INTERVIEW: Andy Jones and Joel Silver talk about THE ANIMATRIX and THE MATRIX RELOADED!

In recent interviews for the upcoming Animatrix short, The Final Flight Of Osiris, we got a chance to site down with super action producer, Joel Silver, and Animatrix animation director, Andy Jones.

Was there a bid out for The Animatrix? Did people bring in pieces? How did you end up with the job?

Andy Jones: Actually, The Wachowski Brothers sought us out. They looked at a lot of Japanese Anime companies that were doing some very creative and interesting work and people that they respected. I mean, they went to Japan and got all these great directors. They also liked what we had been doing as far as Final Fantasy (the look of it) and they thought it would be a great medium to tell the story.

There seemed to be two parts to Final Flight of The Osiris. Is that something the you had consciously decided at the beginning or did it just end up that way?

Andy Jones: There's kind of a first and second act…and it was planned out that way. The first act is setting up the feeling and emotion and a little bit of set up of the characters and who they are. Then you get into the whole idea of what the story's about and what the Wachowski's wanted to tell, which is the Sentinel army and the existence of it and that they need to get this information to Zion. That's the last thing that they [The Osiris Crew] can do. They can't possibly take out all the Sentinels that are after them.

Did they come to you and say we specifically want you to do the one that's going theatrical?

Joel Silver: The whole thing started when we went to Japan in September of '99. The Wachowski's always had this scheme that, being big fans of Japanese Anime, they wanted to find a way to incorporate their story in this process. The key is to be clear that they wanted to tell a story in multiple mediums. Anime is one of the mediums which was available to them to tell the story. When the notion came up to do these and Warner Brothers Home Video go on board the plan was to have one story, Final Flight of The Osiris which really sets up the entire saga. It begins Reloaded. I see it as The Matrix 1.5. It really starts the story from here on. The plan was always to do that in the most sophisticated and the most spectacular animation fashion. That's what let them to Square [USA, INC.] and led them to Andy. At that time we had other hopes and plans for Square, however Square didn't last much longer after we finished this movie. They [The Wachowski Brothers] wanted this story and they wanted it to be really incredible. It just worked out that Dreamcatcher was coming out and Larry Kazdan was a giant fan of The Matrix and we wanted the fans to be able to watch this on the big screen. This is not promotional it's part of the story. We really thought if we could get this up before the movie opened and give people a chance to see it and understand it, it would lead them right into Reloaded.

This thing is spectacular. Watching it you begin to think why pay an actor twenty five million dollars when this is so easy. Is it easy?

Joel Silver: No, it's not easy. With all the wonderful work Andy has done in Final Flight, which is spectacular, we are far beyond it in the movie. I mean, we've gone far further than this. I think you can use animation, in my opinion, as a tool to aid you to do things that you can't do with real actors. There are certain parts of this opening scene, the fight scene, the sparing program which came of the boys [Wachowski's] saying this is what sex is like in the Matrix. That's where the sparing program came from. There are things in that that you can't do with real actors or it'd be extremely expensive. In the first Matrix there was no Nebokenezer. It was all done in computer animation. When it was over we wanted the ship and we actually had to have it made because it didn't exist as a model. There are things that you can do with animation that you can't do in real life but to replace the actor is just a…stupid idea.

Will there be other Animatrix shorts running before movies?

Joel Silver: No. There're two already on the net. The first one had four million downloads in the first month. Some of the hardware companies were shocked that there was that much memory out there and people were able to accept all those downloads. The second one, Program, had two hundred and fifty thousand in the first hour.

Is there any concern that people will come to watch the short film and not stay for Dreamcatcher?

Joel Silver: I hope that doesn't happen. I think that Larry [Kazdan] made a wonderful movie and I think it's scary. I like those kind of movies. I hope that they work together.

We used to see shorts before movies all the time and this is a nice throwback. Do you think we'll be seeing more shorts before movies?

Joel Silver: The problem is that exhibition is always so disturbed by it. The Theater owners think that audiences wont want them. They sit and watch twenty five trailers, why wont they…I think if it's something that's fun…I loved that little short that Mike Judge did. Office Space was a short first and I saw it once in the theater. I thought that was great. I don't know if we'll see more of these but it works great for us.

So, is the reason that we're not seeing more of this because the exhibitors don't want it?

Joel Silver: Exhibition, I think, is concerned about it. One of the reasons this happened is because Larry Kasdan said “let's do it”. It all has to work together.

What kind of business is the first sequel going to have to do to be considered a success? Is it going to have to rival The Lord of the Rings Trilogy to be considered a huge success like the first Matrix was?

Joel Silver: I can't speak to that. It's an R rated movie and I don't know what it's going to do. I'm telling you the movie is sensational. It's going to blow people away. The ideas behind it and the visual effects are staggering. There are some things that you can not belief you're going to see.

Can you mention some of those things?

Joel Silver: Absolutely not. [Laughter fills the room]

Are both movies finished?

Joel Silver: The first one is being finished as we speak. The second one is finished shooting but it's not done yet. They have a lot of work to do.

How many movies do you have coming out this year?

Joel Silver: Four. Cradle to the Grave, both Matrix movies, and one of my Dark Castle movies with Halle Barry which comes out next Halloween.

What about your comic book movies? Are you still developing Wonder Woman and Swamp Thing?

Joel Silver: Yes. We'll we have access to the DC [DC Comics] people and I there's such a proliferation of comic book movies out there right now that I'm not going to do Wonder Woman until we have the material to make it really cool. We're working very hard to get great material to make the movie what I think it has to be. I don't want to just put another Superhero movie out there and say “OK, that ones done”.

What is your next mid-level budget movie?

Joel Silver: Well, I was always fascinated with an old 60's movie called Superbly which I kind of wanted to play with.

With Ron O'neal?

Joel Silver: Well, not with Ron. But yes, that's the movie. I have a plan of making a different version of that.

So next year are the two Matrix movies going to be competing with each other for best picture?

Joel Silver: Please, I don't even think about that stuff.

The prelude to The Matrix Reloaded hits theaters with Dreamcatcher this Friday...

Stay tuned for more on The Animatrix and The Matrix Reloaded by keeping your eyes on our Movie Vault

'Animatrix' is perfect foil for 'Matrix' marketing blitz

By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY

A blindfolded man and woman dance around each other, swords in hand, swooping and flicking at each other's clothing until both are stripped to their underwear.

One of the blindfolded combatants in Final Flight of the Osiris.

Welcome back to The Matrix.

Though it's not a scene from the much-anticipated sequel to the 1999 sci-fi fantasy hit, it is the opening shot of Final Flight of the Osiris, an 11-minute computer-generated film that serves as a preview of The Matrix Reloaded, which arrives in theaters May 15

The short, one of a nine-part series known as The Animatrix, will be released Friday and will screen with Dreamcatcher, a Warner Bros. movie that opens Friday.

It is the start of an unprecedented marketing campaign to whet the appetite of fans of 1999's The Matrix, which grossed $171.4 million at the box office.

Aside from Reloaded and the third installment of the trilogy, The Matrix Revolutions, due Nov. 7, fans of the sci-fi fantasy can get their fixes in just about any format.

Several animations are available off the Internet site www.intothematrix.com. Others will be featured before commercial films.

A video collection of all nine episodes goes on sale June 3. Enter the Matrix, a video game that incorporates elements of the films, hits shelves May 15.

Though filmmakers say the movies, shorts and video game will stand on their own, they know Matrix fans clamor for anything new from brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski, the writing/directing team who created the dark story about computers that battle humans for world dominance.

More than 1,100 Matrix fan sites are on the Internet. More than 4 million fans have downloaded at least one online animation.

"The brothers want to tell their story in many mediums, which you couldn't do a decade ago," says Joel Silver, who produced the trilogy.

Osiris tells the story of Thaddeus, captain of the hover ship Osiris, and Jue, his sexy first mate, as they try to get a message back to Zion, the sanctuary of rebel humans. The film, starring Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss, picks up the plot from there.

"You don't have to see Osiris to understand The Matrix Reloaded," Silver says. "But it helps understand the depth of the story."

Animatrix was three years in the making at animation studios in Japan, South Korea and the USA.

Osiris is directed by Andy Jones, the young computer whiz who digitally created humans in 2001's Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

Jones concedes that he was nervous when the Wachowski brothers tapped him for the directing role.

"Everyone knows The Matrix. That's legendary to us," he says. "The bar is raised, because fans have such high expectations of what's to come next."

But Animatrix has nothing if not pedigree. Running 180 minutes, the series will include features directed by legends of Japanese animé tradition, including Yoshiaki Kawajiri, who made Vampire Hunter, and Mahiro Maeda, whose Blue Submarine No. 6 has become an animated cult classic.

The names might not mean much to the average moviegoer, but the Wachowskis "are attuned to what hard-core fans want," Silver says. "And they want more than what you'd find in a movie."

Malvo's jailhouse musings focus on reggae, 'The Matrix'

By Tom Jackman and Josh White
The Washington Post

Handwritten drawings and musings taken from the jail cell of Lee Boyd Malvo include the obscure reflections of long-dead political philosophers, references to the popular movie "The Matrix" and a series of quotations from reggae music.

Psychiatrists who have examined the writings for The Washington Post say they may be the obsessive ruminations of a mentally ill prisoner or simply the aggressive imagery of an angry teenager. But they agree the writings show a confused adolescent who is smart and well-read.

The writings were taken secretly from Malvo's cell at the Fairfax County, Va., jail, photocopied and provided to investigators on the sniper task force preparing for the murder trial of Malvo, 18, and his co-defendant, John Allen Muhammad, 42, authorities said.

The men are accused in a violent cross-country odyssey of shootings that left 13 people dead, including 10 in the Washington area last fall. They also are suspected in the February 2002 slaying of a 21-year-old Tacoma woman.

Both men face capital-murder trials in Virginia this year.

Two pages of the writings feature drawings similar to photos of Malvo that appeared in The Post after his arrest. On both pages, a sniper's scope is drawn around Malvo's own head.

"The crosshairs thing on his face is a representation of how he feels — in the crosshairs of this situation," said Bruce Smoller, a forensic psychiatrist in Chevy Chase, Md.

The two pages mix pop-culture references to "The Matrix" and the songs of Bob Marley with strong allusions to the Muslim faith and references to the political theories of Hobbes, Locke, Socrates, Jefferson and others. But the interpretations sometimes seem confused or mistaken, and one long handwritten passage appears to have been copied from a book.

The writings appear on the back of Fairfax County jail forms given to Malvo when he was held apart from the other prisoners because he was a juvenile. Sheriff Stan Barry said the documents were taken directly from Malvo's cell block when he was the only prisoner there.

The handwriting also bears a resemblance to the handwriting on two of the notes left by the sniper suspects, which sources have said were written by Malvo.

Michael Arif, one of Malvo's lawyers, declined to discuss the writings. "We can't comment on whether the drawings are from him or not," Arif said. "There's nothing to preclude him from getting mail from Mr. Muhammad. We just don't know."

But Prince William County, Va., jail officials said Muhammad has sent nothing from his cell since he was transferred there from federal custody Nov. 7.

Muhammad's lawyer, Peter Greenspun, questioned the validity of the writings and said they should not be published. "It shows the media is looking for any reason to print anything in this case, whether it has merit or not," Greenspun said. "This type of reporting makes it more difficult to get a fair and neutral jury."

Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Horan Jr. declined to comment on the writings, other than to say, "They are interesting, to say the least." He would not say if they would be used as evidence at trial, but sources indicated he may show them to the jury in the penalty phase, hoping to convince jurors Malvo would pose a danger to others if he is not executed.

The writings appear focused, in part, on "The Matrix." "Free Your Mind! The Body Will Follow!" the writings say, along with, "You are a slave to the Matrix 'control,' " all references to the 1999 science-fiction film starring Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne. The film theorized that the world in 1999 was actually a computer simulation created by an evil artificial intelligence 200 years in the future. One page refers to Fishburne's time-traveling character Morpheus telling Reeves' character: "Free first your mind, trust me! The body will follow!"

Sources familiar with Malvo's six-hour interview with Fairfax police Nov. 7 said he referred to "The Matrix" and the theories it espouses several times. Prosecutors have said Malvo also told police that day he had fired the shots in at least three of the sniper shootings, including the slaying of FBI analyst Linda Franklin. Malvo faces a November trial in that killing.

Several law-enforcement sources said they are confident the drawings and writings are Malvo's. Both pages of the writing are signed "John Lee Muhammad." Sources said this was the name Muhammad gave to Malvo during their travels. Malvo has referred to Muhammad as his father.

"Dad, Taalibah, John, Mom, Salina, I'm sorry" appears just below the signatures. Taalibah, John Jr. and Salina are Muhammad's children from his second marriage, with Mildred Muhammad, who lived in Clinton, Md., during the sniper shootings. Malvo lived for a time with Muhammad and his children in Antigua.

Fred Berlin, a forensic psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University, said: "This was written by someone who seems quite disturbed and confused, someone who's quite well read, somebody who has not much trust in the world, seems angry. ... This is a view of right and wrong, and it's a very idiosyncratic view."

The psychiatrists said such writings were fairly common in jails and prison. "What you draw is kind of a reflection of what you'd be doing if you didn't have idle time on your hands," Berlin said.

2 Magazines featured "Matrix Reloaded"

Empire(UK)

Cine21(Korea)

The Matrix phone is called "the SPH-N270, "

Details on Matrix Phone Emerge

Samsung isn't talking, but more is known about the futuristic phone.

Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
Monday, March 17, 2003

A little more information on Samsung Electronics' as-yet unannounced "Matrix phone" has come out after the device received U.S. regulatory approval at the end of last week.

The phone, which is a tie-in product to the upcoming "The Matrix Reloaded" movie, is called the SPH-N270, according to documents submitted to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission by Samsung. All devices that emit radio signals require FCC approval before they can be sold in the U.S.

It is a dual-band tri-mode phone supporting the AMPS analog system and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) systems. A photo of the phone submitted to the FCC shows the Sprint PCS logo.

Few special features, beyond the design, were detailed in the documents and the handset appears to be an entry-level phone.

A Sprint representative declined to comment on the specifications of the phone or possible launch dates.

First details of the handset surfaced in February when Samsung opened a teaser Web site, at TheMatrixPhone.com, which provided no details of the telephone but did offer a chance to register for e-mail news on the device.

Samsung has yet to provide any official details of the product although a company spokesperson has confirmed the company had reached a "certain agreement" with AOL Time Warner unit Warner Bros Pictures, which is making the film.

At the CeBIT electronics fair in Hanover, Germany, last week the company was promoting its association with the movie through advertising and also some tie-in merchandise.

Tom Krazit of the IDG News Service contributed to this report.

A Leap for Realism in a 'Matrix' Teaser -- nytimes.com

By MICHEL MARRIOTT

WHEN the film adaptation of Stephen King's supernatural horror tale "Dreamcatcher" opens March 21, it will have an added attraction, and for certain moviegoers, perhaps a bigger one: a nine-minute computer-animated film that revisits the dark yet flashy science-fiction universe of "The Matrix."

The short is intended as a prelude to "The Matrix Reloaded," the first of two feature-length live-action "Matrix" sequels due this year. For weeks, the short, called "Final Flight of the Osiris," has been heavily promoted on television and in computer magazines.

"Final Flight" will offer what may be the most sophisticated expression of photorealistic, fully computer-generated imagery to date on the big screen.

"We tried to do a lot in those nine minutes," said Andy Jones, the director of the film, which took 13 months to complete. "We had to build so many sets, so many sentinels," he said, referring to mechanized hordes that look like a cross between an angry squid and a bomb.

Everything on screen, from the glint in a character's eye to the character itself, from the clouds in the virtual sky to a crack in the virtual street below, was created with software in high-powered computers. In fact, each frame - 24 per second - contains, on average, 15 layers of digital details, Mr. Jones said. The final product was transferred to film so it could be widely shown in theaters.

Mr. Jones, 30, who was the animation supervisor of the digital sinking in "Titanic," said that some of the biggest advances in "Final Flight" were in the animation of human skin, clothes and other textures. Executives at Warner Brothers, the producers of the original "Matrix" film in 1999 and its sequels, describe "Final Flight" as "chapter 1.5" of the saga. And in a "Matrix" sort of way, its story - written by the series' creators, Andy and Larry Wachowski - is simple.

In a post-apocalyptic future in which a ragtag band of humans struggle against machines that have enslaved most of humanity in a virtual world known as the Matrix, a hovercraft called the Osiris discovers the machines drilling their way to the underground holdout of free humans. The ship's crew must battle and escape thousands of sentinels long enough for the ship's beautiful first mate, Jue, to enter the Matrix and leave an emergency warning message.

That message sets up the action for "The Matrix Reloaded," which is to open on May 15. (The story line is also fleshed out with more traditional animation in eight other shorts being released this year, some of them free online at www.theanimatrix .com, and in a video game.)

Making computer-generated animation more realistic has not, however, been a recipe for box-office success. While cartoonish fare like the "Toy Story" movies, "Monsters, Inc.," "Shrek" and "Ice Age" has earned hundreds of millions of dollars, lifelike computer-generated images have generally been part of larger, live-action films like the computer-generated Golum character in last year's "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers."

"Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" (2001), for which Mr. Jones was animation director, is the only full-length photorealistic computer-generated film to date. And its lackluster performance at the box office helped lead to the demise last year of its studio, Square USA in Honolulu, a subsidiary of the Tokyo-based Square Company.

Mr. Jones said his "Final Flight" short was the last project by Square USA. But the fate of its predecessor has not discouraged him. "I think this one has a better chance," he said.

Samsung's n270 Wireless Phone Scores Lead Role in 'The Matrix Reloaded'

Sunday March 16, 8:00 am ET

Company to Market Global Sponsorship of Movie Franchise to Promote Brand And Product Positioning

NEW ORLEANS, March 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung), the third largest manufacturer of wireless handsets in the U.S., today unveiled the n270 wireless phone, a key component in Warner Bros. highly anticipated "The Matrix Reloaded," sequel to its blockbuster predecessor movie, "The Matrix." As part of Samsung's global sponsorship of the Matrix franchise, the n270 will be prominently featured throughout the movie, extending the company's brand essence and unique design perspective to new audiences.ADVERTISEMENT

With the n270, Samsung will offer die-hard Matrix followers an exclusive, limited edition and uniquely designed phone that will appeal to the movie's fan-base for both its design and functionality. The n270 is a dual band/tri mode phone and features a pop-up earpiece, TFT color screen, polyphonic ringers and a personal organizer. Additionally, Samsung's n270 will be featured on all levels of "Enter the Matrix," the movie's companion console game featuring exclusive footage not seen in the movie.

"The Matrix is a franchise that Samsung's core technology adopters identify with," said Peter Skarzynski, senior vice president of Samsung's wireless terminals division. "Through our exclusive sponsorship of this property, and through the n270's innovative design, we can reinforce our position as a leading-edge manufacturer to this loyal and enthusiastic customer base."

Samsung's partnership with "The Matrix Reloaded" is the company's latest high-profile entertainment marketing initiative and underscores the handset manufacturer's position as a highly visible, top-tier wireless phone maker. Samsung will leverage its sponsorship and the projected success of "The Matrix Reloaded" to market the n270 via non-traditional avenues, as well as to drive consumer awareness of several upcoming break-through products such as the a600, the company's first fully-embedded rotating camera phone in the U.S., and the i700, a Pocket PC and wireless phone combination device.

For additional information on Samsung's participation in "The Matrix Reloaded," please visit www.whatisthematrix.com .

About Samsung Telecommunications America

Samsung Telecommunications America, a Dallas-based subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Company, Ltd., researches, markets and develops wireless handsets and telecommunications products throughout North America. For more information, see STA's website at www.samsungusa.com/wireless .

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, and digital convergence technology. Samsung Electronics employs approximately 64,000 people in 89 offices in 47 countries. The company is the world's largest producer of memory chips, TFT-LCDs, CDMA mobile phones, monitors and VCRs. Samsung Electronics consists of four main business units: Digital Media Network, Device Solution Network, Telecommunication Network and Digital Appliance Network Businesses.

Matrix Franchise Spans Video, Theaters

Author: ENRIQUE RIVERO
erivero@advanstar.com
Posted: March 11, 2003

Producer Joel Silver and his team want to give audiences a taste of The Animatrix before the collection of animated shorts based on the hit film The Matrix arrives on video June 3.

One of the shorts, "Final Flight of the Osiris," is being paired with Dreamcatcher, a horror film directed by Lawrence Kasdan and based on a Stephen King novel, which opens theatrically March 21. The nine-minute computer-generated short will play just prior to the feature film, much as a short subject or two preceded feature films in theaters many years ago.

Two other episodes of the nine in the collection from Warner Home Video -- "The Second Renaissance: Part I" and "Program" -- are also available for free viewing at www.theanimatrix.com.

The "Osiris"/Dreamcatcher combo is intended to whet audiences’ appetite for The Matrix Reloaded, the second part of the Wachowski brothers’ Matrix trilogy set to open theatrically May 15, Silver said. The third part, The Matrix Revolutions, is due in theaters in November. “We really felt we wanted it on screens, because it lends itself to it,” Silver said. “We felt it was a good combination.”

The Animatrix will also play theatrically in Japan, Silver said.

The idea for Animatrix took root in 1999, when Silver and “the boys” -- Silver’s affectionate reference to Larry and Andy Wachowski -- were on their way home from a promotional junket for The Matrix in Japan.

They wanted to do something that blended Japanese anime with computer graphics.

“This was always their scheme, always their plan, to put something together that puts together so many mediums,” Silver said.

As for the highly publicized Matrix special edition, the release of which Warner had timed to coincide with Reloaded’s theatrical bow, Silver said those plans were scrapped because the double-disc edition was loaded with samples from the upcoming sequel.

“We don’t really want to reveal what’s in Reloaded,” Silver said.

Warner, meanwhile, will reprice its previously released Matrix edition to $19.99 and the two-pack, which also includes The Matrix Revisited, to $34.99. Price tags on both will change April 29.

Silver also hopes to do a better transfer of The Matrix for DVD.

Joel Silver says some stuff about MATRIX 2 & 3

Joel Silver says some stuff about MATRIX 2 & 3 that'll make you weep and stare at the calendar for months!Hey folks, Harry here... Oh, the agony. Can't you see... we're all trapped in BULLET TIME waiting for this one to come out. That quote of Joel's below... it is the sort of quote that makes one's head throb. Is he full of shit, overly confident, or has he just seen what we haven't yet? Dammit, the second hand just did two backsteps! ARRRGH!

Hello.

I was idly�watching TV last night here in Blighty, in particular the great decades-old movie review show Film2003, as formerly hosted by the mythical Barry Norman, now the sardonic and amusingly speech-impedimented Jonathan Ross. Interestingly,�the lisping one�claimed to have an exclusive on-set look at the�two Matrix sequels.

So I watched. Nothing massively earth-shaking to report, I'm afraid. Keanu (who is looking particularly trim)�tells us that Neo has lost the awe of the first film, and has now realised his dominion over the artificial world. Mr. Fishburne, in between particularly raucous bouts of laughter, told us that "the student has now overtaken the master", and that Morpheus is now not a teacher, but a general. Jada Pinkett-Smith said some particularly uninteresting and unenlightening things about her relationship with Morpheus and how they "come together". Everyone commented on the physicality of the shoot, and how many knocks they took.

But perhaps the most interesting was what Joel Silver had to say. He went out of his way to state that this movie will surpass all the hype, all the expectations. He even went so far,�after spouting a lot of superlatives,�as to say�that "after this, movies will never be made the same way again", and in an amusing and probably unintentional�allusion to the first film, that "The bar has been raised so high that... there is no bar".

A mega-budget producer fluffing up his own project, or a genuine belief that this will be a revolutionary film, one to reshape future movie history? We'll find out soon enough...

Oh, and by the way, there was a little bit of funky new footage, too. But I'll keep you guessing on that one...

Don Pablo

Osiris Reloads The Matrix

Joel Silver, producer of the upcoming sequel film The Matrix Reloaded, told SCI FI Wire that the computer-animated short film Final Flight of the Osiris leads directly into the highly anticipated film. Osiris?one of nine upcoming animated Animatrix shorts?will screen in theaters alongside Warner Brothers' Dreamcatcher, which opens March 21.

Reloaded "starts with Final Flight," Silver said in an interview. "You're beginning to see the story of the movie. There's a machine army. There seems to be an enormous amount of sentinels that are available. There seem to be tunneling somehow to Zion. And that starts the movie. That starts the plot."

Final Flight of the Osiris, written by The Matrix creators Andy and Larry Wachowski, is one of the anime-style shorts that make up the Animatrix. Four additional segments will be made available for download, Silver said.

"The first one was up on the Web site a month ago, on Feb. 4," Silver said. "We've had 4 million downloads of that. ... We have the new one up. ... I think we had 250,000 downloads in the first hour it went up. ... Another one will come up again in April and another one in May." The entire Animatrix will be released on DVD on June 3. The Matrix Reloaded opens in theaters May 15.

Village looks to a Matrix-led recovery

March 11 2003

Village Roadshow Ltd anticipates The Matrix movies to boost its production, exhibition and distribution businesses towards the end of 2002/03 and into 2003/04.

The group admits it also remains exposed to any negative downdraft from a war in Iraq.

The leisure house today booked a half year net profit of $46.5 million, up two per cent.

The entertainment group said its net loss from continuing operations was $17.6 million in the six months to December 31, 2002.

Village Roadshow managing director Graham Burke today said the trading results for the company's exhibition, distribution and theme parks had been very strong over the summer holidays.

Mr Burke said the company was aiming for the improvement in its first half to carry through to its full year result.

"However, the company remains exposed to negatives that could arise from a war in Iraq," he said.

In its film production unit - where it shares production risk with Warner Broas - Village increased its stake of operating profit before tax in the division by 70 per cent to $28.1 million in the first half of 2002/03.

It said some of the films released in the half - such as Pluto Nash and Analyze That - were disappointing at the box office but Ghost Ship and Two Weeks Notice exceeding expectations.

The remainder of the 2002/03 year will see the release of Dreamcatcher and The Matrix Reloaded.

The Matrix Revolutions will be released in November 2003 and going forward the division has a number of films in development such as Wonder Woman, Mystic River and Troy.

Since its recent restructure of its film finance facilities to $US900 million from $US700 million, and the increase of Village Roadshow Films to 100 per cent ownership at an incremental cost of $US123 million, the Village Roadshow group booked an expense in the half of $1.4 million for the loan provisions and set up costs.

"Going forward the increased ownership means information relating to tge production division will be consolidated into Village Roadshow's results, improved transparency of production performance," it said.

AAP

On the verge

With roles in two new movies, Monica Bellucci is about to make her move — from "beautiful unknown" to "actress in demand."
By Andre Chautard, Special to The Times

One scene of "Tears of the Sun" calls for Monica Bellucci to furiously slap Bruce Willis and spit in his face. The Italian actress was apprehensive, but Willis encouraged her to go for it.

"Maybe many women would love to have this honor and I'm the one," Bellucci says, smiling. "I came up with my Italian passion and I did my work." Willis quips, "I get the feeling that she might have slapped somebody before. I don't know." She counters that after a few takes, "he liked it."

Until now, Bellucci, 34, a former model, may be known more in this country for her beauty (she once appeared on the cover of Esquire clad only in caviar) than for her film roles, although some may recognize her as the tragic war bride and title character of Giuseppe Tornatore's "Malena." But with two provocative films that opened Friday -- the military rescue tale "Tears of the Sun" and the controversial French rape-and-revenge drama "Irréversible" -- moviegoers will see her talent, intensity and fearlessness as well.

Bellucci's string of recent roles also includes parts in the two upcoming "Matrix" sequels and the role of Mary Magdalene in director Mel Gibson's upcoming film about Jesus Christ, "The Passion."

"I think it's a good time for her," Willis says. "She's going to be a big star." He suggested Bellucci to face off against him in "Tears of the Sun," in which she plays a missionary doctor whom Navy SEAL Willis and his squadron are sent in to rescue from war-torn Nigeria. Her character refuses to leave without also leading her tiny village's group of refugees to safety.

"I think Monica is a real woman," says the film's director, Antoine Fuqua ("Training Day"). "I needed somebody that had the strength and the passion that you would believe would sacrifice herself for others."

"She's even more intelligent than she is pretty," says "Irréversible" director Gaspar Noé. "She's very independent.... She doesn't care about what other people think." "Irréversible" is so raw and startling that Bellucci has implored her mother not to see it. Unfolding in reverse, the film rewinds from a brutal act of vengeance to a lengthy, intimate bedroom-and-shower scene from earlier that day between a nude Bellucci and her real-life husband, Vincent Cassel ("Read My Lips," "Birthday Girl"), who plays her boyfriend. In the film's graphic centerpiece, Bellucci's character is violently raped and beaten by a stranger in a scene that lasts about 11 minutes.

Outrage greeted the film's premiere last year at Cannes, with some in the media denouncing the film as pornographic, and audience members at several festival screenings reportedly walked out or even fainted.

Bellucci is accustomed to defending the film, and she does, passionately and at length, over tea at a Beverly Hills hotel. "The film is like life. There are moments of beauty, moments of joy, and there are moments of pain," she says. "When you see the rape scene, it's horrible to watch because it's filmed in such a realistic way that it's unbearable." As is the scene in which Cassel's character and the couple's mutual friend, played by Albert Dupontel, hunt down and punish the man they think is the rapist.

Noé "does difficult movies, so of course I knew that I wasn't doing 'Peter Pan,' " says Bellucci. But "when you come out of one of his movies, maybe you hate it, maybe you love it, but you can't be indifferent."

Bellucci grew up in a village in central Italy. While studying law at a local university, she began modeling and eventually left school to model full time.

After seeing her photos, Francis Ford Coppola cast her as one of the vampire brides in 1992's "Bram Stoker's Dracula." "It was just a tiny little moment in the film," she says, "but for me it was the beginning of something, and I knew that what I wanted to do was act. So I went back to Europe, I started acting school and I worked hard."

She moved to Paris, where she started landing roles in French films, including 1996's "L'Appartement," on which she met Cassel. The couple, who were married in 1999, often work together (they appeared in last year's "Brotherhood of the Wolf").

Willis suggested Bellucci to Fuqua for "Tears of the Sun" after seeing "Malena" and "Under Suspicion," Bellucci's first English-language film. She was attracted to the script's humanitarian subject matter and the chance to play a courageous female character in an action film.

Scenes were shot of a developing romance between Bellucci's and Willis' characters, but most of those moments were ultimately cut, including a kiss.

"You can see the tension between them, but it's beautiful they don't have a love story because it [shows that] what happens around us is more important than ourselves," Bellucci says.

The five-month shoot in remote jungle locations in Hawaii was difficult for Bellucci, but Fuqua says she took it in stride. "She had bruises and mosquito bites and [was] walking around in mud up to her knees and honestly, I can say to you, Monica did not complain. I think that part of her personality is to tough it through, and she did."

Bellucci is so in demand that when rainstorms and accessibility issues caused the "Tears of the Sun" shoot to run over schedule by a month, she had to drop out of the role of Mina Harker in this summer's comic book adaptation "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." (Peta Wilson stepped in.)

That setback didn't slow Bellucci down. She is shooting "Secret Agents," a French spy thriller, opposite Cassel, and her film "Remember Me," an Italian domestic drama from "The Last Kiss" director Gabriele Muccino, recently topped the box office in Italy. Miramax has picked up U.S. distribution rights to the comedy "Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra," in which she plays the queen, a hit in France last year. Bellucci also will continue appearing in ad campaigns for Dolce & Gabbana.

When asked about "The Matrix Reloaded," opening this May, in which she plays a mysterious character named Persephone who tries to seduce Neo (Keanu Reeves), she smiles cryptically and, for the first time in the conversation, a rapid response is not forthcoming. She discloses that she has two scenes, and although she didn't do any of the choreographed wire work, she says, "I have another way to fight in the movie."

For now, "Irréversible" is getting most of the attention. Bellucci says that at a recent press junket for "Tears of the Sun," all journalists wanted to talk about was "Irréversible" -- "even people that didn't like the movie hated it," she says, amazed. "People are so curious about it."

Bellucci Keeps Mum About 'Matrix' Sequels

LOS ANGELES - Monica Bellucci (news) is saying little about the "Matrix" sequels

The only thing the actress will reveal about "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix: Revolutions" is her character's name: Persephone.

"(She's) dangerous, sensual, with some sense of humor," she told AP Radio. "I have another way to be dangerous ... but you'll see in the movie."

In Greek mythology, Persephone is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter who's kidnapped by Hades to be his wife in the lower world.

INTERVIEW: LORD JOEL SILVER

3.8.03
By Smilin' Jack Ruby
Contributing sources:

Okay, so yeah, we've talked to His Holiness, Lord Joel Silver, Genius of All Hollywood Filmmaking and Savior of the Action Genre before about the new Animatrix short film, Final Flight of the Osiris, but that was before I saw the film, so here we are BACK with Lord Silver and the director, Andy Jones (not the E! Online super-genius/super-sexy columnist, Anderson Jones, by the way, for those of you who know him as "Andy," too, but the animation director from Square who did the work on Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within) from the Dreamcatcher roundtables at the Park Hyatt today.

One can never interview Lord Joel enough, particularly when he's in a scoop-y mood. I mean, he said he was toying with the idea of remaking Superfly!!! HOW FUCKING COOL IS THAT??? After the semi-aborted Scott Rudin-produced attempt to bring back Shaft (Hey, Rudin – stick to lining famous American authors' pockets with option money for their great books that you'll subsequently never turn into movies and keep away from action movies), finally, someone with sense may turn one of the classics of seventies black-hero cinema (Pam Grier told me once to not call them "blaxploitation films" as she never felt exploited – you don't say "no" to Pam Grier) into a decent modern remake.

Though typically I'm against remakes, after what Silver did with House on Haunted Hill (it's ironic as Kasdan talked about how much he liked the John Carpenter-directed Thing remake today and how it got no respect when it came out and I couldn't help but think of HOHH), I think his sensibilities behind a Superfly remake would far surpass the John Singleton-directed Shaft remake. And yes, I think DMX would kick ass as Priest if that was Who Lord Silver Wanted To Have In That Role.

Anyway, Lord Joel will abide - oh yes, he will - and yes, admittedly, some of this roundtable I chopped up into bits for a future E! column and for Fangoria.com, so it's not complete (whatev), - but here he is with Jones talking about the kick-ass animated short film, Final Flight of the Osiris. And if you're keeping a scorecard, Lord Joel was wearing a black silk shirt with what looked like grinning serpentine devils all over it.

Question: Was there a bid out on doing The Animatrix? How did you come to work with the Wachowski Brothers on this?

Andy: Actually, the Wachowski Brothers sought us out. They looked for a lot of Japanese anime companies that were doing very creative animation work. They went to Japan and got all these great directors and they also liked what we had been doing as far as like Final Fantasy – the look of it – and thought it would be a good medium to tell the story in.

Question: Did you consciously do Final Flight of the Osiris in two parts? Was it ever going to be shorter or a two-part thing?

Andy: There's kind of a first and second act and it was planned out that way. The first act is setting up the feeling and emotion and a little bit of the characters and who they are. Then you get into the whole idea of what the story is about and what the Wachowskis wanted to tell, which is about the sentinel army and the existence of that and the fact that they need to get the information to Zion and that's the last thing they can possibly do. They can't possibly take out all these sentinels that are after him.

Question: Did they come to you specifically and say that they wanted to use you as the one working on the theatrical one?

Andy: Yeah. (to Lord Joel) You want to handle that?

Lord Joel: Yeah, when the whole thing started, we went to Japan in September of 1999 after the first movie opened for a promotional junket. The boys always had this scheme that they wanted to – being big fans of Japanese anime anyway – they wanted to find a way to incorporate their story in this process. Again, the key is to be clear that they wanted to tell the story in multiple mediums. So, the anime was one of the mediums which was available to them to tell the story. So, when the notion came up to do these and Warner Home Video got on board and we said, okay, we're going to do these stories, the plan was always to have this one story – Final Flight – which really sets up the entire saga, which really begins Reloaded. I say it's Matrix 1.5. It really starts the story from here on. The plan was always to do that in the most sophisticated and most spectacular animation fashion and that's what led them to Square and to Andy. At that time, we had other hopes and plans for Square. However, Square didn't last much longer after we finished this movie. They wrote this one and they wanted this one to be really incredible. It worked out that Dreamcatcher was coming out and it was coming out on March 21st and Larry Kasdan was a giant fan of The Matrix. We wanted to get it up on the screen. We felt that the fans should be able to watch this on the big screen. I mean, look, what is it? Is it a double-feature? It's not a trailer. It's not promotional. This is part of the story. We really felt that if we could get this out and up before the movie opened and give the people a chance to see it and understand it, it would lead them right into Reloaded.

Question: When looking at something like this with near photo-realistic actors, you wonder why spend $25 million on actors when you could just create the actors with computers and do a whole series.

Lord Joel: Nah, I don't know if it's so easy. Look, it's not easy. We are – and all the wonderful work that Andy has done in Final Flight, which is spectacular – we are far beyond it in the movie in Reloaded. We've gone far further than this. I just think that the notion of creating virtual actors is a fantasy of...

Question: Animation directors?

Lord Joel: (laughs) No. Look, I think you can use animation, in my opinion, as a tool to aid you to do things that you can't do with real actors. I mean, there are certain parts of this opening scene – the fight scene, the sparring program – which...the boys said, "What's sex like in the Matrix?" What can you do in the Matrix if you can have sex and that's just where the sparring program came from. There's things in that you just can't do with real actors and you can't pull something like that off or it would be extremely expensive. Even in the first Matrix, there was no Nebuchadnezzar ship – it was all done in computer animation. When it was over, me and the Wachowskis, we wanted the ship so we had to actually have it made after the movie was over because it didn't exist as a model. So, there are things that you can do with animation that you can't do. The notion of replacing the actor isn't a good idea.

Question: Will there be other Animatrix shorts appearing behind other Warner Brothers films?

Lord Joel: No. There's two that are already on the 'net. The first one – Second Renaissance – we had four million downloads in the first month and some of the hardware companies were pretty shocked that there was that much memory out there so that people were able to accept all this download. The second one went up which was called Program and we had 250,000 downloads in the first hour. That's the wonderful thing about AOL is that they do have this gigantic server.

Question: Is there any fear that people will come to watch the short film and not stay for Dreamcatcher?

Lord Joel: I hope that doesn't happen. I think that Larry made a wonderful movie and I think it's scary. I like those kinds of movies. I hope that they work together.

Question: They used to do that sort of thing all the time – with a cartoon before a feature – why do you think that doesn't happen anymore?

Lord Joel: I think Warners is doing it again with Looney Tunes. The problem is that exhibition is always so disturbed by it. I guess the theater owners think that the audiences won't want it. They just sat and watched 25 trailers! I remember there was a Mike Judge short a couple of years ago. Office Space was a short first that I saw in the theater that I thought was great. It works great for us.

Question: Do you think the exhibitors want to keep the time down and make sure they can show movies a certain number of times in a day?

Lord Joel: I just think...well, exhibition has their own problems now because of the proliferation of too many theaters. That's a whole 'nother conversation. The whole idea of The Matrix is about change. We maintain that change is inevitable, so maybe when we go to digital cinema it may be easier to just slam a short up. I don't know. Exhibition is concerned about it. One of the reasons we have it is because Larry Kasdan said, "Let's do it!" I mean, he's a filmmaker and said, "I love The Matrix – let's do it!" Other filmmakers may say, "I don't want a short on my movie. Fuck 'em! No way!" It all has to work together.

Question: With the first movie coming in May, what kind of business is this movie going to have to do to rival Star Wars and Lord of the Rings?

Lord Joel: I mean, look. It's an R-rated movie. I can't speak to that. I don't know what it's going to do. I'm telling you that the movie is sensational. It's going to blow people away. The ideas behind the visual effects are staggering. You're not going to believe what you're going to see.

Question: Can you tell us a couple of those things?

Lord Joel: Absolutely not.

Question: Is it over two hours?

Lord Joel: Just a little over two hours.

Question: With the sequels shrouded in secrecy, how do you decide what you can show?

Lord Joel: Well, look, the reason we ended up with this Newsweek cover in December was because we really haven't had that much out there. We have been careful. We don't want to bang our fans over the heads with it. We had one teaser that was out last May. We had a Super Bowl spot. We have a trailer coming out the beginning of April.

Question: With just how photo-realistic the ship-work is in Final Flight of the Osiris, was there ever a chance that Square was going to work on the Matrix sequels?

Andy: Yeah.

Lord Joel: Yeah.

Question: Because it looks very real – good enough to be in the feature.

Andy: Thank you.

Lord Joel: No, we wanted them to. I mean, that was one of the things we wanted. We loved the work Square did. The whole machine city – you don't see the machine city until...

Andy: We helped develop it and the Wachowskis liked what they saw.

Question: So, there's stuff that you did that's in Reloaded?

Andy: Well, the concepts of how [the sentinels] move and stuff like that. They liked it.

Question: So, the Wachowskis aren't going to be doing press for these movies? They're going to be reclusive?

Lord Joel: It's not reclusive. Look, I'm not trying to make a Kubrickian connection here, but I don't think Kubrick ever explained what the Monolith meant. He didn't want to and he didn't have to. The boys just don't feel that if they sit and make themselves available to discuss the elements of the story, it's a finite response. They really want the audience to take from the movie what you take from it. They don't want to say what they are. I'm going to help the process because I can speak 800 words in one breath according to Newsweek, but they don't want to talk about it and they also don't feel comfortable talking about it and it's the only part of the process that they are [like that about]. Believe me, they are involved in everything. They wrote four of these episodes. They wrote the two movies. They wrote 600 pages of game material. They write everything, but they don't want to be involved in this part of the process, so they don't have to be.

Question: Are they both finished – or at least the first one?

Lord Joel: The first one's not finished. We're finishing it as we speak. The second one is not as close as the first one. They're finished shooting, but they're not finished yet. They have a lot of work to do.

Question: With Square gone, what are you doing now?

Andy: Square closed. I'm actually at Digital Domain again. I'm an animation director there. Animation directing in live-action films.

Question: How hands-on are you with all your films?

Lord Joel: Look, it depends on the picture...

Question: How many movies will you have out this year?

Lord Joel: Four. I have...Cradle came out last weekend, I have Reloaded in May, then I have a picture I'm doing, my Dark Castle movie with Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz and Robert Downey called Gothika, which will come out next Halloween. And then that will be followed up a week or so later by Revolutions.

Question: Do you think we're burned out on comic book movies?

Lord Joel: I don't know. I loved last weekend. Cradle 2 The Grave was a fun movie. It made a lot of money. It was number one. It's nice to hear that. It's a very different kind of movie than The Matrix. It's a different experience.

Question: But you know how to make those and keep the budgets down...

Lord Joel: I try. That movie is far less than The Matrix and our Dark Castle are far less than that. So, it just allows us to have all these different genres of movies.

Question: Which is your next Bartkowiak movie?

Lord Joel: I'm not doing [his next]. He's doing a picture called Pathfinder for Paramount.

Question: So, which is the next mid-level [budget] one for you? (S.J.R. Note: Yeah, okay, so I get a little crazy looking for scoops – sue me)

Lord Joel: I don't know. I always was fascinated by an old movie called Superfly, which I kind of wanted to play with again. So, we have a plan of making a kind of different kind of version of that.

Question: Laurence Fishburne was saying the production had a real hard time with the death of Gloria Foster as she was so great, but was also a major part of the third Matrix movie – what was done about that?

Lord Joel: We had a terrible thing happen with Aaliyah, too. Well, the boys had always planned on the Oracle changing form, so this was a possibility they had talked about. But she is very well-featured in Reloaded. She has a really great, cool scene in Reloaded. We had not done the Revolutions sequence yet and it ended up being another actor.

Question: So, is Westworld for next summer?

Lord Joel: I don't even know. There's a lot of stuff we're working on.

Question: With the Oscars right around the corner, do you see the two Matrix movies competing against each other for Best Picture? (S.J.R. Note: For the record, no, this was not my question – though it sounds like me)

Lord Joel: Oh, please. I don't know. I never think about that.

Joel Silver is God and deserves a Thalberg or two. Praise Him on the message boards.

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Bellucci keeps mum about 'Matrix' sequels

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Monica Bellucci is saying little about the "Matrix" sequels.

The only thing the actress will reveal about "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix: Revolutions" is her character's name: Persephone.

"(She's) dangerous, sensual, with some sense of humor," she told AP Radio. "I have another way to be dangerous ... but you'll see in the movie."

In Greek mythology, Persephone is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter who's kidnapped by Hades to be his wife in the lower world.

Bellucci says there's more acting than action on her part -- she doesn't get to walk on the walls like Keanu Reeves.

As for her latest film, "Tears of the Sun," she got to work with another action star: Bruce Willis. According to Bellucci, Willis was a big help when it came time to shoot her close-up.

"He cried for me, to give me the emotion. He did it for every take," she said. "It was purely professional."

Such professionalism also came in handy in filming the action scenes. "In the middle of the jungle, with all the things going on, I was scared because it can be dangerous for us, too," Bellucci said. "It's an action movie -- it's always difficult and dangerous to do an action movie. Anything can happen."

The "Matrix" sequels are set to be released later this year. "Tears of the Sun" is in theaters now.