Brave Neo World

They're telling us that this is The Year Of The Matrix. From the webto the console to the cinema screen, you can't escape Neo and pals in 2003.Steve O'Brien looks at the Matrix phenomenon and asks: is this thenew Star Wars?

It's difficult to think now of a time in movieland before The Matrixexisted. But there was one, and it ended only four years ago withouteven the dignity of preparing its own death. It's easy to forget how littlefanfare preceded the Wachowski brothers' virginal science fiction offeringback then. But if you put yourself in an early 1999 mindset, you can understandit. One prior film to their name (the admittedly stylish Bound) andKeanu Reeves, that always trying underachiever, the one who wasn't RiverPhoenix, attempting one more time to save a flailing movie career. Lookback at issue of 52 of SFX and - oh, the pain - see how insignificant ourcoverage of The Matrix was. It didn't even make the cover. Hey,sometimes even the great screw up.

But that was then, this is now. We're already seeing the first stirringsof the all-media assault that Warner Bros are preparing for their doublewhammy of The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Thisyear, the movies are but a small part of a new cultural consciousness thatthe Wachowski brothers have formed for us to immerse ourselves in. Videogames, animated shorts, comics, books and a crucial website are all beinglobbed our way, and they're all part of the Matrix media jigsaw;each one complements the other, and while we're told we don't have towatch the nine-minute short (The Final Flight O f The Osiris) currentlysupporting Dreamcatcher, they tell us it adds to the viewing experienceof the sequel, so we're compelled to anyway.

In 2003, the Wachowskis aren't serving us a movie, they're dealing theiraudience a lifestyle and the brothers' fingerprints are over every partof this marketing blitz, just as much as Rupert Murdoch's or DonatellaVersace's are over their respective empires.

The Matrix is in our bloodstream now. As marketing bombing raidsgo, it's near revolutionary. But we have been here before, you know, backin the dark ages. George Lucas was the first one to fully exploit the slack-jaweddesire of fans to buy into his saga's internal universe. Much of the terminologyof Star Wars comes not from the movies but from the associated merchandise.We wouldn't have known what to call that Cantina character from StarWars if it hadn't been for the Hammerhead action figure; we talk aboutAnakin and Obi-Wan's fateful lightsaber fight in that volcanic pit likewe've seen it, but it was never mentioned in the movies, only in a 1978Star Wars poster magazine. But although Lucasfilm exercised controlover these spin-offs, Lucas himself had little to do with them, exceptmaybe sign a panoply of release forms thrown in front of him. Replacingposter magazines and Holiday Specials with web shorts and videogames, the Wachowskis have given this multi-media offensive a slick, 21stCentury makeover and, more importantly, a single authorial voice.

The game, Enter The Matrix, was the idea of the directors themselvesand not some profit-hungry marketing exec. "They always wanted to do this,"says producer Joel Silver. "They're very connected to what is going on,they play video games, and they just felt that this was a good opportunityto enhance the movie experience by adding more content."

"It's really the first time anyone's told a story in multiple mediums,"the ever-ebullient Silver continues. "If you just see Reloaded byitself, you'll love the movie, but there are all these other avenues ofcontent and story. The video game interconnects incredibly with all thathas happened so far in the movie, and you have scenes that the Wachowskibrothers wrote and directed for the video game that are not in the movie,but connect."

It seems a natural ploy to align a video game with a movie blockbuster,but it's unusual to tie it in so closely. The Matrix was one ofthe first movies to fully echo the immersive, escapist nature of videogames,yet it was stupidly passed up by Shiny Entertainment (makers of EnterThe Matrix) as a video game tie-in the first time round. But if gameswere a part of the stylistic and thematic stir-fry that was the first movie,it's ironic how The Matrix's influence has rebounded on the gamingindustry.

"Bullet-time effects appear to have suddenly been written into all mannerof games," says Kieron Gillen of PC Format magazine. "It's the gamewhich happened at a similar time - Max Payne - which gained mostfrom The Matrix. Of course, it had been in development for years,drawing on the same Hong Kong slo-mo and wires source as The Matrix,but coming out when all things with high calibre and low-frame-ratewere re-popularised by Neo and chums definitely assisted it."

It was bullet-time, the distinctive special effect where, moving ina weird, dream-like slow-motion, Keanu Reeves limbo-dances beneath theline of fire, that made The Matrix stand out from the crowd. Thisostentatious camera trick is in fact a variation on an effect known astime-slicing - a technique employed to great effect in Vincent Gallo'sotherwise low-tech Buffalo 66. In each case, an object appears frozenin time, and the camera circles around to show it in three dimensions.It's a technique that is already in the grammar of modern movie-making,and post-Matrix flicks such as Mission: Impossible 2, Equilibrium andThe One are riffing on the visual ticks of The Matrix.

To anyone close to the wire-fu insanity of Hong Kong cinema, this ispretty established stuff, but it took the best effects bods in the business,along with the Wachowskis, to synthesise and adapt it for a Western audience.

That The Matrix should commandeer such a vast array of mediaoutlets seems only natural. The film was written at the height of the internetphenomenon. A dizzying technological wonder for most in the late 1990s,the web's now become an ignorable background chatter. The popping of thedot.com bubble demolished a lot of our faith - and, in some cases, paranoia- about the web, but just four years ago, there was a tingling noveltyabout escaping this cruel world through a phone line. The Matrix wasthe first movie to find a metaphor for this new technological era and in2003, the Wachowskis' paranoid vision seems perfect for a time when weare becoming more security conscious about the state closing in aroundus. Wherever we are in our relationship with technology, the Wachowskisare there, taking notes, being the barometers of the zeitgeist.

It's interesting that, in 1999, three films opened in close proximityto each other (oddly, all with connections to Australia) that dealt withthe precarious nature of reality; The Matrix, The Truman Showand Dark City. But with its orchestrated medley of pop cultureimagery and fast food religion, it was The Matrix that caused the culturaltidal wave.

The film was borne from the chaos of instant info-gathering. It synthesisedelements of Buddhism, Christianity, martial arts, cyberpunk, Alice InWonderland, comics, anime, rock 'n' roll and Homer ("I read TheOdyssey all the time," said Larry once, in a rare interview. "I alwaysget something out of it."). It, the typically hodgepodge product of the1990s internet mind where everything is but a Google search away, but almostalways truncated and simplified, incompetently written Rough GuidesFor The Attention Deficit Disorder generation. The Matrix waslike the result of an Ivy chef, armed with the best ingredients, cookingup a meal for a Burger King customer.

"What the film showed was that Hollywood can strip-mine ideas whichSF novels were getting bored with ten years earlier and still get laudedas wild and original," says SF writer Jon Courtenay Grimwood. "The reallyinteresting thing is how comprehensively The Matrix used the bestbits from everything else. The real skill of the first film was remixingthose in a way that was incredibly stylish and utterly addictive. For anyonewho'd been a fan of Gibson, Sterling or Stephenson, The Matrix wasactually elegantly retro."

We're not ones for hyperbole, honest, but 2003really does belong to The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.Even if the movies suck, then the marketing alone will be rememberedand admired as something that tore up the rule book. The first movie took$460 million at the box office and became the first DVD to sell over onemillion copies. If there was any doubt that four CGI-saturated cinema yearsmight have blunted the hunger for more Matrix, then consider thefact that the first teaser trailer was downloaded two million times inits first 72 hours on the net, obliterating previous records set by HarryPotter and The Lord Of The Rings.

The countdown for Reloaded is now wellunderway. The first two Animatrix shorts are up on the net (andare released on DVD on 3 June) and The Final Flight O f The Osiris is,at the time of writing, about to hit cinemas in the States. This animatedmini-movie has been written by Andy and Larry Wachowski and directed byAndy Jones, who was responsible for the amazingly photo-realistic CGI onFinal Fantasy: The Spirits Within. It's described by Joel Silveras "chapter 1.5 in the Matrix story", and is set in-between thefirst and second films, focusing on the rebel warriors aboard the spacecraftOsiris, who are attempting to send a vital message to Zion, a message whoseeventual delivery serves as a key plot point in Reloaded. It's alsoclosely tied in with the computer game and, together, they both set thescene for the first sequel, and both star Reloaded newcomer Niobe(played by Will Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith).

Like Lucas before them, the Wachowskis alwaysintended The Matrix to be a trilogy, but they couldn't have foreseenthe various branches of their world that they'd eventually give to thesalivating public. The two sequels have together cost $300 million, andthat doesn't even include the money set aside for Osiris and theAnimatrix shorts.

Reloaded begins with the war against themachines reaching a new intensity after their discovery of Zion, the lasthuman stronghold, situated near the Earth's core. Much of Reloaded playsin the Matrix, but after the cliffhanger end to the movie (after an insanelyelaborate car chase), the action in Revolutions switches to thedevastated real world and the climactic show-down between mankind and themachines.

The original has left the brothers with an unusuallytough act to follow. The fact that The Matrix offered up so manycool and innovative special effects naturally means it's up to them andtheir effects buddy John Gaeta to wow us all over again. Their answer thistime round is what they call "virtual cinematography", in which five camerasphotograph the actor from every conceivable angle, with the resulting imagesfed into, yup, a computer, which then assembles them to create "virtual"actors, who can be placed into any scenario the brothers see fit. It shouldbe as exhilarating to watch as bullet-time was four years ago, and JoelSilver is in no doubt that the two sequels will wow us. "We were in theStone Age when we made the first one," he says. "Now we've raised the barso high, there is no bar. This will end the way movies have been made untilnow."

It may not seem like it yet, but, culturally,2003 is in the hands of Larry and Andy Wachowski. Look left, look right,look behind and The Matrix is somewhere near. We don't even havethe opportunity to swallow that blue pill, so that everything goes backto normal. We accepted that red one four years ago and, like Neo, there'sno turning back.

NEO EVOLVED

Lawrence Browning talks to the king of computercool… dude!

Listening to Keanu Reeves discuss the psychologyof Neo, you can't help but see a twinkle in his eye about the part he plays,and a justified one, too for the character has quickly become an icon ofscience fiction filmdom. So, what do the latest movies hold for him thatthe first film didn't? "It's really the development of the hero journeyfor my character," Reeves explains. "There are new challenges and new choicesIt's not so much about being born."

His excitement, though veiled beneath his familiarcool no-nonsense façade, is palpable. And, in many ways, unprecedented.Few (if any) of Reeves's past film roles have stirred up this much JosephCampbell style philosophical reflection. Can you imagine him discussingthe psychology of "Ted" Theodore Logan, or the ideology of stepping speedingbuses?

"What [Neo] can do in the Matrix is not enough,"says Reeves of his characters motivations "He's still on the path of discoveryand choice. He's told by the Oracle that he hasn't got a destiny. It'sthe choices that he'll have to make that will affect the survival of thehuman race.

He hints that Neo has even bigger doubts afterrealising just how much power he wields. "[Neo] wanted to find out whereand who he was. Now he knows Or he thinks he does. That's one of the questions."And for Reeves, this question of doubt was the centrepiece to his approachto the arc of his character.

Thespian philosophy isn't the only thing Reeveslies been boning up on. Intense physical fitness training has become likea new religion for the leading actor In Reloaded the action intensifies:there s everything from backflips to roundhouse kicks to machine gun punches,making Reeves's job that much snore jaw-dropping in its Jackie Chan-likeintensity.

"Neo fights with some weapons. Carrie-Anne does.Laurence has weapons as well. Agent Smith has weapons. Oh, my God! He andI were just fighting and fighting and fighting!" Yes, Neo faces off ina dramatic kung -fu sequence against 100 virally replicated Agent Smiths(played by Hugo Weaving). The entire scene took 27 days to film. To pulloff the shoot demanded some stringent bodily requirements.

"It's been a very strict diet and very vigorous.rigorous training," says Reeves "I try, during the course of film, to maintain7,5% body fat, and I like to stay between 165 and 175 pounds." That's roughly11 to 12 stone, for puzzled British folks. In other words, he's prettybuff.

And so our well sculpted intellectually polishedhero goes forth flying into the air like Superman - flying into a sequeland a storyline rife with dangers as serious as Kryptonite was for theMan Of Steel. "The Wachowski brothers have put up some great obstaclesto test those powers," Reeves says with a teasing smile. "The story goesoutside the Matrix and starts to concern itself with the machines and Zion."

Well, yes we know that! What about these unheardof obstacles? But like the ringleader at a circus spouting tantalisingdescriptions of what's to come, Reeves prefers merely to tease the crowd."There's some hard choices, and then it's all of us trying to save theworld…"

MORPHEUS UNCHAINED

Laurence Fishburne talks to Lawrence Browningabout life with the Wachowski brothers

"Welcome to the real world." Little did LaurenceFishburne know that his words as Morpheus from the first film would resonateso painfully on the set it's sequel. "I was injured... during the verybeginning stages of training for Reloaded and Revolutions,"he grumbles. "I don't think a lot of people understand just how incrediblytaxing all this work is physically. The amount of time and the hours thatwe are required to train are the kind of hours that professionalathletes deal with. When were working on wires, we come down and we'rebruised. When we fight each other, we're often making contact with eachother and walking away bruised. You got little nicks, cuts and sprains.

Fishburne's aches and pains quickly melt away,however, when he discusses what do Matrix film represent to thehistory of Hollywood filmmaking. "With the technology that exists, withthe fact that the studio has been so generous to fund this whole thing,with the Wachowski brothers' vision of this world that seems to go on withoutend - there are so many possibilities. We are all aware of the fact thatwe are involved in something that is absolutely history-making in termsof cinema in the world, so it's a great, great honour and a great opportunityfor everyone involved."

Fishburne reminds us that the world of TheMatrix is an aggregate of many influences. Utilising everything from'70s martial arts films, the inspired comic book works of Geof Darrow andAlice In Wonderland, the series is infused with universally appreciatedcultural icons and themes. Perhaps the greatest influence came from animestories touting apocalyptic concepts and explaining the dark side of technicalprogress. For Fishburne, anime became a useful reference material, enablinghim to wrap his brain around the vision forged by the film's directors."The Wachowskis explained to me what they wanted to do when I had my firstmeeting with them. They said, 'We want to make a Japanimation film, butwe want to do it live.' And I thought that was a brilliant ides and I wasvery excited about being a part of that. The animes I was familiar withthat related to the first picture were Ghost In The Shell, Akiraand Ninja Scroll. But you don't want to overload on that stuff.My job was to concentrate on the character and tell the story the way Iwas supposed to."

Reflecting on being directed by the Wachowskibrothers, Fishburne offers a little insight into their creative process,and the apparent burdens that come with it. "They have a secret code thatexists between the two of them. Larry generally will take the viewfinderand Andy will stand by the monitor and they'll just fool around with thecamera and talk about it. It's almost as if it's already in their headsand it's almost inconvenient that they actually have to sit though it physically."Ah yes, the trials and tribulations of producing cinematic greatness…

WHO ARE THE WACHOWSKI BROTHERS?

Steve O'Brian goes in search of the truthabout the mysterious duo behind The Matrix

We like mysteries and we like enigmas But in thiscelebrity-saturated age, who wants to go unnoticed? Howard Hughes, JD Salinger,Thomas Pynchon; they all belonged to an older generation. Today's writers,directors and actors are all after that Vanity Fair cover, that EntertainmentTonight report. Aren't they?

Not the makers of the biggest movie franchisethis side of Star Wars. Larry and Andy Wachowski are conspicuouslyabsent from any of the extras on the Matrix DVD and you won't beseeing them crop up on Film 2003. They consistently shun interviewsand premieres, leaving ever-excitable producer Joel Silver to do the mediarounds.

"They're great guys," enthuses Silver "But theythink the films should speak for themselves, and that the audience shouldtake from them what they want to take. They feel that if they're preciseabout it, it will rob the audience of their enjoyment."

Larry was born in 1965 in Chicago, with Andy followingtwo years later. Larry attended Bard College in New York but dropped outto become a painter and decorator with Andy, who in turn had dropped outof Emerson College in Boston. Inspired by a book they'd both read aboutRoger Carman, they began to write their first screenplay, an exploitationyarn about cannibalism in the upper classes. Constantly rejected, but periodicallypraised by successive Hollywood studios, they embarked on a more commercialscript. That screenplay would eventually become the easily forgettableAssassins, the 1995 Sylvester Stallone slower that died an ignominiousdeath at the box office.

Battle-scarred, the brothers served as both writersand directors on their next project, the noir-ish lesbian drama Bound.It was the success of this that led them to resuscitate an idea they'dbeen mulling on for years - The Matrix.

"The only comparison I have is the Coen brothers,"says Joel Silver, of Larry and Andy's collaborative style. "The Coens cometo the set knowing exactly what they want because they write their ownfilms together, and Larry and Andy are the same kind of guys. They, too,come from the Midwest, they are very well read and articulate and theyplan out everything together."

With them both being comic book nuts, The Matrixwas pitched to Warner Bros in strip format. They hired artists Geof Darrowand Steve Skrose and made a 600-page, scene-by-scene comic book. "It wasvirtually identical to the movie," says Silver.

So, what next for the brothers Wachowski? TheMatrix was always designed as three films. But, as it was the lastproject expected from the directors of a low-key lesbian crime drama, maybetheir next offering will be a small story about elderly Hungarian shoemakers. Weirder things have happened.

TRINITY RE-DRESSED

Lawrence Browning chats with the leather-cladheroine of a movie trinity

Image is everything. That's the modus operandifor many in the film industry, especially when it comes to costuming. Whocan forget the adrenaline rush when we saw actress Carrie-Anne Moss (inthose gorgeously tight, metallic black leather pants) levitate into a butt-kickingcrane position at the beginning of the original Matrix? That outfit madeMoss an overnight sensation, instantly thrusting her into the SF pin-upgirl limelight.

This time around, the actress is even more attunedto the aesthetic of her look as the sexy Trinity, donning the power ofher appeal as if she were' Bruce Wayne throwing on his anatomically correctcrusader costume. "Our designers have taken the movie to a whole otherlevel that I think is just beautiful," she grins. "What's so wonderfulabout the costumes, for me anyway, is that as soon as I slip into my Trinityoutfit, I'm her. So, the costumes give me a big part of my character. Youreally appreciate that in a movie like this."

Moss's appreciation for her attire goes far beyondits killer look. Costume designer Kym Barrett had to manufacture multipleversions of the same outfit in order to accommodate the actress's stuntrequirements. The task is quite challenging considering the fact that hertrousers in one scene - stuffed with padding, harnessing, and metal platesfor gravity-defying wire effects - must look exactly the same as a muchlighter pair of trousers she wears in a more intimate scene with Neo.

"In a pair of pants that I wear, I'll have fourdifferent cuts," Moss explains. "One's the beauty fit, that's for standingand looking as good as I can look. One's an action fit, so I can have flexibilityand move. They also have gusset pants for flexibility, so I can kick andI can run. Then we have the really big pair so I can put a wire underneath."Now, that's a load of pants...

Gorgeous looks aside, the key to Trinity's characteris her epic love affair with Neo. In the first movie she realised thatshe was in love with him at the very same moment that he proved he wasthe One. Which was handy, seeing as the Oracle had prophesised it already.No room for doubt there. This time round, Trinity has to deal with herfeelings about their relationship.

"She definitely goes through a transformation.It's hard for me to explain my character because I'm not away from it tolook at it, but I think she's more vulnerable. She's still as strong andcommitted as ever and believes in Neo with everything that she has, andis committed to the fight of saving the world and making a difference.Those are her fundamental qualities... but there are a lot of other placesthat she goes. I cant get too specific because we're trying to allow [theaudience] to have a new experience watching the film."

MATRIX RELOADED SPECIAL FX

By Ron Magid

With a $100 million budget that rivals that of the production ofany typical Hollywood blockbuster, the epic visual effects of back to backMatrix sequels - Reloaded and Revolutions - was a logisticalnightmare that taxed the talents of the Wachowski brothers and lead collaboratorvisual effects supervisor John Gaeta… plus some half dozen plus effectshouses worldwide.

Call it "bullet-in-the-head time."

Gaeta had to oversee the production's in-house effects company, ESC,plus Tippett Studios, BUF in Paris, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Giant KillerRobots, Animal Logic and several smaller firms. As you can guess, it'snot been easy, such a task would have daunted the best of us. And, despitethe appearance of unlimited dollars, the huge budget was barely enoughto get it done.

"Why don't you work out the math?" Gaeta challenges "People look atthe large number and think, 'Oh my God, it's gold platinum, they get todo everything they want!', but we had to be very efficient and clever sowe could afford to do the shots. Given the scope and the goals of thesefilms, I am so amazed that we are making it with the money that we have.I've got two movies, so you can divide that [$100 million] in half, andI've got a thousand-ish shots per movie - I'm practically working for lessper shot than on the first Matrix. Nobody was looking for that kindof volume - the fewer shots you do, the more perfect they can be becauseyou have more time to concentrate, focus and refine. We wanted greatercomplexity, yes, we wanted to evolve up a lot of our original Matrix effects,but volume is, of course, the devil."

That's why Gaeta was a tad concerned when he read the Wachowskis' scriptsfor the sequels, replete with scenes where 250,000 sentinels are revealedcrawling along the inside of a massive tunnel... Neo fighting 100 AgentSmiths... Trinity and Morpheus doing battle with Agents in a freeway chasethat promise to out-thrill T2 and Mad Max 2 combined.

We had loads of quite trippy psychedelic perceptual effects that arethere just to set the tone, plus massive amounts of creatures we've neverseen, environments we've never been to, so we had immense environment buildsand tons of creature animation, Gaeta reveals. "There are films out therethat are scratching all of the thin, we've been talking about, but no onesdoing all of it at once."

One of the biggest challenges facing Gaeta and his team comprising 250visual effects artists, 50 of whom have worked on the Matrix sequels forover three years - was topping the originals high-speed action ballets,wherein Keanu Reeves blasted away of his virtual opponents in super slo-moas a camera danced around the impossible action. Thanks to a plethora ofcommercials, rock videos and parodies in films such as Charlie's Angels,those Oscar-winning effects are in danger of becoming passé. EvenShrek used them to great comic effect (although Princess Fiona didn'tlook quite as cool fighting as Trinity did). The challenge facing Gaetaand the Wachowskis was how to stop these effects from looking clichéd…and, it seems, pointing out that the phrase describing these wild sequences,bullet time, was actually wrong. Who'd have thought?

"'Bullet time' is a term created by the Wachowski brothers in theirscript for The Matrix, to describe a conceptual state of being insidethe virtual reality of the Matrix, where the character Neo obtains a mind-over-Matrixcapability," explains Gaeta. "It's a concept, as opposed to a technique.The technique for creating those effects is called 'virtual cinematography'the ability to separate a camera's time and space from that of its subject."

Call it what you will, the original technique had to change radically- especially if Neo was going to fight 100 Agent Smiths. For The Matrix,Gaeta and company solved the problem of creating an impossible camera movearound an impossible stunt using 122 Canon Eos A2 still cameras firingin sequence around the action, then interpolating between frames and combiningthe result with a digital background. But such a cumbersome process wouldn'twork for Reloaded. "The anally-retentive process of setting bullet timeup, and the planning that went into that, was very labour intensive," Gaetasays. "That was just too restrictive for the next round."

Especially since the others envisioned countless variations on the themefor Matrix Reloaded. In the tantalisingly-named "Burly Brawl", forexample, Neo fights Agent Smith, who begins as a single assailant, butwhen Smith starts losing, he keeps multiplying, while the camera whirlsround the action at supersonic speed. This time Gaeta realised they neededmore than just synthetic backgrounds - they needed to cute virtual humans.

To make it believable that Neo could actually do away with dozens ofAgent Smiths at such a superhuman rate of exchange demanded the use ofmotion capture. Once martial artist extraordinaire Yuen Wu Ping had choreographedthe moves, Gaeta and ESC visual effects supervisor Kim Libreri digitisedKeanu Reeves's actions, as well as those of the 8-10 stunt people he routinelyfought on the world's largest motion capture stage, then edited and multipliedthat motion data. The result: a single Neo, does away with Smiths by theton, while a whirling tornado of Agents tries to enter the fray. "We usedthose motion capture bits – very complex collisions, guys totally wrappingaround one another - to create these virtual characters battling aroundNeo, who had to perform all sorts of incredible feats to try to get himselfaway from the swell of human anger before it crushes him," says Gaeta."We have huge interactions that occur at the inner ring around him, thenhave Agents trying to enter the fight, and beyond that, we have Agentstrying to get to the point where they can get into the fight - and allof that action was motion captured. When Agents are done away with, theybecome missiles smashing through piles of people, via a crash test dummy-styleCG simulation so the bodies have the correct mass and momentum."

Libreri's team then fleshed-out Neo and the 100 Smiths' computer-generatedbodies with digital muscles, then dressed them in photographic elementsextrapolated from the actors' wardrobe and CG cloth simulations. But forGaeta, "the extreme innovation" on the Matrix sequels is applying "dimensionalrecordings" of Keanu and other actors' performances to their CG doppelgangers.Libreri arranged five Sony 900 HD cameras in a semicircle around each actors'face, then applied those images to the digital stuntmen, giving them lifelike expressions. "We used these five real time recordings to extrapolatethe shape of their faces to an extremely high resolution," Gaeta says.

When these photo-real digital actors were combined with a perfect digitalrecreation of the environment, the true magic began. Once the actors andthe setting were completely digital, Libreri's artists could make theirvirtual camera circle the virtual action at any speed, and with incredibleprecision, in a way that never could have been achieved with that old bullet-timetechnology. "Once you have the 'ballet' in the computer, we can preciselycapture how each body arcs, swings and rolls," Gaeta says, "then createa negative, an inverse of that motion for the camera. It's always perfect,full tilt, no fake Hollywood punches."

At least there was a blueprint for bullet-time. Not so for the nextchallenge facing Gaeta: making Neo fly. When the Wachowski brothers demandeda sequence in which Neo zooms at 1000mph over Reloaded's Megacity,the visual effects supervisor was understandably apprehensive. "Flyinglooks totally, absolutely stupid in every movie that's ever been made before,"Gaeta told the filmmakers, "so how is this going to work?" Together, theWachowskis and Gaeta imposed some flight restrictions... 1) No stupid costumes- though Neo (Keanu Reeves) still sports that long cassock; and 2) watchthe speed. If Neo was to believably ignore the laws of physics, Gaeta concluded,he'd have to fly at "either extreme, impossible to-view speeds or unbelievablyslow motion."

But there was a third, unwritten rule: don't break the bank To keepcosts from sky rocketing, Gaeta conceived a complement of high end andclever low end effects to propel Neo, ranging from shooting Keanu Reevesagainst blue screen, then adding Megacity behind him, to bringing in thebullet-time big guns. One of the Wachowski's more bizarre creative leapsinvolved shooting stunts choreographed by Wu Ping inside the infamous KC-135AVomit Comet, a NASA aircraft used to create spurts of weightlessness forprospective astronauts (as used for Apollo 13). "We were interested inhaving no laws of gravity to impact the martial arts, but that [approach]did not turn out to be easy to do," Gaeta says. Still, the effort was farfrom an in-flight disaster - the material provided excellent referencefor at least one major sequence.

Ultimately, it wasn't just the heroes of The Matrix who learnedto fly. "We tried a little bit of everything to create a range of complexities,"Gaeta says, "so our brains wouldn't explode and we wouldn't lose the physicalityand realism of the actors."

So now that they'd upped the ante on bullet-time and transformed Neointo a flying superhuman, the Wachowskis planned to top everything by creatingthe ultimate car chase. The last time an action franchise took to the freewayswas T2's amazing tanker truck chase, but Matrix Reloadedpumps the concept of the high speed pursuit to infinity - James Cameronmay have used every cable in Hollywood to light a real freeway, but henever built one. That's where the Wachowskis have gone one better thanthe king of the world - constructing an actual 1.5 mile-long freeway, basedon Highway 110 in LA, replete with hundreds of cars and trucks, on a runwayin Alameda, California.

Pursued by Agents, Trinity motorcycles onto the freeway carrying valuablecargo: the Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim), who can open all the doors in themachine world. Trinity tries to get off, but to no avail "The Agents causeall sorts of collisions and huge pileups, so every time she tries to takean exit, they're cut off," Gaeta says. "She goes back and forth over thesame piece of freeway three times." Meanwhile, the Agents psychically leapfrom car to car, taking over drivers. "The dynamic is that Agents can takeover any person in the Matrix and thusly, the adversary becomesall encompassing - they can be in any car at any time, so it becomes farmore complex for Trinity to lose them," Gaeta explains.

The concept may be chilling, but the technique was decidedly lowbrow:Gaeta resurrected the oldest CG trick in the book to depict Agents infestingunsuspecting drivers. "Okay, here's where we did this cheesy morph," admitsGaeta, grinning. "You cannot have a million dollar shot times 1000; thenyou'd need quite a lot!"

There were bigger effects challenges, including building a CG Megacitysurround for the freeway set, plus digital explosions that defy all physicallaws. But the sequence's most remarkable image - Trinity riding her motorcycleat 40mph against oncoming traffic that's really coming at her at 40mph- was entirely live action, with a little help from Gaeta. He carefullyconfigured the cars travelling toward Trinity's bike, then determined theperfect escape route for the sexy heroine "We figured out all the pathsthat Trinity would follow, and we determined a very specific configurationfor the car pattern travelling toward her," Gaeta explains, "so if theyall crossed that specific spot at exactly the same time, the motorcyclewould drive right through them. That's a perfect use of effects technology- a phenomenal stunt combined with really good effects. That's probablygoing to be the coolest motorcycle sequence ever."

The Matrix Reloaded looks to be one of the best special effectsextravaganzas of this year We'll have to see if it makes the same kindof impression that the original movie made...

THE FINAL FLIGHT OF THE OSIRIS

Steve O'Brien reviews this CGItaster for the first Matrix sequel

Trust the Wachowski Brothers. George Lucas, if you think you're at thevanguard of everything new and intoxicating in digital cinema, then thinkagain, beard-head.

The Final Flight Of The Osiris is a nine-minute short, part ofthe Animatrix series, that is presently attached to screenings of Dreamcatcher.It may well be the making of that film, since every Matrix fan willbe compelled to see this CG-ed mini-movie, which neatly binds togetherthe first Matrix and the second.

The movie begins with two blindfolded people fighting it out in a computergenerated Dojo. The bloke is Thaddeus, the girl Jue; together, the captainand second-in-command of the Osiris, which is another rogue vehicle roamingthe future Earth, trying to evade the attentions of the computers. Whenan army of sentinels begin to attack the ship, Jue has to enter the Matrix...

Directed by Andy Jones, the animation director behind Final Fantasy,this short shows how much CGI has come on even since that film. If youthought we were decades off simulating a convincing photo-realistic actor,then this might make you think again. Skin pigmentation, hair: it all feelsdisconcertingly real. It's only movement and mouth action that they can'tquite get right yet.

The first few minutes of the movie are taken up with a wordless actionsequence as Thaddeus and Jue slug it out in the simulated fight room. It'sdifficult not to stifle a titter as Thaddeus's sword gradually strips layersoff the perfectly pixellated curves of the leading lady. The camera almostcaresses her J-Lo-level arse at various points and it's difficult not toimagine a bunch of computer geeks getting their underused rocks off creatingthis virtual superwoman.

Written by Andy and Larry Wachowski, the plot of Osiris is pretty non-existent.Sentinels attack the ship, Jue goes into the Matrix to stop it. That'sit. But it's all about the animation. And there's a tantalising, pre-Reloadedglimpse at the scorched future Earth and an edge-of-the-seat cliffhanger,which will apparently be resolved in the Enter The Matrix game.

See it And be amazed.

Constantine Is Anti-X-Men

X2 producer Lauren Shuler Donner told SCI FI Wire that her next comic-book movie, Constantine, based on Vertigo Comics' John Constantine: Hellblazer, will be darker than her X-Men sequel. "It's PG-13, like X-Men, but the character doesn't have superpowers," Shuler Donner said. "It's really focused on John Constantine, and it's more spiritual. He sends demons back down to hell. It's a darker tone."

Shuler Donner added that it will be a challenge selling audiences on a hero without the name recognition of X-Men. "I think the challenge is just to make a really good movie," she said. "Even though there's a name, a cachet, the movie [still] has to stand up on its own."

Music video and commercial director Francis Lawrence will make his feature-film directing debut on Constantine. Shuler Donner added that she landed Keanu Reeves for the title role through luck. "We gave him the script, and he read it, and he liked it," she said. "He committed to it, luckily." Production begins in September.

Jada Gets 'Reloaded'

April 25, 2003

JADA PINKETT SMITH is the newest face to join the cast of 'The Matrix Reloaded,' the first of two sequels to the 1999 JOEL SILVER-produced smash, 'The Matrix.' Tonight on ET, go on the top-secret set with Jada for behind-the-scenes secrets of this highly anticipated epic, premiering May 15!

"These sequels are going to blast the original off the screen, and that's exactly what the fans want," says Jada.

Our own BOB GOEN was the only reporter allowed on the Australian set for the exciting film shoot. He caught up with Jada to get her take on the strenuous assignment!

"It's been quite an experience," WILL SMITH's significant other tells Bob. "This has been like a dream come true for me. So when people ask me, 'How hard has it been, balancing the family situation?' I tell you what, it's all been a breeze because it's something that I really wanted to do. It was extremely challenging physically, mentally and spiritually, and so it has been really wonderful."

In the movie, Jada plays Niobe, the butt-kicking love interest of Morpheus (LAURENCE FISHBURNE). In some of her more intense fight scenes, she was required to strap in for wirework in order to make her on-screen stunts look effortless. But in reality, they were anything but...

"That second day after doing my fight scene I literally could not move," Jada explains. "I was walkin' around like a little mummy because my joints and my muscles were so sore. I just could not have imagined gettting back in front of that camera and lifting that leg one more time for one more kick!"

Somehow, Jada managed to find the strength to carry on. And her character makes such an impact in the 'Matrix' sequels that the directors had her shoot additional, exclusive footage as the star of the series' first graphic-intense video game, "Enter The Matrix"!

"I read the game script and it was all this action, flippin' out the car windows, and I was like, 'How they gonna shoot all this?' They gotta shoot 2, 3, and this video game script," says Jada, adding, "I think it'll be pretty cool playing myself -- I'm looking forward to that!"

Although co-directors ANDY and LARRY WACHOWSKI are keeping the 'Matrix' sequel storylines tightly under wraps, you can be assured that KEANU REEVES, CARRIE-ANNE MOSS, Fishburne and bad guy HUGO WEAVING turn up the heat for the back-to-back sequels.

After 'The Matrix Reloaded' opens in theaters this May, 'The Matrix Revolutions' will be released on November 5. Die-hard fans who can't wait 'til the 'Reloaded' premiere should check out new stories from the 'Animatrix,' coming to DVD June 3 and streaming on the 'Animatrix' website!

Ripped from comics: Superheroes, villains dominate summer flicks

BY TERRY LAWSON
Detroit Free Press

"The Matrix: Reloaded" is poised to be the "event movie" of the summer, and possibly the year.

Pitiful confession: I secretly read and hoarded comic books past the age acceptable for such pursuits. I lived in fear that my girlfriend and peers would discover my adolescent vice; finally, around age 16, I stored my mint Marvels and carefully preserved DCs and devoted myself to a pursuit more fitting my impending adulthood: record-collecting.

Yet here I am, all these decades later, once again immersed in superheroes and world-conquering villains. While comic books are now romantic nostalgia for the movie marketeers' target audience - the success of February's "Daredevil" was dependent on moviegoers who read the comic as a kid, not those buying it now - video games are the new high-tech cartoons. They allow fan boys and girls not just to identify with supercharged protagonists but to become them, playing an active role in pulverizing villains, solving the mystery, even saving the world.

"It's hard to imagine a 'Matrix' without the video game precedent," says writer-director Lawrence Kasdan, who helped establish the summer-blockbuster syndrome with his scripts for "Raiders of the Lost Ark," inspired in part by the "Blackhawk" comic series, and "The Empire Strikes Back." Kasdan spent years developing his own special-effects-laden sci-fi epic that was eventually scuttled by budget restrictions.

"Audiences aren't the passive observers they used to be," he says. "They like to be viscerally involved in the movie."

Kasdan, who went on to direct character-driven dramas like "The Big Chill" and "Grand Canyon," says he's eagerly awaiting the May 15 release of "The Matrix Reloaded" and the series' final chapter, "The Matrix Revolutions," set to follow Nov. 7.

"I loved the first one; it changed my life," says Kasdan. "Or at least it changed my attitude about what action movies ought to be."

"The Matrix," released in 1999, was based not on a comic book but on comic-book mythology: Ordinary guy transformed into the One, savior of humanity from the fascistic grip of intelligent machinery, is ripped straight from the pages of pulp. "The Matrix Reloaded" is widely expected to be the summer's most popular film, with its biggest competition coming from "The Hulk," an adaptation of the Marvel comic (turned into a briefly popular TV series) about a scrawny, well-groomed scientist who, when he loses his temper, turns into a raging green monster with an extremely dodgy haircut. "The Hulk" will be released June 20, more than a month after "The Matrix Reloaded," to avoid a clash of the titans.

If you removed the studio films inspired by comic books and video games from the summer schedule, you'd be left with more sequels and TV spin-offs (with "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" you get both in one), along with comic-book and video-game spin-offs.

Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" is distinguished not just by a rare mainstream movie appearance by Johnny Depp but by the fact that it the first Disney movie to be inspired by a amusement park ride - with a movie version of "The Haunted Mansion" to follow.

There are, believe it or not, a few original ideas scheduled to show up on screens before the leaves begin to turn, many of them culled from this year's mostly disappointing Sundance Film Festival, but ticket-buyers will have to show ID proving themselves over 35 or enrolled in a prominent graduate school to be admitted.

In this comprehensive guide to the films scheduled to open between now and Labor Day, we've thoughtfully added an "age-appropriate" appendix to each entry. To save yourself the embarrassment of being the only person in the theater in leather shoes, clip and save. I've included the ratings that have been set; others have yet to be decided.

Note: Opening dates for the big movies are firm, but others are subject to change.

[Snipped for Matrix]

MAY 15

"The Matrix Reloaded": After 18 months of back-to-back shooting for this and the last chapter in the trilogy (out in November), another year of post-production and production costs rumored to be north of $300 million - the special effects cost $100 million; the climactic chase scene alone was budgeted at $1 million - the most anticipated movie since, well, the last most anticipated movie will finally arrive in U.S. theaters after an out-of-competition premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

It's set primarily in Zion, a human rebel outpost at the Earth's core, under assault from the machines that control the planet. Neo (Keanu Reeves), Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and new character Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith) are forced to choose between defending the city and venturing into the unknown to discover what's behind the Matrix itself. Guess which pill they swallow?

AA: This is the event movie of the year, or at least the summer; we still have the final chapter of "The Lord of the Rings" to reckon with. So there will be undoubtedly be a water cooler effect, with people who normally avoid spectacles like this shelling out the same way they did last year for "Spider-Man." Still, ask your average moviegoer over 40 for whom Agent Smith actually works and you're likely to get a blank stare. By the way, for whom does he work? Rated R.

Aside: Warner Bros. is opening this on a Thursday in a bid to ensure it has the biggest four-day opening gross in history. The studio has announced that select theaters will be showing it early, at 10 p.m. May 14.

Matrix helps Village to fire

By Wendy FrewMay 1 2003Shares in entertainment group Village Roadshow yesterday soared 13 per cent to their highest for more than 10 months on speculation the company's latest movie production, Matrix Reloaded, would be one of the biggest- grossing films this year.The movie - the second in three starring Keanu Reeves being produced with Warner Bros - is due for release in two weeks. The shares closed at their high for the day of $1.55, 18c up.

Fund manager Anton Tagliaferro, who holds 8 per cent of Village's preference shares, said overseas investors had been buying the stock on expectations of strong box office receipts and DVD sales.

"Many people are expecting [Matrix II] to be the best selling movie this year," he said.

Village is depending on the movie and Matrix III, due in November, to be at least as successful as the first in the series, which became a cult favourite after its 1999 release. The two sequels are estimated to have cost Village as much as $300 million.

Look carefully and you might see stars

By Chris Sams
April 29 2003
The Sun-Herald

They were honorary Sydneysiders during the filming of The Matrix sequels, but none of the stars of the action trilogy will return to Australia for The Matrix Reloaded premiere.

The red carpet event, to be held at Hoyts in Fox Studios on May 15, is set to be curiously devoid of stars from the film. Unlike the actors from The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, who faithfully return to New Zealand every time their films are released, The Matrix stars including Keanu Reeves , Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss won't be making the return trip to Sydney.

A spokesman for Roadshow Film Distributors has confirmed the actors will be too busy promoting the film in the northern hemisphere to attend the Sydney event.

It looks as though locally based cast and crew, including hundreds of Australian extras, will be the only members of The Matrix "family" celebrating the film's release in Sydney.

Much of the sequel is centred on cloning themes so, at the very least, fans can keep their fingers crossed that a few look-alikes might show up.

Colossal ‘Matrix’ unhinges unhinges norms for storytelling

By Burl Burlingamebburlingame@starbulletin.com

It'd be a hoot to say that Andy and Larry Wachowski probably have no idea what they hath wrought, but I suspect they're on top of their game here. The elaborate, utterly mind-bending scope of their "Matrix" films, both past and yet to come, offers not only impossibly rich storytelling possibilities, but imposes a jouncing elastic structure that, curiously, also frees traditional narrative possibilities.

The heat caused by the bipolar pull of inner and outer realities had particular resonance in the latter half of the 20th century, as storytellers turned away from God and Fate as drama reagents and toward entropy, chaos theory and Freud's niggling suspicions about our inner selves. It also fed on nightmare suspicions of technology and biology becoming intertwined, which is a peculiarly modern terror.

The first "Matrix" film hit like lightning on a black night -- in the flare and ozone-crackle, possibilities were glimpsed, revealed in the darkness, and stayed like afterimages light-tattooed on the retina.

Way cool! "Matrix" has the potential to be the next big three-ring circus of the mind; the other, inner country of popular culture's Zeitgeist, where the tides of society play out -- like the "Star Trek" universe, or the Middle Earth of "The Lord of the Rings," it's the place we go to put the real world in perspective.

"The Matrix: Reloaded" opens next month, and "The Matrix: Revolutions" comes out at the end of the year. But in between is potentially the most interesting variant of all, called "The Animatrix." Basically, the Wachowskis wrote miniscripts, like short stories, of life in the Matrix world and gave them to nine different -- very different -- animators to make them bloom. These grown-up animations or "animes" will be collected together on a DVD release in June. Some will be viewable in theaters (one has already showed as a prelude to "Dreamcatcher"), and others can be downloaded online (theanimatrix.com) in low-resolution format. The DVD release, however, will include plenty of extras, and the highly interactive DVD controls available, plus the high resolution, make this format ideal.

"The Animatrix" shorts, directed by American, Japanese and Korean animators, include work by Square, the formerly Honolulu-based animation company whose "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" feature film was a grand, glorious, spooky, impenetrable vision that died at the box office.

The directors include Mahiro Maeda, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Shinichiro Watanabe, Takeshi Koike, Koji Morimoto, Peter Chung, Shinichiro Watanabe and Andy Jones.

The DVD will retail for $24.95 and include a techno soundtrack featuring Juno Reactor, Death in Vegas, DJ Shadow and others. Special features, so far, include:

>> Scrolls to Screen -- The History and Culture of Anime.

>> Seven "making-of" featurettes, including director profiles, interviews and behind-the-scenes looks at each short.

>> Four audio commentaries, with Japanese audio and English subtitles.

>> An Enter the Matrix trailer about the video game, with interviews from film stars Jada Pinkett Smith and Carrie-Anne Moss.

So, heads up! It just might become the best-selling DVD of the year, and do so in bullet time.

Studio takes risk on Matrix revamped

Makers spend millions converting sequels for first joint Imax and multiplex release

Fiachra Gibbons, arts correspondent
Tuesday April 29, 2003
The Guardian

Every morning over the past year or so the actor Keanu Reeves has apparently lit a small ritual fire to ward off evil spirits. And well he might, because the two Matrix films he has been working on, the most long-awaited sequels in recent Hollywood history, are supposedly jinxed, with a curse that has claimed lives and put its stars in hospital. With so much money at stake you would think that Warner Bros would not want to take too many risks. But The Matrix Reloaded, the second of the $363m (£228m) trilogy, will open on giant Imax screens only a few days after it is released in multiplexes next month.

The decision by the studio which invented the talkies to take a chance on the new technology is being hailed as one of the biggest revolutions in filmgoing since CinemaScope, and ushers in an era when blockbusters will be premiered on Imax and conventional screens simultaneously. The third instalment, The Matrix Revolutions, will be released in the large-screen format on the same day as it opens in conventional cinemas in November.

With its eye-popping special effects and clever use of religious symbolism, The Matrix, directed by the reclusive Wachowski brothers, rewrote the rulebook for futuristic thrillers when it hit cinemas four years ago.

A breakthrough in remastering technology now allows all 35mm films, no matter how complex, to be adapted to be shown on Imax's seven-storey-high wraparound screens. At around $3m (£1.9m) a film, the process is relatively cheap by Hollywood standards. But purists insist these prints cannot truly compete with the quality of films shot with the large-format cameras by pioneers such as Disney, which shot the animated Fantasia 2000 in the Imax format.

Even so, directors including George Lucas and Ron Howard were impressed enough to allow their films to be adapted. Imax cuts of Stars Wars: Attack of the Clones and Apollo 13 were hits in the US, though the adapted films are often very different to the originals. Apollo 13 lost nearly a fifth of its length, and Attack of the Clones was also trimmed, apparently because Imax projection systems cannot handle films longer than two hours.

Despite Warner Bros' decision to risk their second hottest property (after Harry Potter) on the technology, it could be the late summer before audiences at the nine British Imax cinemas see the next episode of The Matrix series.

Many are booked up until then and distributors may wait to see how the Imax version does in the US before ordering prints. But Alison Rodin, who devises the programmes for the two London Imax cinemas, predicted that whenever it arrived it would change how Imax cinemas are seen.

"The Matrix will bring in a whole new generation of teenagers and twentysomethings who have never been to a large-format film before," she said. "There is a whole different grammar to large-format films, so it will be very interesting to see how the pace and the cutting transfers."

She added: "Research has shown that audiences will pay up to 25% more to see a film on the big screen."

Although more features are being made with large-format cameras, most have been documentaries on mountaineering or similar subjects. Ironically, one reason why the Imax versions of the Matrix films may be delayed in arriving on these shores is the success of James Cameron's 3D documentary Ghosts of the Abyss.

29.04.2003: Curse of Reloaded

'The Matrix' video game serves as a parallel story to 2 sequels on screen

John Gaudiosi Special to The Daily Yomiuri

Many in Hollywood consider 2003 to be the Year of "The Matrix." Warner Bros. will release two films, "The Matrix Reloaded" in May and "The Matrix Revolutions" in November, three DVDs, beginning with "The Matrix Special Edition" in April and "Animatrix" in June, with "The Matrix Reloaded" expected to hit DVD in time for the holidays. There will also be licenses like special Powerade drinks from Coca-Cola and a new digital device from Samsung, but the most innovative tie-in hitting stores this year is Infogrames' "Enter the Matrix" video game. The title will ship day and date with the movie on May 15 on PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and PC.

Unlike past Hollywood licensed video games (and most big films have an interactive tie-in), the "Matrix" game doesn't retread the film experience. Instead, directors Larry and Andy Wachowski wrote a 244-page script for the game that serves as a parallel story to the two sequels they filmed in Alameda, Calif., and Australia during the course of 2002. This marks the first time that Hollywood A-list directors have been hands-on with the development of a video game.

The Wachowskis looked at their "Matrix" game as an expansion of the "Matrix" universe. Like the nine "Animatrix" shorts (which will ship on DVD from Warner Home Entertainment on June 6), fans of the film will be able to get additional info on the overall universe by watching the animes and playing the game.

"'Enter the Matrix' was not an afterthought or a licensing deal, the Wachowskis wanted this game as part of the 'Matrix' universe from day one," Infogrames President Bruno Bonnell said. "When this game ships, people will see what interactive entertainment should be, rather than a subproduct of licensing."

The Wachowskis used their influence, and love of video games, to orchestrate an interactive story that tells the tale of the crew of the Logos. The stars of the game, Ghost (played by Anthony Wong) and Niobe (played by Jada Pinkett Smith), have minor roles in the movies. And the stars of the movies have minor, nonplayable roles in the game.

In another first for interactive entertainment, all 25 actors who signed on for the film roles also agreed to do both physical and facial motion-capture work and voice acting for the game. When you see the virtual Niobe run around on-screen, that's the result of six months of mo-cap work on sets in Alameda and Australia by Pinkett Smith. When you see Niobe speak in the hour of in-game engine cinematics, the realism comes from reading every one of her thousands of lines while hooked up to a 42-point facial mo-cap apparatus.

The Wachowskis also filmed a full hour of 35mm footage exclusively for the video game, in addition to overseeing the additional hour of in-game engine cinematics. Shiny President Dave Perry said it's almost impossible to calculate the true cost of the game because of the way the Wachowskis built in game production within the movie's budgets, which were in the 300 million dollars ballpark. A typical video game has up to a week of mo-cap, and the makers could never afford the six months that Shiny's programmers had on the sets of the films. Factor in the technology in these mo-cap sessions, which utilized up to 28 cameras to capture the action, versus the traditional 10, and you get an idea of the costs that won't show up in the game's budget. It's this type of synergy that is brand new to the game industry, and something that isn't easy to do, but is possible.

"We're changing the world with this movie," executive producer Joel Silver said. "If people see what can happen if you do it right, then I think people will want to do it right. It's not some software designer sitting in San Diego writing a game with the name of the movie. This is the filmmakers who wrote and directed the movie, who wrote and directed the game. Usually a game developer is kept at arm's length, but David Perry was involved from the very beginning."

"The Wachowskis get games," Perry said. "They were standing on the set making sure we got what we needed to make this a quality game. They know what gamers are looking for. With the power they have in Hollywood, they were able to make sure we got everything we needed to make this game what it is."

Further blending mediums, "The Last Flight of the Osiris," a computer-generated eight-minute short that was created by the defunct Square Pictures over 13 months in Honolulu, sets up the video game story. Zion is under attack and the Osiris sends out a package to warn humanity's last outpost. The game's crew of the Logos is sent to retrieve that package. Taking interactivity a step further, players have a choice of two playable characters.

"While their stories connect at certain points, the game's 60 levels are split in half, and we tell two unique stories, depending on the character you choose," explained Perry. "If you play as Ghost, who's a Zen Buddhist Apache assassin, you'll automatically ride shotgun in the driving levels, which allows you to fire out the window at agents hunting you down. Niobe is known in Zion as being one of the fastest, craziest drivers in the 'Matrix' universe, so when you play the game as her, you'll get to drive through a complex 'Matrix' world filled with real traffic and pedestrians, while a computer-controlled Ghost takes out the enemies."

The game is a blend of various genres, including about 14 driving levels (some on busy city streets a la "Grand Theft Auto III" and others in the Logos spaceship) and about 46 levels of 3-D exploration and fighting action with both martial arts and weapons (a la "Splinter Cell" or "Max Payne"). And yes, there's bullet time, which plays an important role in the game-play mechanics. Shiny even added a computer-hacking mini game that allows you to hack into any computer in the game to dig for additional details on the Matrix universe.

As for the game's impact on Hollywood, Perry said he gets lots of calls from agents with clients interested in the game space. He also believes that Silver will think more about video-game licensing with his other film deals, and that other power brokers in Hollywood will look at games in a new way.

"If it works, then I think you'll see other people doing it," said Silver. "It's all groundbreaking. We're showing short movies, we have things streaming on the Web site, which we're not advertising--people have to find them. All these things happening at the same time. It's a new way at looking at things. There are all these mediums available to us in 2003, and the Wachowski brothers want to use them all."

The next "Matrix" game is expected to take advantage of the next generation of game machines, which will allow for even more realistic graphics and closer-to-photo-realistic virtual actors.

"PlayStation 3 and Xbox 2 will make our jobs so much easier. The process of making actors look real in games will take a huge leap forward with the next generation of game consoles," Perry added.

Meanwhile, Infogames now owns the technology that Shiny and his team of 60 programmers created to make the game. With its Santa Monica, Calif.-based headquarters and the rights to movies like "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machine," look for "Enter the Matrix" to have an immediate impact on future Hollywood licensed games from the French video-game publisher.

POINT OF VIEW/ Susan Napier: `Spirited Away' presages golden age of anime

Unlike American movies, both animated and live action, Japanese anime works were often darker and more adult, without the trite ``happy ending'' that characterizes so many Hollywood products. For many Americans, anime was refreshing, and ironically, more ``realistic'' than Hollywood live action movies.

In 1951, Akira Kurosawa's film ``Rashomon'' won the grand prize at the Venice Film Festival, ushering in a new age of recognition of Japanese cinema in the West. The awarding of the Academy Award for best animated feature to ``Spirited Away'' can be seen as both a belated recognition of the superb quality of Japanese animation and may perhaps also presage a new ``golden age'' in which Japanese film, in this case animated ones, will have an impact on Western moviegoers.

Of course, it is still too early to tell how much impact anime will have in the West but, even before the award for ``Spirited Away,'' anime was increasingly being acknowledged by American viewers as an important artistic force.

Given that so many Americans still see ``cartoons'' as only for children, the recent appreciation of anime may seem surprising. Furthermore, the fact that ``Spirited Away'' defeated four U.S. entries to win the Academy Award, including two from Disney, may also come as surprise. Only a few years ago, if Americans were aware of anime at all, it was as an obscure cult phenomenon, watched by American otaku (enthusiastic fans) in small, closed circles.

What are the reasons behind anime's increasing popularity and critical recognition? I believe that there are a variety of answers to this question. In writing my book ``Anime from `Akira' to `Spirited Away,''' I interviewed many American anime fans and asked them why they liked the genre.

The No. 1 answer to this question was ``It's different.'' But ``different'' in what way? My interviewees had many thoughtful answers to this question but, overall, there seemed to be three common threads.

The first concerned the quality of the animation-many Americans saw Japanese animation as more exciting, more beautiful, and more sophisticated than American animation, even though American studios often had bigger budgets.

The second reason had to do with the quality of the stories-compared to typical Hollywood fare (and not just cartoons but Hollywood live action movies as well), my interviewees found anime storylines to be more complex, more interesting, and more original.

This relates to the third reason behind anime's appeal-the fact that, unlike American movies, both animated and live action, anime works were often darker and more adult, without the trite ``happy ending'' that characterizes so many Hollywood products. For many Americans, anime was refreshing, and ironically, more ``realistic'' than Hollywood live action movies.

It seems that Hollywood directors are also becoming aware of anime's appeal. One of the most interesting examples is the movie ``The Matrix,'' which was influenced by Japanese anime such as ``Ghost in the Shell.''

Next month, when the sequel to ``The Matrix'' opens, there will also be a DVD ``Animatrix'' comprising anime by different Japanese animators on themes related to ``The Matrix.''

It remains to be seen whether such cross-cultural collaborations will continue, but my guess is that they will not only continue but increase. As our world becomes increasingly globalized, we can expect anime to be appreciated more widely around the world.

Ultimately, perhaps, we will find Americans creating their own versions of anime-works that are dark, thoughtful, and creative. Until then, Americans are lucky that they can enjoy the Japanese product.

* * *

The author is a professor of Japanese literature and culture at the University of Texas in Austin. She contributed this comment to The Asahi Shimbun.(IHT/Asahi: April 23,2003)

'Matrix Reloaded' soundtrack poised to makes big noise

By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith

It's no secret that "The Matrix Reloaded" is the most anticipated film of the season. And by the looks of things, the "Reloaded" soundtrack is being met with the same anticipation by fans of the otherworldly, futuristic sci-fi flick. Though the film starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Jada Pinkett Smith isn't due to hit theaters until May 15, record retailers tell us fans are already calling to see when the movie's two-disc soundtrack will be available.

The Sunset Strip's Virgin Megastore has ordered five times its usual number of album units for the double CD, while its competitor, Tower Records, has nearly twice as many of the May 6 Warner Bros. Records release on order.

Declares Tower Records manager Jim Lacey-Baker, "It's an unusually large order, especially for a soundtrack." However, he adds, "I think the video by P.O.D. that just came out this week will help the soundtrack get a lot more notice, so we might even increase the order."

P.O.D.'s "Sleeping Awake," the first single from the soundtrack, world premiered on MTV's hipper counterpart, M2, this week.

Artists included on the soundtrack include the multiplatinum-selling Dave Matthews Band, plus hot metal acts such as Linkin Park, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Deftones and Rage Against the Machine.

Many in the entertainment industry believe "The Matrix Reloaded" has the potential to break $300 million at the box office.

Keanu Pushed To The Edge

Star Keanu Reeves loved making the Matrix sequels because they pushed him to his body's limits.

The stunts and choreography were so intense that Reeves found himself having to reach physical extremes, but he insists he thrived under pressure.

He says, "I loved being forced into a position where I had to go to the limit in terms of physical endurance and strength.

"If you're going to make fight sequences look real and artistic then you have to get your reflexes and your body into almost perfect synchronicity.

"I always try to push myself one level further. I kept on asking to do another take to get it perfect."

The Rock Matrix

The Rock Matrix double CD in its (strictly Limited edition) unique snakeskin packaging is a fusion of the best genres of music featured throughout the Matrix film trilogy. From remixed Rock to distorted Dance with Industrial elements in between.

Featuring the angst driven theatre rock of Marilyn Manson & The Spooky Kids with The Untraceables remix of Strange Same Dogma, the programming and tape loops of Garbage with their previously unavailable on album Crystal Method mix of I Think I’m Crystalised, the Slipknot influenced and Roadrunner Records’ priority act of 2003, Stone Sour, with their previously unavailable on album track Rules Of Evidence as well as Metal Punk pioneers Prodigy with their original mix of Voodoo People and the leading German Industrial act Front Line Assembly with their rare Kalte Farben remix of Life = Leben.

The Rock Matrix delivers over 2 hours of high octane music which will reawaken your senses.

Track Listings

1. Fear Factory - Cloning Technology (replica)

2. Cubanate - Body Burn (extended d-code mix)

3. Spineshank - Synthetic

4. Reloaded - Seizure of Power

5. The Prodigy - Voodoo People (original mix)

6. Charlatans - 9 Acre Dust (chemical brothers mix)

7. Feeder - Come Back Around

8. Inme - Crushed Like Fruit

9. Society 1 - Nothing

10. Skunk Anansie - I Can Dream

11. Reactor - Alone

12. Marilyn Manson & The Spooky Kids - Strange Same Dogma

13. Therapy? vs Pitch Shifter - Diable (Therapy? remix)

1. Garbage - I Think I’m Crystalized (Extended Edit)

2. Stone Sour - Rules Of Evidence

3. Ill Nino - What Comes Around (Day Of The Dead Mix)

4. Juno Reactor - Hotaka

5. Virus Ii - Integrate

6. Front Line Assembly - Life = Leben (Kalte Farben Remix)

7. Pig - Prayer, Praise And Profit

8. Velvet Acid Christ - Decypher

9. Foetus - Quick Fix (Charlie Clouser Remix)

10. Die Krupps - Metalmorphosis (Shifting Mutation Mix)

11. Connected - Stealth

12. Pitch Shifter - To Die Is Gain (Pitch Shifter Remix)

PIXEL-PERFECT DIGITAL CLONES ARE READY FOR THEIR CLOSE-UPS

Sit back while The Matrix Reloaded boots up the next generation of virtual filmmaking.

Perhaps the only thing more outlandish than the rumored $300 million budget fueling the wildly anticipated Matrix sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, is the films' new jaw-dropping visual effects wizardry. When Reloaded opens in theaters on May 15, viewers will spy the most realistic computer-generated faces ever made, claims visual effects supervisor George Borshukov. His team at Esc Entertainment in Alameda, California, has spent the past three years designing digital mugs that precisely mimic the faces of Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Hugo Weaving, the sequel's stars.

"Creating a believable synthetic face is the ultimate challenge in computer graphics," says Borshukov. That's because humans are trained from birth to make and recognize more than 10,000 complex facial expressions, most of them too subtle to be accurately simulated in standard computer-generated renderings.

To create photo-realistic digital copies of the actors' faces, Esc had to first invent an ultraprecise facial mapping technique, dubbed "universal capture." Unlike standard motion capture techniques, in which a camera records facial movements by tracking painted-on dots, universal capture uses five Sony CineAlta high-definition digital cameras arrayed around a live, line-reading actor. The cameras zoom in and track minute facial imperfections, like pores or whiskers. The 3-D information then streams from the cameras (at about one gigabyte per second) into a proprietary suite of computer programs that extract the actors' facial expressions, stretch virtual skin and grow synthetic hair. The results are impressive: In an epic fight scene, 100 clones of the trilogy's main villain, Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) battle Matrix hero Neo (Keanu Reeves). Whose face is real is anyone's guess. "I'll be curious to see how many people realize that some faces in the movie are 100 percent computer generated," says Borshukov. "It's going to be a very interesting psychological experiment for the audience." -NICOLE DYER

[Sidebar to the Illustrations]

THE "U-CAP" RINGER

To create three-dimensional photo-realistic faces, each of Reloaded's lead actors performed inside the "universal capture" setup at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia. The studio arrayed five Sony CineAlta high-definition cameras around the actors' faces (1) and zoomed in on hundreds of subtle features such as enlarged pores, wrinkles and whiskers (2). Proprietary vision algorithms then processed the data to reconstruct precise replicas of the face (3).

EXCLUSIVE: Script Review - THE MATRIX RELOADED

Matrix is one of the most popular movies of the MTV generation featuring as it does a lot of cool effects and music video direction. However for the time being that is all that The Matrix can boast, at least until the sequel is released.

The script for The Matrix Reloaded deals with the story taking place a few days after Neo destroyed Agent Smith and deals with the crews next mission. At the start we get to see our first real glimpses of Zion which is described as a sort of futuristic sailers port complete with old dingy bar for the group to swap stories. This is really just used to introduce the new characters and to give a brief explanation of the events of the first film, but to be honest I think the script could have done without it as it features a little too much of the cheesy dialogue that plagued the original film. Morpheus noble presence from the original has been reduced to an almost teenager like presence as he jokes about fighting with Neo, and Trinity makes a few sexual references to Neo that seemed way out of character.

That about describes the dialogue throughout the film but this is the only dialogue heavy scene so it doesn't really effect the story as a whole, meaning that as long as the actors can resist ad-libbing too much cheesy stuff then it could turn out to be an incredibly exciting blockbuster. If you thought the action found in the first film was good then trust me you haven't seen anything yet because this script features some absolutely incredible action sequences, such as the moment where Neo faces off against agent Smith who proceeds to multiply himself a thousand times, or a bullet time bike crash featuring a member of a biker gang who'm the agents have taken a special interest in. Given the right direction these scenes could be absolutely brilliant and given the original films action I tend to have faith in the Wachowski Brothers ability to pull off the Bullet Time effects, however I hope that in the real time action that they can make the camera a little more sedate than the original. There is nothing in the script that really calls for a hyperactive camera and if these scenes are pulled off well enough, and the right soundtrack is chosen then the potential in these scenes will be fulfilled.

Saying that though there still is a few cheesy moments such as Neo taking flight but these can be forgiven due to the high standard of the other action scenes and the story has finally been purged of a lot of it's quasi religious nonsense that made the original feel so pretentious. Now it is finally a blockbuster that deals with a serious subject while never going out of it's depth. What it deals with though is infinitely more serious than the original as Neo starts to realize the consequences of destroying The Matrix and starts to wonder whether or not it's really worth it. It would have been nice for this subject to have been developed a bit more than just a few comments at the end but I am greatful that they have avoided the temptation to fake depth that they used in the original because this has made The Matrix Reloaded much more enjoyable than the original. Unfortunately I do suspect that the writers have made a few touch ups to this script in order to heighten the cheese factor on the action scenes but from what I've seen so far the story has remained what I've read here.

So while I am not commenting on the film itself I am awarding the script 4 stars and definitely recommend script fans check this one out while it's still available.

- Carl Lazarevic

Miracles came even before Matrix role

By Sacha Molitorisz
April 26 2003

Anthony Wong says, the career path for an Asian-Australian often leads through accounting, medicine or law. Wong, 37, is different, however, having spent time as a cross-dressing prostitute and a welfare-dependent junkie before becoming what he is today, a Zen Buddhist assassin.

Wong is a Sydney actor, and his latest role is as a Kierkegaard-quoting killer, Ghost. It is potentially a life-changing role, because Ghost is a character in the second and third Matrix films, which open on May 16 and November 7, and more prominently in the new Enter the Matrix video game.

"This is a big career jump for me," Wong said. "When I was in Los Angeles recently, it was The Matrix that got me in the door, not my 18 years' experience playing diverse roles."

That's because The Matrix is a rare phenomenon. Released in 1999, the movie struck a paranoid, resonant chord, taking more than $US400 million worldwide. Shot primarily in Sydney, it blended sci-fi, special effects and Eastern philosophy to tell the story of a small band of stylish heroes trying to save humanity from seemingly omnipotent machines.

The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions were also shot largely in Sydney at a combined cost of $US300 million. In the former, released next month, the machines have discovered the location of Zion, the last human city, leaving Keanu Reeves and co-stars 72 hours to track down a shady saviour called The Keymaker.

Wong's character is introduced in the second film, has a larger role in the third, and a lead role in the video game.

"The game is not just a cheap spin-off," he said. "The Wachowski brothers wrote and directed one hour of extra footage for it. I call it The Matrix 2B. If you think of the whole story as a house, then the movie follows what goes on between Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss in the bedroom, and the game is about what happens between me and Jada Pinkett Smith in the living room."

Wong praised the Wachowski brothers for casting people from all over the world.

Wong is delighted to be involved, especially after auditioning unsuccessfully for the part of Tank in the original film, a role which went to Marcus Chong.

"Now I just want to get my own action figure. Then I'll know I've made it."

Cannes finds the glitter that failed at Oscars

JAMES DOHERTY

THE actors Peter Mullan and Ewan McGregor will be flying the flag for Scotland at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The 56th festival, which opens next month, is set to provide the first real glimpse of film industry glamour since this year’s Oscars ceremony was pared down because of the war in Iraq.

The film directors Peter Greenaway, Clint Eastwood and Lars von Trier are among those selected to compete in the main competition.

Dispelling fears that the stars would avoid the French Riviera because of increased terrorist threats, big names such as Tom Cruise and his partner, Penelope Cruz, will attend. Also in attendance, but not necessarily on the same red carpet, will be Cruise’s former wife, Nicole Kidman.

The actress Meg Ryan will sit on the judging panel for the main competition.

Mullan and McGregor will be promoting Young Adam, in the Un Certain Regard section of the competition, running alongside the official selection.

The film, based on the book by the cult Scottish novelist Alexander Trocchi, stars McGregor and Tilda Swinton. Directed by David Mackenzie, it tells of the life of a drifter working the Forth and Clyde Canal.

The 20 films selected for the main competition include three directed by Americans; Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River, Vincent Gallo’s The Brown Bunny and Gus Van Sant’s Elephant.

Unlike 2002 when festival-goers sat through hard-hitting films on the Middle East conflict, the Holocaust and the United States’s gun-culture, this year should have an altogether lighter feel, according to the festival’s artistic director, Thierry Fremaux.

He said: "Paradoxically, given all the trouble going on in the world this year, last year was much more political.

"The selection you are going to see this year is not political at all. There is no theme. The films we have chosen are not trying to say anything about the state of the world."

However, despite the undisputed pull of Hollywood, this year’s festival will be marked with Latin flourishes.

The Italian pin-up Monica Bellucci will host the opening and closing ceremonies, while Cruz plays a tousle-haired gypsy in the French swashbuckler Fanfan la Tulipe, opening the festival on 14 May.

Thirteen countries are represented in the main competition, with five films from the host country, France, and, from Asia, the Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Bright Future.

Picking entries was especially hard because many films landed "late and from everywhere, and at any old time", Mr Fremaux said. "We were still in the cinema yesterday," he quipped.

The selectors sat through 2,498 films before making their choices.

Outside the competition, the Hollywood marketing machine will go into overdrive promoting one of the year’s most anticipated films.

On 15 May, The Matrix: Reloaded, the long-awaited sequel to the Wachowski brothers’ cult sci-fi film starring Keanu Reaves will be premiered, simultaneously with its opening in the US.

IN THE CANNES

April 24, 2003

NICOLE Kidman's "Dogville" and "Mystic River," directed by Clint Eastwood, are among 20 films gunning for the top prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Two other American entries, Gus Van Sant's "Elephant" and Vincent Gallo's "The Brown Bunny," join Eastwood's crime drama in the official selection of films competing for the prestigious Palme D'Or announced yesterday.

Festival organizers denied rumors that U.S. artists planned to boycott the glitzy festival because of France's staunch opposition to the war in Iraq.

This year, stargazers will abe treated to appearances by Meg Ryan, James Caan and Sean Penn, along with the entire cast of "The Matrix: Reloaded" - including Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Jada Pinkett Smith.

The 56th Cannes Film Festival, which runs from May 14 to 25, will honor legendary French actress Jeanne Moreau and the late Italian director Federico Fellini.

Imax Plugging 'Matrix' Sequels Into Large Screen

Thu April 24, 2003 06:50 AM ET

By Nicole Sperling

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "The Matrix" sequels are coming to a big and bigger screen near you.

Large-screen theater operator Imax said Wednesday that Warner Bros. Pictures and producer Village Roadshow's upcoming "Matrix" films, "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions," will be released on Imax's 15 frames-per-second/70mm screen format to accompany the standard theatrical releases debuting this year.

Using Imax's new Digital Re-mastering (DMR) technology that allows 35mm films to be transferred to the larger format without compromising quality, the Imax version of Andy and Larry Wachowski's "The Matrix Reloaded" will open two to three weeks after the film's May 15 release in 35mm. Warner Bros. Pictures president of domestic distribution Dan Fellman said Warners is looking at June 6 for the Imax release. The Imax version of "The Matrix Revolutions" will bow day and date with the film's Nov. 5 theatrical release, marking the first time a Hollywood event film is released concurrently in both formats.

"The Matrix" films, starring Keanu Reeves, are the third and fourth DMR-converted films, after Universal's rerelease of Imagine Entertainment's "Apollo 13" and 20th Century Fox's rerelease of Lucasfilm's "Star Wars: Episode 2 -- Attack of the Clones" last year.

"We're excited to give fans the opportunity to experience the world of 'The Matrix' in this spectacular format," said Joel Silver, producer of "The Matrix" trilogy. "Throughout the Imax digital remastering conversion process, the Imax team took meticulous care in maintaining the technical integrity of the films."

Imax president of filmed entertainment Greg Foster said Warner Bros. initially planned to release "Revolutions" day and date, but when the executives and the film's creators saw the initial Imax footage, they wanted to adapt "Reloaded" as well.

"We've done a lot of tests for a lot of films, and for whatever reason, 'The Matrix' works for what we do," Foster said. "The sound and presentation is spectacular on the Imax screen."

Financial terms of the "Matrix" deal were not disclosed, but Imax co-chairman and co-CEO Brad Wechsler said the higher ticket price charged for the Imax experience should benefit both the exhibitor and Warner Bros.

"Those incremental dollars benefit both companies," Wechsler said. "We don't really make much money on the film business but rather on our theater network business. We believe that showing a film like 'The Matrix' will expand our audience in the 15- to 30-year-old range, a group we look forward to bringing back to Imax theaters."

The company plans to release "Reloaded" on more than 35 Imax screens in the United States.

"Down the road, the success of these movies should lead to the expansion of Imax around the country," Fellman said. "Imax is a process that needed to develop more content. This is a first step for them to maximize their potential, and I'm very pleased that we are the first company to enter into an (day-and-date) agreement with them."

The two companies will also distribute the first-ever 3-D motor sports film "NASCAR: The Imax Experience 3D" next spring.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

A bit of fun - Matrix CM

They are from Maxim May 2003 issue,Monica is on the cover.
Do you think they are so funny?

Cinema Cinema Cinema

Finally Japanese NewsWeek magazine(30 April,2003 issue) featured the Matrix Reloaded.The following is their cover.

Fans clamoring for entrance to 'Matrix' world

Whoa. Keanu Reeves' favorite catchphrase seems more apt than ever as anticipation builds for The Matrix Reloaded, coming May 15. A second sequel, The Matrix Revolutions, opens Nov. 5.

The most anticipated movie of the summer is definitely The Matrix Reloaded. It excites millions of moviegoers on a very basic level," says Greg Dean Schmitz, who monitors Matrix mania at Yahoo's Greg's Previews site

Consider:

• Box office buzz. Analysts agree that the film will bring in $200 million to $300 million. The original Matrix grossed $171.4 million in 1999. If Reloaded hits $300 million, it would be the No. 15 movie of all time.
• Internet traffic. "It was the No. 1 most-visited page for all of 2000, 2001 and 2002," Schmitz says. Tickets go on sale online through AOL Moviefone, Fandango and Movietickets.com May 1.
• The coming-attractions trailer. Nearly 4.5 million people have downloaded the final trailer at thematrix.com, putting it on course to be Warner Bros.' most downloaded trailer ever.
• Thesecrecy campaign. Fans curse Warner's tantalizing reluctance to give away details. "How do I know their game plan is working?" asks columnist Jeffrey Wells, who has railed on about it on moviepoopshoot.com. "Because I wish like hell they would show me this thing as soon as possible."
• The gameEnter the Matrix. Scripted by filmmakers Andy and Larry Wachowski and due the same day as the film, it's "the No. 1 best-selling pre-order in Xbox and GameCube games, and the No. 3 in PC games and PlayStation 2 games," says Wendell South, senior buyer at Amazon.com. Though not yet matching pre-orders for Star Wars and Lord of the Rings games, "pre-orders have doubled week over week for the past three."

Curiosity about this story is inspiring near-religious fervor, Wells says.

"All the kids in the world suspect they're living in some kind of plastic, affluent penal colony, and maybe half believe that real life is perhaps more real and vivid on their hard drives than out in the street," he says.

But in one area, The Matrix can't compete with Star Wars or Lord of the Rings collectibles.

"There's no blip on the toy-collecting radar screen," says Sharon Korbeck, editorial director of Toy Shop magazine.

That could change now that the Wachowskis have a deal with McFarlane Toys, pioneers in selling toys for R-rated movies such as Spawn.

But Korbeck is skeptical: "The Matrix may have more of a cult following. Maybe in 20 years, it will have that mainstream following — but I doubt it."

With movies, sharing burden brings risks

Splitting ownership among studios can lessen the pain of box-office flops, but it also means having to share enormous rewards

By Claudia Eller

Times Staff Writer

Originally published April 21, 2003

LOS ANGELES -- If Warner Bros.' double-barreled "The Matrix" sequels hit as big as expected, Hollywood may get schooled in one of the trickier lessons of contemporary film finance: The biggest risk of all can be sharing the risk — which can mean having to share enormous rewards.

Since the mid-1990s, virtually every major studio has reduced financial exposure by splitting ownership of many films with partners, much as Warner shared both the cost and the returns of "The Matrix" with the small local movie unit of Australia-based Village Roadshow Pictures Ltd.

Such arrangements have brought welcome relief from the pain of box-office disasters. Village Roadshow Pictures, for instance, helped the studio, owned by AOL Time Warner Inc., suffer through "The Adventures of Pluto Nash," "The Majestic" and, more recently, "Dreamcatcher."

With "The Matrix," however, the movie industry also is learning what it means to share not just the uncertainties of a new creation, but the relatively sure profit that follows when a surprise hit spawns an entire "franchise" — and brings the financing partner with it.

"We're delighted to see that money go out the door," said Warner Bros. President Alan Horn, who is philosophical about the need to share both the ups and downs. "If Village is successful, that helps keep them partnered with us on lots of movies and helps mitigate the volatility inherent in the moviemaking process."

Village will get a big bite of another Warner franchise next year, when it helps underwrite "Ocean's Twelve," a big-budget sequel to "Ocean's Eleven," which took in $446 million at the worldwide box office for the partners. Of course, sequels can bring their own risk: "Analyze That," starring Billy Crystal and Robert De Niro, made just $57 million worldwide for Warner and Village despite the popularity of its predecessor, "Analyze This."

Warner relies on partners for about a third of its annual 25-film schedule and fills another third by distributing pictures financed by others.

Over the last five years, the studio has co-financed 31 releases with Village and in January agreed to share an additional 40 films. Although declining to discuss specifics, executives with both companies said the existing portfolio of films has been profitable for each.

Under their deal, Warner and Village share all production and marketing costs on movies they jointly finance and split the profits once the studio takes a distribution fee of 10% to 15% off the top. Warner releases the movies worldwide except in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Greece, where Village's parent company is both a major distributor and exhibitor.

Hollywood's current wave of risk sharing followed the success of "Titanic," which cost more than $200 million to produce but brought enormous returns for Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox, which split ownership of the picture. Since then, major studios and financial allies such as New Regency, Spyglass Entertainment, Beacon Communications and Lakeshore Entertainment have cultivated webs of relationships that appear to have turned the film industry into a gigantic risk-sharing family.

"The studios have tried to avoid the boom or bust of the theatrical business, which is still low-margin," said media analyst Tom Wolzien of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. "If you're going to play it safe, you're not going to get the massive upside. But on the other hand, you're not going to tank your company with a stream of flops."

Even the biggest companies are generally reluctant to tie up funds on an entire slate of 20 or more films in an era when the average Hollywood movie costs $60 million to produce and an additional $30 million to market.

"While we have very deep pockets, there's a limit as to how much capital to allocate to the production process," said Jim Gianopulos, chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's media empire News Corp.

Most studios still prefer not to have joint custody of their potentially lucrative franchise movies, such as Sony Picture Entertainment's "Spider-Man" and Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter." "They're not suppose to be shared," said one studio chief, who asked not to be identified.

Five years ago, however, Warner brass didn't see "The Matrix" as a runaway hit.

Set in a virtual-reality universe, the story was considered confusing at best. The production, originally budgeted at $55 million but ultimately costing about $80 million, was to be directed by screenwriters Andy and Larry Wachowski, young filmmaking brothers whose only directorial outing was a stylish, low-budget crime thriller called "Bound" that grossed just $3.8 million. And the movie was to star down-on-his-luck actor Keanu Reeves, who hadn't had a hit since "Speed" years earlier.

"There's no question it was a gamble," recalled Bob Daly, who along with Terry Semel ran Warner Bros. for 20 years before leaving in 1999 and later becoming chairman and managing partner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. "The script was not easy to understand and it was hard to get inside the heads of these two young guys to get a feel for what their vision was."

The studio had just signed a 20-picture, five-year co-financing agreement with Village, whose publicly traded parent is the largest entertainment conglomerate in Australia and a longtime business ally of Warner. With former Warner Bros. production chief Bruce Berman as its new chairman, Village was anxious to expand from financing low-budget independent movies made mostly for the Australian market, to bigger-budget fare such as "The Matrix."

"The script for some people, including me, was dense and hard to understand, but this was a movie we agreed to start our deal with," said Berman, who was head of Warner's production division in 1994 when the studio bought the Wachowskis' "Matrix" screenplay for producer Joel Silver.

Ultimately, the inaugural project for Warner and Village grossed $460 million worldwide and became the first film to sell 1 million DVDs. It went on to sell more than 30 million DVDs and videos and spawned two sequels, "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions," that are being released six months apart, on May 15 and Nov. 7.

Warner's profit on the original "Matrix" is estimated by sources at about $250 million. Village, according to sources, made about $190 million in what turned out to be a life-altering experience.

"The first 'Matrix' movie allowed our company to exist for the first five years," Berman said. "Being able to participate in a franchise like this allows you to defy the odds of staying in the game."

And that doesn't come cheap. Shot simultaneously over 270 days in New Zealand, the sequels cost more than $300 million to produce, and marketing costs will easily exceed $100 million.

To cover its half, Village restructured its finances, raising its revolving credit line to $1 billion through Canada-based CIBC World Markets. The increased borrowing power also is helping the company finance such upcoming Warner productions as "Catwoman," starring Halle Berry, and director Wolfgang Petersen's "Troy," a $120-million epic adaptation of "The Iliad" starring Brad Pitt.

Having shared the cost of those films, Warner executives presumably will rest easier — as long as they don't lose sleep over the dollars that may ultimately be due their Australian friends.

"The issue that comes up on every high-budget movie is, 'Can we accept this level of risk?' " said Sony Pictures Entertainment Vice Chairman Jeff Blake, whose studio carried all of "Spider-Man's" $130 million in production costs but also kept the enormous profit from a hit that generated almost $1 billion in worldwide revenue.

"It was such a hard-fought battle to get the rights and to put together the right creative elements.... We just felt it was worth the risk."

Copyright © 2003, The Los Angeles Times

Enter the Matrix Goes Gold

Atari and Shiny Entertainment are pleased to announce that development is complete on "Enter The Matrix" for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox video game system from Microsoft, the Nintendo GameCube and the personal computer. The worldwide launch of the game to retail outlets will occur on schedule on May 15, 2003, day and date with the theatrical release of the highly anticipated Warner Brothers action movie "The Matrix Reloaded."

"Over two years ago, Joel Silver, the producer of `The Matrix' trilogy, and the Wachowski brothers, the writers and directors, envisioned a new way that Hollywood and the video-game industry could work together. Their concept required Shiny to build a video game containing every single element of the Matrix experience, and it was essential that this groundbreaking game be delivered on time with their movie, so Matrix fans could experience it all at once," said David Perry, President of Shiny Entertainment, the game's developer. "Today, those objectives have been met, and soon gamers around the world will enjoy the results of this unprecedented collaboration, gaining a unique insight into the Matrix universe."

"Enter The Matrix" is a revolution in interactive entertainment -- a third-person action game that effectively blurs the line between Hollywood blockbuster films and next-generation video games. The game is directed and features a script written by the Wachowski brothers, writers/directors of "The Matrix" film trilogy, creating the most intensive collaboration between a video-game publisher and a movie studio to date.

'The Matrix' gets reloaded

In May of 1999, I was dragged on a family outing to see a movie at the Warren in Wichita. I hadn't ever heard of the movie we were going to watch -- I just figured by the name it had something to do with mathematics, and I loathed math.

That movie happened to be "The Matrix," and the trip to the Warren that day in May turned out to be one of my most memorable experiences in a movie theater. From the opening scenes until the end credits, I knew I was watching something special. That spring, millions of people shared that experience, making "The Matrix" one of the most popular films of all time.

Since then, I've been anticipating the sequel, which I actually remember talking about at the restaurant we went to after the film. It's been a long wait, delayed by a round-the-world production schedule and the death of a cast mate, but in four weeks audiences and die-hard sci-fi fans will finally get the follow-up they've been waiting for -- "The Matrix Reloaded."

The prelude to the sequel, an animated short called "The Animatrix: The Final Flight of Osiris," was premiered as a preview to last month's "Dreamcatcher." It's all over the Net by now, but if you haven't seen it, here's the scoop: Zion, the last stronghold for humanity outside the Matrix, has been located by the Machines. Before they launch a surprise attack, though, a band of freedom fighters similar to Morpheus' group get a message out to the home world warning of an attack. Then they're massacred.

From there, "Reloaded" is expected to pick up, but little has been divulged about the plot. What I have heard is that a new breed of evil is created by the Agents from the first film to stop Neo. They succeed in booting him out of the Matrix while locking Trinity and Morpheus inside. In a race against time, Neo must find a way back into the system to save his comrades and destroy the new breed before they finish off his friends. The one fact I've heard worth mentioning is that "Reloaded" will end abruptly, a la "The Lord of The Rings," and pick up where it left off with the third film in November.

So what should we expect from Neo? He was killed at the end of the last film, but resurrected by Trinity's kiss as The One. His evolution into the ultimate warrior has now afforded him abilities he didn't possess before. From the previews, it's evident he can now fly. He also seems able to disperse dozens of Agent Smiths (clones of the main baddie from the first movie that Neo trouble with) with great ease.

And what about the supporting cast? By The end of "The Matrix," Trinity and Neo hooked up and Neo evolved into the leader of the humans, fulfilling the prophecy and completing Morpheus' mission. How will the on-screen romance play out in the film and what new job will arise of Morpheus to tackle?

Along with the returning cast is the addition of two new, major characters. The first is Jada Pinkett-Smith's character Niobe, who is supposedly a former flame of Morpheus. She will help Neo in his quest to get back into the system. Another addition to the cast is Italian import Monica Bellucci as Persephone. Bellucci, who audiences may recognize from "Tears of The Sun," will add evil sex appeal to rival Trinity as Persephone, the leader of the Machines.

It seems now the film series isn't just for kids and action freaks anymore. Scholars and professors are hooked, as evidenced by the philosophy section of the official Web site, www.what-isthematrix.warnerbros.com. Several great minds have posted their own opinions on the science and the fiction behind the film, the possibilities of human happiness in a computer-controlled world and religious inspirations in and of the films. It's recommended reading if you're a fan of the franchise and have some free time.

If you're an Internet junkie, you've probably already read some of the rumors flying around. Some people speculate Trinity will be revealed as an Agent, that there's a Matrix within the Matrix and that a new character will emerge who's mightier than Neo. I would probably dismiss the first rumor as just speculation, but if it were to happen, it would be one of the greatest twists in film history.

The other two rumors are more likely. I would almost expect a new tough guy to show up as a challenge for Neo's new powers. Also, the Matrix in a Matrix theory is very likely, too. In the first film, the evil Agent spoke of a "first Matrix" that failed. Maybe it didn't.

It's going to be a long month, but what's an extra 30 days for fans who've been waiting four years already? When "Reloaded" hits in May, the bar will be raised again for the film industry, just as it was when "The Matrix" revolutionized film making. That same bar will be lifted one more time in November when "The Matrix Revolutions" drops, but I'll save those thoughts for another day.

Jeremy Jaso is a sports writer and newsroom clerk at The Newton Kansan

Dramas break out over sci-fi thriller

Buzz is continuing to build around the two "Matrix" sequels, which star Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss and Jada Pinkett Smith. So is talk of back-office bickering between Warner Bros. and filmmaking brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski.

Studio President Alan Horn is said to have clashed with the writing-directing duo over their stubborn devotion to hardcore fans of their sci-fi fantasy films.

Let's start with the ratings. Warner Bros. execs are hoping for a PG-13, but graphic fight sequences caused the MPAA to slap the first sequel, "The Matrix Reloaded," with an R.

"Alan Horn blames the brothers for not budging on the head-kicking scenes," a source tells us. "He also thinks they didn't lobby the MPAA hard enough."

Then there's the release dates. "Reloaded" comes out May 15. The studio wants No. 3, "The Matrix Revolutions" to hit theaters in November or December. The Wachowskis want it released in July, we hear.

"The brothers wanted to give the fans a one-two punch," says our insider. "They figured it would be a year dominated by 'The Matrix' - followed by a triple DVD anthology released at Christmas."

The Wachowskis also are said to be fighting to get a "Revolutions" trailer screened at the end of "Reloaded."

"They want it to follow the credits, which run about nine minutes," says the insider. "The Warners execs say nobody's going to wait nine minutes to see it."

To get their way, the Wachowskis are said to be resorting to a work slowdown.

"The brothers are taking their time putting in all the special effects," says our spy. "They're trying to make the Warner Bros. people sweat" the "Revolutions" deadline.

A Warner spokeswoman insists all this tension is fiction.

"They're working overtime to get it done on time," says the rep.