. Our cinematographer Bill Pope - his son is a young filmmaker, and he was on set and said 'Look, I'd like to shoot every day behind the scenes - is that possible?' We photographed behind-the-scenes footage every single day, which allowed us to have so much alternative activity on the DVD."
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