DH-Carrie-Anne Moss Interview

Carrie-Anne Moss was looking radiant in her pregnant state. Clearly relishing impending motherhood, the 36-year Matrix star says that she plans on taking it easy and enjoying what she hopes is the first of many. "Not sure how many but one at a time," she says smilingly, adding how much she loves being pregnant. "I never thought it would be quite as hormonally challenging just in terms of emotions," she says laughingly. "So one minute you're happy and then the next what do you mean you don't have chocolate ice cream?" Not quite sure what qualities will make her a good mother, Moss says that "I'm first of all really excited to be one and meet this person that's going to be my close companion for 18 years. I'm also excited about learning from my kids and I hope not to project too much onto them as to whom or what they should be." Having children also affects the actress's professional choices, she admits, including where to make movies. "Now that I've done the hardcore location, being away for two years of your life in Australia, I won't do that again," she admits. Yet she has no regrets about that experience, filming the Matrix trilogy in Sydney. "It was awesome, but I really made a conscious choice to enjoy and experience it. I really created an environment there that was really supportive of my experience, I lived in a great place, surrounded myself with great people, my husband visited and I went home, I had friends visit and family visit and it was incredible. But would I do that again? Well first of all movies don't ask that of you, but you it's like making your commitment, it's your work. It's one thing to make your commitment in your work a few hours a day or 9:00 to 5:00 or a few months if you're an actor but I'm ready to make other things a commitment now," she insists.

It was an unknown Carrie-Anne who audiences took to their hearts as the tough but complex Trinity in the 1999 blockbuster hit. Between The Matrix and its two sequels, the actress has certainly evolved, she says. "I'm much stronger this time around! I really take this experience to make these films in me and I really learn and I'm growing each time I do one. Physically it was challenging and I'm always up for a challenge even so this is hard in this case. It was such an experience to show up everyday for 2 years and to give all I could to Trinity and to the Brothers. It was very intense and a great experience in my life." It was also clear why Moss and her other cast members were eager to return to the Matrix environment, even before reading the scripts for both Reloaded and November's Revolutions. "We love the movies and we'll never be able to articulate to you where that comes from. You'd really have to be part of it to understand it and everyone on the movies were inspired to give everything from the set painters, to the catering, assistants and everything, because of the brothers. They really set the tone and really inspired people to want to show up for them." Moss continued to be drawn to Trinity, because she says that she was able to identify with her on a personal level, such as "believing in things strongly such as faith and strength. If I believe in something or in someone, I'll argue with anyone and yet at the same time I'm really completely the opposite and really soft, squishy, emotional and a big cry-baby." Moss was sent both scripts simultaneously and her response was immediate. "I sat down, I read them and I wept, not only because of the stories but because I was like: Oh my God I'm so lucky that I get to be in this movie that I believe in. For an actor that just doesn't happen very often and it happened to me three times with these movies and these ones had so much more of the philosophy in the films," she says with genuine elation.

But working on the two Matrix sequels was also a painful experience for her. Before the commencement of principal photography she broke her leg during the first week of training in Los Angeles. "I was on the wire, had a bad landing and I broke my leg." The actress says that the accident taught her a painful lesson. "It made me aware that even in a movie you could hurt yourself. I needed to know that in making this movie because it was quite dangerous at times on the set, especially when we were doing the motorcycle and driving." Ironically, it was Moss who ended up riding a motorcycle for one of the film's more hair-raising stunts. Ironic, because unlike either stars Fishburne and Reeves, Moss has always had a deep fear of motorcycles, a fear that she was able to finally confront. "It is wonderful to overcome a fear, to actually do something in spite of your fear. My fear is still there and I wouldn't do it again but I understand loving them, like loving the wind in your hair and the freedom but I prefer to drive fast in a car." Another scary moment in Matrix Reloaded, but on another level, was a hot and heavy sex scene between Moss's Trinity and Reeves' Neo. "It was more the leading up to it that was nerve-wracking, but in the end it was tastefully done and there was no nudity on the screen which was important to me. It's a beautiful scene and it's important for the story, because it was significant to see the deep sense of love between them. But it's easier when you like and respect the person and so doing it with Keanu made the whole thing easier than with a stranger. I had never done a love scene before. I'm nervous about it and it's not something I'm comfortable with", Moss admits.

No wonder that part of her training in Australia involved regular sessions of Pilates, which helped her enhance a different side to Trinity in the process. "I wanted to have a softer energy around the character this time and Pilates gives you an incredible amount of strength in your core, but it doesn't really give you the bulk that weights do. Then when I broke my leg I rehabbed doing Pilates which was great. I'm a huge advocator for it."

At its core, however, the Matrix films are more than an action film. As action-oriented as they are, Carrie-Anne believes that the films' popularity have as much to do with thematic substance. "The morals of the films are that Love conquerors all, destiny, believing in your past, making choices that support your destiny, being responsible for the choices that you make, believing in something that you're willing to fight for that you think is important, believing in good, freedom and believing that unless you have a choice then there's no freedom. Having a choice gives you freedom and then it's being responsible for that choice."

"THE MATRIX RELOADED" OPENS ACROSS MOST MAJOR TERRITORIES ON MAY 15TH, 2003.

DH-Jada-Pinkett Smith Interview

Standing merely five feet tall, Jada Pinkett Smith is known for her high-energy charm, receiving attention for the spunky role she played in her friend Keenan Ivory Wayans' Low Down Dirty Shame in 1994. She was born on September 18, 1971, in Baltimore, MD, where she grew up and went on to study dance at Baltimore School for the Arts. She then attended North Carolina School of Arts, but dropped out when Wayans found her an agent to launch her acting career.

Real notice came when she worked on Bill Cosby's series A Different World starting in 1991. Thereafter she appeared in several films including her more serious roles as the single mother in Menace II Society and the girlfriend in Jason's Lyric (1994). Eddie Murphy's 1996 rendition of The Nutty Professor brought her back to comedy, and the extensive hype around the film allowed her fame to swell. In 1997, she married fellow actor (and former rap star) Will Smith; the following year, she appeared in Woo and Return to Paradise, and gave birth to son Jadan.

Pinkett Smith made a cameo in Spike Lee's Bamboozled in 2000, and then returned to a serious lead role in Doug McHenry's Kingdom Come (2001) with Whoopi Goldberg, which was shot while she was pregnant with daughter Willow. The petite actress is the newest cast member of the next 2 Matrix films, the first of which, Matrix Reloaded, opens on May 15. It was an energetic and fun Pinkett-Smith who talked Matrix, religion, and hubbie Will, to PAUL FISCHER.

Question: So could you beat up Will after training for this movie, do you think?

Answer: Please.

Question: You could do that anyway, right?

Answer: No. He's always reminding me that's not the case. That that will not happen. So…

Question: How long did he spend in Australia on this?

Answer: Umm. I think about nine months.

Question: Was your family with you for a lot of it?

Answer: Oh yeah. My kids were with me the whole time. And then Will came in and out. My bonus son came over with his mother to stay with me for some time also. So…and my goddaughter and some of my kids' friends. I just kept bringing everybody, you know, you just have to keep bringing people.

Question: That must take the pain away from working so far from home.

Answer: Yeah. You know and so that my kids could have a life, you know. You see people.

Question: What did they do in Australia?

Answer: Oh. They have an aquarium, they have beautiful parks there - there's a lot of water in Sydney, Australia. They had gymnastic classes - I had gymnastic classes also - and they would take gymnastics with me while I was taking - I had a private and they had their class right next to me, which was great. They had swimming classes that they were doing - actually Jaden became a brilliant swimmer over in Australia, but you know, tons of stuff to do. We were constantly - did a lot of shopping.

Question: Specific about the training? Because I'd read you'd gained 15 pounds of muscles…

Answer: I did. I benched 170 - I did 9 plates on each side for leg presses. You don't get to see it in this movie, but you'll see it in the next one.

Question: So what went into that exactly?

Answer: That was just - because I had the same trainer that trained Will for Ali came over and trained me for The Matrix on top of the Kung Fu team training me for martial arts, so I had just a life full of training, which was just training.

Question: Was it hard to step into a project like this with an established cast already in there and join this kind of mythology?

Answer: You know, not really because I had an opportunity to meet the brothers for the first Matrix several times, so it was very clear about what they needed, what they wanted and what was expected of me, so it felt like I just jumped right in to the routine and Carrie-Ann and Laurence and Keanu were very welcoming. I mean they just, you know, they just kind of brought me in with open arms, so that made it very easy…very easy.

Question: At what point though did they sort of broach the subject of Enter The Matrix and hey, we're going to shoot all this additional material for a video?

Answer: You know, it came soon after I said that I would do the project, you know, pretty soon after that.

Answer: And your first thoughts or reactions to that?

Answer: I don't really understand. Like, you know, okay, and then I get this 100 some odd page script and like…what is this? Like, I was confused. So, it me a while to actually have a conversation.

Question: Have you seen the game?

Answer: Yes, I have.

Question: What are your feelings?

Answer: I am very happy - very happy with that game.

Question: The thing I want to know is for the big action sequences, they have you in these like really tight outfits. I mean, you guys never sweat. How's that possible?

Answer: We're cool! We're in the Matrix! Ain't nobody sweating in the Matrix! You know, a lot of makeup.

Answer: Isn't it amazing? I'm telling you, it's like that - it takes, you know, well we do a lot of meditating, you understand, so even if the body is hot internally, you're cool.

Question: Have you seen the movie ?

Answer: Yes, I have seen the movie.

Question: How did you like it? Is it a digital Jada there?

Answer: Oh no. There's no digital me. No digital me.

Question: I mean, presuming there's a lot of resolution with you in the next - there's more of you in the next…

Answer: There's more of me. I don't know how much more, but there's more of me. Um, and, you know, obviously in the video game movie also.

Question: The scripts must - I mean, when you see the film, it's very densely philosophical and very profound. When you read the scripts, how does that translate on the page, did you actually have to go to the brothers and say what does this mean?

Answer: I didn't talk to them much about it because they don't really do a lot of explaining in that sense. It's like, I know they talked a great deal with Keanu, you know, but for characters - and Morpheus - you know, and I'm sure some with Trinity also, but you know, they can't take the time to talk to every single one of the characters. They kind of have to leave it, you know - they say well ok, this is the book we read, and this is the basis, you know, of your philosophy and then they kind of have to leave it up to you to figure it out. And then you come on the set and they help caress it, you know, a little more, but you know, you're basically left to your own devices.

Question: Do the action sequences - I mean there's such a sense of exactitude and you don't get a feeling of compromise that you kind of do in bits and pieces of a bunch of other movies. Is there that same attention to the performance - do they know exactly what they want?

Answer: Oh boy.

Question: And are they going to keep working ---

Answer: Yes. My first day on the set, I mean, the 26th take, I looked at Laurence and I was like, what is going on, you know, and the thing is, I had to move out of the way. I had to just move out of the way. You know what I'm saying. Instead of me coming with these preconceived notions of what the scene was going to be, you know. I had to just let them do their thing and then once I did that, it was all gravy, you know? Like in three takes - okay - we got that, you know.

Question: Does having a family affect the choices that you make now as an actress?

Answer: Absolutely.

Question: You don't work as often as you did at the beginning of your career.

Answer: Only for special projects like this, yeah.

Question: So what are you looking for professionally.

Answer: I just always want to be able to have an opportunity to work. I always just try to make sure that I'm not forgotten and you know, so that when I do want to work, I can always, you know, go out and get that meeting or what have you. But you know, my priority is my family. You know, I really have to be honest about that and I do love doing what I do, but you can't have two superstars in the family. You know, we already have one.

Question: Who is that star?

Answer: Uh…Will. Will Smith. Do you have any idea who I'm talking about?

Question: He makes a couple of bucks.

Answer: Oh yeah. Yeah. So, you know, and just - I knew that going into a relationship with Will and that's how we keep our family balanced, you know, but I was able to do that.

Question: Who told you there can't be two superstars in a family?

Answer: You know what? Nobody did. Just me. You know, it was just something that - you know, this instinct, my kids have to have some type of you know, regular - they just do, I mean, you know and I'm looking for hours - and with the hours that it took me, I couldn't do what I did on this film every day. I mean I couldn't go from this film and then go right into another project. I have no idea when I'm going to do another movie. You know, because this process for me was a lot to do with small children, you know? Maybe as my kids get bigger, but my kids were on the set with me and they - when I went home, it wasn't about me relaxing. I've still got to be mommy. I've still got to put these kids in the tub, you know what I mean? Because they don't want my mother to do it. My mother, thank God, was there with me the whole time. You know, she was with me just like today. She's at home with my children because I can't be. You know what I'm saying? And she was with me the whole time during the Australia thing, but you know, when I got home even my mother was like okay, I was with these kids all day, here you go!

Question: What about your husband? He doesn't …

Answer: Oh yeah, he helps out when he's there. Yeah, he helps out so when I come home the kids are bathed, but then he wants to be all over you.

Question: What are their ages now?

Answer: I have a ten-year-old bonus child, I have a four-year-old son and a 2 ½ year-old daughter.

Question: A lot of people say that it's when the kids are all of school age that you become a lot more reluctant to do location work.

Answer: Yes. And that's another issue, you know. They don't even have to be school age. My four-year-old is like, I'm not going anywhere. You know what I mean? So you know it's difficult. You see, one of us has to be free to be able to maneuver with the children. You know, I can't be on the set and he be on the set, and I can't see Will, they can't see their dad because I got to work and he got to work. Whereas, you got to free it up.

Question: Does your four-year-old understand what you guys do for a living?

Answer: Yes, he does. He does, and he loves it.

Question: He thinks it's cool.

Answer: He's very excited. He's very excited. He plays a video game. I let him play the video game because there's no blood, you know what I mean. So we went through the video game, saying that we had here, but he won't play it regularly. I just let him play it for that little piece when he's at home. He's like, "Oh man, it's so cool." He's very excited.

Question: And excited about his mom being in an action film?

Answer: They are very excited. My bonus on this is like, "I can't wait to get that video game." You know, he got an opportunity to play the game and he's really excited, so that's cool.

Question: Would you work with Will again?

Answer: That would probably be the next time you see me in a movie.

Question: Any idea what it will be?

Answer: An action comedy, hopefully.

Question: So you're developing something together.

Answer: We are trying to. Yeah. We're just trying to find that script that, you know, we haven't found it yet. But we're trying to find that next thing that he and I can do together. Yeah, that will be what we do.

Question: Do you think that will be hard though?

Answer: No. Well, we actually did discuss producing a TV show together called "All About Us", which is a working title right now. We just shot the pilot, and it's actually a really, really wonderful process. We love working together. We really do. And Ali was great when we did Me and Ali together. You know, a little something, just to see. You know, give it a little, test the waters. Okay, that was cool, and we'll see. And with the pilot it was really great, so.

Question: What is the pilot about?

Answer: The pilot is just about a couple trying to make a blended family work. A guy who is divorced and is about to remarry, and then they're just trying to make it work, with this young son that they have.

Question: Can you tell us a little bit about Keanu what your impressions are on Kenau, you know. He has this mysterious quality, especially with us, with the press. He has a very guarded face.

Answer: He is very guarded.

Question: And you know the real Keanu

Answer: He's very generous. He's very sensitive. He's very quiet. You know what I mean? But he's also a really intuitive person. You know what I mean? He has this quality about him that he knows when you want to be spoken to, or he knows when you want to be bothered. And he knows when you don't. He gives you your space and he would prefer that you give him his space at the same time, understand when he wants to be spoken to. You know, when he wants that kiss in the morning. You know, there were days I'd come on the set and I'd go, "I think today is the day Kenau might want a kiss." You know, and then I'd come on the set and that day would be a day when you'd wave, you know what I'm saying? It's like he's just the type of person that he's a complicated man, you know what I'm saying? And I relate to that aspect of his personality because it's also an aspect of my personality. So it's something that I really respect and admire about him. He works extremely hard. I don't think there's any other person that I've seen work as hard as that man. And that, to me, was extremely inspiring. You know, and his generosity is, I mean he bought twelve Harleys for his stunt guys.

Question: Really.

Answer: He didn't have to do that. He brought in a freaking Harley truck. And he just kept, the Harleys just kept piling out of the truck. You know what I'm saying. He didn't make a big deal about it. Nobody knew what was happening, it wasn't like he made this grand statement about, "Hey, look what I did", you know. Or he had a press release. He did it because he wanted to. Because he was so grateful to have them there, and they worked very hard also. And he's the shit. I love Keanu. I really do. I really, really do. I think he's a really wonderful person.

Question: Can you look back at the stuff and realize the sort of same little girl who had, started out?

Answer: Um hmm.

Question: How you developed?

Answer: Yeah. It's nice for me to see, you know what I mean. That I can look at this stuff and actually see a growth. Oh, thank you. You know. So to me, it's I like that. It's very, it's wonderful for me to watch.

Question: You were actually more ambitious then.

Answer:Yes, I was.

Question: I spoke to you when you first got to LA, and I was stunned how confident and ambitious. It wasn't obnoxious, but it was like …

Answer: I'm ready. Ready to take on the world.

Question: Is it kids that?

Answer: That change that? Yeah. You know, being single and young and, you know, having that, you are, I was ready to take on the world. And I still am, just in a different way, you know what I'm saying. But my kids, they're the most precious thing I have, you know what I mean, and so it just, children just put things into perspective. This is great, this is wonderful, and I love it, you know. But at the end of the day, once my children came into the world, I'm like, wow, there's nothing more precious than this human being that I have in front of me. You know what I'm saying. And this has to be taken care of first. And I can do that, you know, while I'm doing this, but this comes first. And that, I was just talking to them over that, that energy is the same energy that I felt from Alea when I met her in Oakland, you know, just that vivacious, Oh, I'm just going, ready. You know what I mean? And then to have what happened happen was just devastating in that I related to her energy in that way so much. It reminded me so much of myself and I was so happy for her because she was unstoppable. You know what I mean. She had all that you needed to have to do exactly what she was about to do. And that force just gets snuffed within a second. It's just like, jeez, and you talk about getting your faith challenged and you know, at a moment when you are going to dive into these concepts and these films, that was definitely one of those moments was just like, what is really going on? You know what I mean. So.

Question: You are a very spiritual, very religious person.

Answer: Spiritual, not religious. But I am spiritual.

Question: Because this film does have a lot of spiritualism in it.

Answer: Yes I do adhere to this. I don't adhere to the philosophy of the one, though. I don't believe in the concept of the one. No, I do not. I believe in the concept, the African concept, that it takes a village. You know what I'm saying. I believe that it takes quite a few people in order to make life. You know what I mean. Work. I don't believe that it takes one person. That there can only be one. So that's one thing that I do not. Yes. Many. And that's just me personally. I just, that concept of the one just doesn't gel for me.

Question: So what does Will think about?

Answer: And I don't even really believe in the concept that the concept of the one in this movie is how they, how it's being perceived. I don't think that it's really, it is the concept of the one. Because without trinity, would Neil be able to do the things. Would he believe them the way that he does without trinity? Would he have the will to do things that he does without her love? Without the guidance of Morpheus. Would he have been able to find the way? So the next question is, maybe there would have been something or someone else to come and do it. But no matter what it is, there's always another supporting factor for that thing that, you know, that person or that thing that we consider to be the one. How is it the one, the one can't sustain itself alone. Just can't. There is no such thing as the one in my opinion.

Question: You seem like you could probably play a fantastic villain. Do you ever think about that?

Answer: I would. I've been waiting for that. That's going to be the next one. That'll be the, no the next one will probably be something that I do with Will, and then I'm going to look for that villain role.

Question: Really?

Answer: Oh, yeah. I would love it. A villain? Yeah, you know I'd kill it. I'd kill it. I'd nail it. I'd nail it. I'd love to do that.

"THE MATRIX RELOADED" OPENS ACROSS MOST MAJOR TERRITORIES ON MAY 15TH, 2003.

DH-Laurence Fishburne Interview

Laurence Fishburne gained widespread acclaim and an Oscar nomination for his gripping performance as the Svengali-like Ike Turner in the Tina Turner biopic What's Love Got to Do With It (1993) and went on to rack up an impressive string of credits playing leads and supporting roles on stage, screen, and television.Born in Augusta, Georgia, the sole child of a corrections officer and an educator, Fishburne was raised in Brooklyn following his parents' divorce. An unusually sensitive child with a natural gift for acting, he was taken to various New York stage auditions before landing his first professional role at the age of ten. Two years later, he made his feature film debut with a major role in Cornbread, Earl and Me (1975). A turning point in the young actor's career came when he lied about his age and won the role of a young Navy gunner in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. On location in the Philippines, the teenage actor effectively bade farewell to childhood as he endured the many legendary problems that befell Coppola's production over the next two years. In between shooting days, Fishburne hung out with the adult actors, often exposing himself to their off-screen drinking and drugging antics.

Back in Hollywood by the late '70s, he continued playing small supporting roles in features and on television. Like many black actors, he was frequently relegated to playing thugs and young hoodlums. He would continue to appear in Coppola productions like Rumble Fish (1983) and The Cotton Club (1984) throughout the 1980s. Wanting a change from playing heavies, he accepted a recurring role as friendly Cowboy Curtis opposite Paul Reubens on the loopy CBS children's series Pee-Wee's Playhouse. By the early '90s, Fishburne had begun to escape the stereotypical roles of his early career. In 1990, he played a psychotic hit man opposite Christopher Walken in Abel Ferrara's King of New York and a chess-playing hustler in Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993). Following his great success in the Tina Turner biopic, he became one of Hollywood's most prolific actors, appearing in films such as John Singleton's Higher Learning (1995). Fishburne, who had known Singleton when the latter was a security guard on the Pee-Wee's Playhouse set, had previously appeared in the director's debut film Boyz 'N the Hood (1991). After Higher Learning came Othello (1995) and Always Outnumbered, which he also produced. Fishburne had previously produced Hoodlum (1997), in which he also starred. In 1999, he stepped into blockbuster territory with his starring role in the stylish sci-fi action film The Matrix. Increasingly geared towards /action films, Fishburne could be seen in the fast and furious motorcycle flick Biker Boyz as fans prepared for the release of the upcoming Matrix sequels and will next be seen in the Clint Eastwood-directed Mystic River. Fishburne talked to PAUL FISCHER.

Question: Were you surprised at how Matrix has transformed things?

Answer: I think everyone is very surprised at how matrix has become the pop culture phenomenon that it is. I think we were all surprised.

Question: What was it about the first film that struck the chord with so many people?

Answer: There's a lot of things, and I think the major thing is that in crafting their story and structuring their story, the Wachowski brothers relied heavily on Greek mythology and primarily the old myths and the hero's journey, the reluctant messiah story, which is one of the oldest stories and has been with us in every culture, in every clime in some way or form. And they basically put it in a modern context and I think that's the thing that everybody connected to.

Question: There are also religious connotations.

Answer: Yes there are. I did say reluctant messiah, didn't I?

Question: Did you ask yourself, where does Morpheus come from?

Answer: No, I did not ask myself that. I didn't have to ask myself that.

Question: John the Baptist?

Answer: Well obviously, the Baptist is one of the elements, one of the things that's inside of him. But the other thing that is inside of him is the mythological thing, the idea of dream. So it was really about embracing all of that and anything else that was valuable, whether it was somebody specific some specific story, anything. I don't know.

Question: Could you identify with him?

Answer: Sure. I relate to him because he's a man of faith. He has tremendous faith, and I have tremendous faith and that's the place where we really connect. That's the place where I can consciously say, oh yeah, we're similar. I'm sure there are other things about me that are absolutely in line with him. I probably have a lot of qualities that are similar to his, but I guess I'm too close to them to really be able to go - oh yeah, that's what it is.

Question: When you were working on the first film, and no one knew how going to turn out. Did you sense a difference when you came back to work on these?

Answer: I think for the brothers Wachowski that there was a lot more pressure for them. I think it's the pressure they put themselves under, more so than anything else. I think perfectionists is one way of describing them. I really believe they care tremendously about whatever it is they've made, and they wanted it to be the way they've imagined it. But then you get that coming down from the top kind of pressure. Well, the coming down from the top kind of pressure, that studio pressure etc. etc I think they had a very good handle on it. They seemed to anyway.

Question: How did they change from the first film?

Answer: They're pretty much the same guys.

Question: What is the real Keanu like?

Answer: I can't tell you a fucking thing about Keanu. I've been working with him for five years. I don't know a fucking thing about him. All I can tell you about Keanu is that after I've spent that much time with him, I love the motherfucker, but I can't tell you a fucking thing about him.

Question: Working far away, spending so much time away from home. Does it affect the way you work?

Answer: Well, I mean it affects your life. It changes you. We were picked up and dropped in another country, another culture. I found it on one hand delightful, and really quite exciting. On the other hand, you know, I was away from my friends and my family and the familiar places. Simple things like the kind of toothpaste you can get, the kind of soft drinks you can get. You fall in love with some of the stuff that's there. The think I lament about our country is that I can't get a fucking meat pie in our country.

Question: Were you working on the film at the time of 9/11?

Answer: 9/11 I was here stateside. Jada was stateside. Keanu was travelling, and Carrie Ann. was in Australia.

Question: Any effect at all on the workplace?

Answer: Of course. And on the entire world. I wasn't back - I didn't get back to Australia until around the 22nd of September because again you just couldn't get on a plane and leave America. So it affected me. It shook my faith. It made me question everything, which is what that whole event was designed to do. But initially it was for me - okay, this is the way the rest of the world has been living for 35 years.

Question: Did it change direction of the film?

Answer: You know, we are really a very very large family of people - everybody that's involved in these films. So one of the great things that happened is that when we got back to Australia, every day from Sept. 12 on, you could walk around the Fox studios and you could see someone who was on the crew wearing a NY city fire department shirt. Some Australian would have a new York city fire department shirt on as a way of supporting the families and survivors of all those people who died in that . . . so that's one way in which we were affected.

Question: Talk about balancing between character and special effects.

Answer: Special effects are characters. Special effects are essential Elements. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there. We found the characters in the first movie. Certain aspects of it were a lot more fun this time, but there's nothing like the first time. It's never as good as the first time.

Question: In spite of the focus on Neo, Morpheus is still the centre. The one with the will and the determination.

Answer: It's interesting to hear you say that because most people, in fact most of the people we were working with would say - he's so different in this movie, he's changed. - No, we get to see more. That's all it is. To see different levels of him. And the fact of the matter is he's surrounded by naysayers in this movie. He's surrounded by non-believers. And depending on whom you are and your perspective, he either makes a believer out of you or he pushes you further away from the idea of The One. Again, I think there were certain things about this that were a lot more fun. Like the speechifying, the zealous testament on the mount thing that he does, which is a lovely thing. Or even those small exchanges he has with Niobe???? That really kind of great resolution in the third movie.

Question: You do some cool things.

Answer: Yeah, he got to do some really cool things. I mean the whole freeway thing was very cool.

Question: Were you contracted to the sequel?

Answer: No, I was not. There was no thought process at all. I remember when we were halfway through the first Matrix, Larry and Andy sent me a small gift of a bottle of champagne with a note that said - halfway there, one down, two to go. And I just kind of went - okay. And we kind of speculate about that they might be like. And when you receive the script, you wonder where they are going to take this. Sometime in June or July of 2000, they called and said, we have a couple of scripts ready for you to read, and we'll give you one first because it's really quite overwhelming to have to read both of them back to back. Okay, that's cool. And I read reloaded, and I thought this is wonderful. I was committed to do reloaded and revolution before I ever read the scripts. I didn't need to read the scripts to know that I was absolutely a hundred per cent committed to doing these movies - because of what we did on the first movie. Because of my experience on the first movie told me that were absolutely brilliant writers, they're absolutely visionary directors. They have absolutely achieved that which they set out to achieve. So how could I miss? It was a new experience. But I never thought about it. I was just like - that's what we're doing. I didn't assume anything. It was just - you know, I was in. they always knew it was a trilogy. They wrote it as a trilogy. They just didn't give us all the information at the outset because the studio wasn't going to buy off on it until they saw the results of the first one.

Question: When we have the whole at Christmas, how do you think it will be perceived in terms of the total package?

Answer: Gosh. It's definitely cinema-making history. It's definitely the kind of thing that is going to be a pop cultural stone for a generation at least.

Question: What was the set like?

Answer: We had a lot of downtime since there was so much going on. There's Reload going on, there's Revolutions going on, both of them being shot outside of sequence. So one day you could shoot a sequence from both movies. And the matrix is going on at the same time cause ure shooting a movie of the game. So it was like being part of a hive.

Question: So what are you working on now?

Answer: I'm writing a screenplay, adapting a book the Alchemist into a screenplay which I'm going to direct. I directed my first film in 98 after first Matrix, called Once In A Life, and this will be only my second picture as a director, writer, and actor.

Question: And how are Clint's sets?

Answer: Wow. Quiet man, really really quiet. He's a man of few words but a lot more confidence, a lot more experience.

"THE MATRIX RELOADED" OPENS ACROSS MOST MAJOR TERRITORIES ON MAY 15TH, 2003.

DH-Keanu Reeves Interview

Keanu Reeves has always had the reputation of revealing nothing to the press. Even those who work with him find him a tough nut to crack. His co-star in the Matrix films, Laurence Fishburne, laughingly admitted that he "can't tell you a fucking thing about Keanu. I've been working with him for five years. I don't know a fucking thing about him. All I can tell you about Keanu is that after I've spent that much time with him, I love the motherfucker, but I can't tell you a fucking thing about him." Keanu isn't about to make our lives any easier. Sitting on a studio soundstage and feeling more relaxed than usual, trying to get to know the real Keanu is simply a waste of energy. As good natured as he is, he is not prepared to divulge to the press what Fishburne was unable to uncover over five years, laughingly saying that "Oh yeah, you'll get that right here," when asked what the real Keanu is like. He relishes being an enigma and is happy to remain that way. "No, I want to sit here and cry and reveal my self to you all you fucking crazy guys." At least the now 38-year old star has managed to develop a sense of humour. When it comes to discussing the work, however, Reeves is more passionate, especially regarding the latest Matrix instalment. Clearly one of the year's most anticipated films, Matrix Reloaded again casts Reeves as Neo, aka Thomas Anderson, who, along with the rebel leaders, estimate that they have 72 hours until 250,000 probes discover Zion and destroy it and its inhabitants. During this, Neo must decide how he can save Trinity from a dark fate in his dreams. In part a Messianic fable, the original Matrix was not only a surprise hit when released in 1999, but uts influence on popular culture and cinema in general, remain extraordinary. Reeves is shy in defining the first Matrix's role in pop culture. "I hope that if people did respond to the first one, that they get something out of the second.", though he begrudgingly admits that "it certainly influenced a lot of things in cinema."

For Keanu, though an established success at the time of the original Matrix, he has gone through a lot in the last five years, both personally and professionally. More self-assured these days, he says that although he hasn't reflected specifically about how he might have changed since The Matrix, "I'll just say I'm older and older. I don't know. It's such a hard question. With any experience you have, you know more about yourself in terms of what goes on, in terms of being away from home for so long. Then, through that you discover what is important and there are things that inform you, including the friendships along the way." Including the shoot on the first Matrix, Reeves spent close to two years living in Sydney working on the trilogy, or "basically my whole 37th year working on the last Matrix films." The actor admits that "It was really hard to be away from friends and family that long." But at least it was in Sydney and he defines his experiences in the Australian city as being memorable. "I just loved the city. Great people, beautiful weather, beautiful architecturally and there's good cuisine there. In terms of working that way, and working in film, it doesn't happen all the time, if ever, that you have to apply yourself, go for that length of time on a project. And that's okay to me, especially when you love something and you get the extraordinariness of it. It is demanding in terms of missing your friends and family and also applying yourself to your work for that length of time."

It was worth it for Reeves, to suffer through the arduous training and physical pain, in order to help bring the vision of the Wachowski Brothers to the screen. Though he had wisely turned down another sequel [1997's Speed 2], Reeves had become wary about embarking on a project that was less than satisfying. The Matrix changed all of that. "I had also just done Chain Reaction, which was a really bad experience for me. I was tired and these projects were great scripts." And he got to finish the story, not because of the extra money and higher budgets, but because the actor felt they were important to tell. "If anything, the whole thing of The Matrix in terms of Neo is the birth of this man and this new life. Where does it develop, this relationship between the machines, man and the Matrix. In Reloaded some of the things that came up in The Matrix in terms of the digital entities and the Matrix being a place to escape to is also kind of cool."

While Reeves relishes being a part of the Wachowski Brothers vision, it remains a vision that the trilogy's directors themselves won't share with the press. Keanu is reluctant to further define their vision in their place, "because they don't want it defined. I don't think that's something they're interested in giving to anyone who watches the film." But unlike most Hollywood films, this pair of directors was at least able to realise a vision they had been harbouring for years prior to the first film. "I think there's always something you wish you could do more of, but we, the brothers, Warner Bros and all the producers were certainly gave a lot of resources to realizing these pictures, and it's great and I think you see it on the screen. There's a lot of movie up there." And Reeves did put more into this latest duo of films than ever before, in terms of training and keeping better in shape. "Some of the things I had to do were a little more advanced, such as some of the multi-fighting and the weapons." Keanu and his fellow cast members spent an initial 6 months in Los Angeles undergoing an intense training schedule, though the actor downplays the rigour of it all. "I just did it through basically practice and learning. Because of the experience of the first one, I had some body memory. I knew what I was going into and so I could pick up the choreography quicker and I knew where I was in wirework. Some of the stuff that was difficult in the first one was kinda like - I know how to do this. And then once I said that, our action choreographer Woo-ping Yuen would say well how about this? Or the brothers would say how about THIS? So then it was the back flips and the cartwheels." It wasn't easy, and even involved the actor occasionally immersing himself in a bathtub full of ice. "Sometimes what happens during the first four weeks of training, you're basically tearing micro-muscle tissue every day, so you get inflammation. I'm not 22 anymore and bouncing around, so ice and Epsom salts just help the recovery. Also, sometimes, because you're stretching two hours a day, kicking and stretching and kicking, you get all those tears and inflammation and I get cramps, so cold water tends to help alleviate that so you can sleep or walk upstairs."

It was clearly worth the pain, because at its core, this trilogy of films delves into greater questions than merely the physical. The Matrix redefined a genre by adding complexity, religious undertones and metaphysical symbolism to a futuristic Biblical tale. Even Keanu admits that in working on both Reloaded and November's Revolutions, he was mystified as to why certain scenes or moments were being executed. "but that's also part of the fun of it for me and the audience. Those questions you have are also strongly Neo's questions such as: Do you believe in fate? Why not? I'm not in control of my own life. That whole thing of asking those questions I think is Neo's journey and it was fun to ask them. I have a feeling about what Neil wants and the brothers had a feeling, so in the second one in an odd way I think they kind of invert what happened. In the first one, Thomas Anderson became Neo; his digital self became his real self and his fear of flying became him flying and there's a certain aspect in Reloaded where the hero gets inverted and we're back to Neo as Thomas Anderson. We see HIS fears, his personal kind of hopes and his vulnerabilities."

Almost like the actor himself, but he won't say so. The actor is currently shooting something quite different, a the new untitled romantic comedy from Nancy Meyers, co-starring the stellar likes of Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Amanda Peet and Frances McDormand. "It'll be great to finally show off my funny side." And no, he is not in the running to play Superman, he says. "They've all died or have been injured", he says laughingly, referring to previous actors cast in the legendary role.." Like films that have Johnny in it," he concludes with a wry smile.

"THE MATRIX RELOADED" OPENS ACROSS MOST MAJOR TERRITORIES ON MAY 15TH, 2003.

Reeves: Reloaded Has More

Keanu Reeves, who reprises the role of Neo in the upcoming sequel film The Matrix Reloaded, told SCI FI Wire that the new movie is more ambitious than 1999's original Matrix. "It fractures out," Reeves said in an interview. "It splinters out, and there's many more ... stories being told. There's a lot of new characters."

The first Matrix has a straighter narrative, Reeves said. But "I don't know if the ideas are so straight-ahead in terms of dual realities and what is reality? And what is truth? And what is fate? And dealing with man and technology ... and the whole aspect of trying to find an authentic life," he added.

As for the physical demands of the role, Reeves said, "it took a lot of training. The usual four or five months before, and then just training while [shooting]. I would have a fight, do some acting, the choreographer would come in, and then the training with that. I mean, it's demanding, but it's also one of my favorite parts of the piece." But Reeves added that his experience on the first Matrix helped. "I was a lot better, more proficient at the wire work, and also it seemed that I was able to catch on to the choreography much quicker."

In a key scene, in which Reeves' Neo battles 100 Agent Smiths, played by Hugo Weaving, Reeves said, "I got to work with 12 of the stunt men. So for three weeks we just did that, the fight. The other thing was just trying to learn the weapons. There was a lot of different weapons: the scythes and the swords and the stick ... and the long staff. There was a lot to learn." The Matrix Reloaded opens May 15.

In the Future, Black's Back

Posted Sunday, May 4, 2003; 2:31 p.m. EST

Let's be honest: one of the things that gives The Matrix and its spin-offs their appeal is that the characters look so damn stylish once they plug into the network. Keanu Reeves' fight scenes are the more compelling for his dramatically swirling coat, and with Carrie-Anne Moss's character Trinity looking as if she's been shrink-wrapped into her black cat suit, her punches have more pop. (If The Matrix is any guide, women in the future will need a weapons-grade workout regimen.)

And just as some people sit at home in baggy tops or threadbare sweaters projecting a different version of themselves over the Internet or phone, so crew members of the Nebuchadnezzar transform themselves from grimy refugees to sleek sophisticates once they plug into the Matrix. What sci-fi nerd could ask for more than the instant urbanity afforded by outfits like those worn by Laurence Fishburne's Morpheus?

Kym Barrett, the costume designer for the Matrix films, says that while designing, she attempted to avoid references to the present day, refusing to look at current fashion shows or even video games and comic books. "I wanted to go just from the script—to come up with clothes that weren't connected to a certain time or place," Barrett says.

Despite this—and the fact that the movies take place 200 years in the future—the costumes, with all their space-age kinkiness, seem to have parallels almost straight off the runways. For fall 2003, the Milan design house Costume National is offering up a number of shiny, black leather ensembles that echo Trinity's outfit. For his menswear collection, Michael Kors sent down the catwalks a leather duster not unlike the one sported by Morpheus. The rubber suit worn in Reloaded by Monica Bellucci, as well as the leather pantsuit apparently molded onto Jada Pinkett Smith, also seems familiar in the 21st century, albeit primarily from the pages of fetish catalogs.

The one instance in which Barrett purposely alluded to a known fashion universe was in scenes set in Zion, the last remaining human colony, which Barrett describes as a very "civilized" place, even though it looks a lot like a muddy cave. In these scenes, she avoided artificial and stiff fabrics in favor of draping, natural fibers. "Everything [in Zion] is grown hydroponically," she explains. "They grow flax and hemp and things you can weave." (The fact that this is never mentioned in the film gives you a hint of the totality of the Wachowski brothers' narrative vision.) Barrett says she based these outfits on ancient Indian and Tibetan patterns, designing textured garments manifestly created by humans and not machines.

There is another notable area in which contemporary society intrudes. Agent Smith and his cohorts wear dark suits and ties: they're very neat, one undistinguishable from another. These characters were made to look like "the Everyman, anonymous," says Barrett. They also look like that very 21st century villain, the corporate criminal.

The Five Burning Questions

Posted Sunday, May 4, 2003; 2:31 p.m. EST

1. What are werewolves and ghosts doing in a futuristic sci-fi movie?

In the weird world of the Wachowskis, werewolves and ghosts are badly behaved old programs. Or as the Oracle puts it, "Every story you've heard about vampires, werewolves or aliens is the system assimilating some program that's doing something [it's] not supposed to be doing." But the monsters don't look like the ones in horror movies. The ghosts are albino twins with dreadlocks and British accents. The werewolves are just regular guys in sharp suits.

2. In the six months that elapsed between the plots of the first and second movies, what happened to Tank, the driver who saved them all in the first movie?

Marcus Chong, the adopted son of Tommy Chong (one half of Cheech and Chong), is gone. Neither the studio nor Chong would comment on why, but Warner Bros. replaced him with Harold Perrineau, the guy in the wheelchair from HBO's Oz. Chong told Entertainment Weekly that after he was replaced he tried to crash a Matrix press junket and he took food from the Matrix lot.

3. Is that Cornel West on the Zion council?

Yes, the brothers are huge fans of West, the Princeton academic. And after three weeks on the set, West is a huge fan of the brothers. And of Keanu Reeves (they talked Derrida). And of Laurence Fishburne (they talked Shakespeare). There are also appearances by Nona Gaye, the boxer Roy Jones Jr. and the then future Mrs. Laurence Fishburne, Gina Torres.

4. The movie is rated R. Should I prevent my 16-year-old from seeing it?

Depends. The rating is mostly for the violence. "If you have kung-fu fights with kicks to the head," explains Joel Silver, the trilogy's producer, "it automatically makes it R." The Zionists engage in a muddy but sedate orgy, intercut with a love scene between Trinity and Neo, the redeemer. Christian subtext, anyone?

5. If Mr. Smith can replicate himself endlessly and Neo can fly away, what's the point of their fighting?

Good question. For a workout?

Keanu Reeves loves rare, expensive Australian red wine

May 5 2003

Hollywood star Keanu Reeves has revealed a thirst for rare and expensive Australian red wine.

The star of this month's blockbuster film The Matrix: Reloaded has a prized collection of Aussie red, particularly Penfolds Grange Hermitage and Mount Mary Quintet.

Reeves fell in love with Australia and its top shelf wines while shooting The Matrix in Sydney in 1998 and the two sequels, The Matrix: Reloaded and The Matrix: Revolutions last year.

"I had a great time in Sydney and I met some awesome people," Reeves told reporters in Los Angeles.

"I miss it, I want to go back."

Asked if he thought about buying a home in Australia Reeves licked his lips and replied: "I brought back some Australian wine. Yummm."

His favourites are among Australia's finest and rarest wines.

The wine cellars in his homes in Los Angeles and Toronto, Canada, are stocked with 1988 and 1990 vintages of Mount Mary Quintet cabernet, made in Victoria's Yarra Valley.

The 1998 sells for about $A270 a bottle and the 1990 a hefty $A420 a bottle.

"The Mary Quintet cabernet blend. Awesome," Reeves said.

"And the Penfolds Grange. The 71 and the 76 are just awesome."

A 1971 Grange sells for $A875 a bottle and the 1976 $A650.

The 38-year-old actor can afford the wine bill as he reportedly earned $US30 million ($A47.66 million) for shooting the two Matrix sequels.

The Matrix: Reloaded opens in Australia on May 16 and The Matrix: Revolutions is scheduled to open later in the year.

AAP

Waiting for the big one (***Spoilers***)

Here's the lowdown on 'Matrix Reloaded'

BY HENRY CABOT BECK

'The Matrix' is one of the most-discussed films in recent years.

There are movies designed to fit almost any mood or emotion - horror films can inspire dread, for example, while dramas, romance and suspense films get the heart racing in other ways. Some movies make you feel small and vulnerable, others can boost the spirit. And there are those, like Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968), that can create a sense of awe while making you scratch your head. But few, if any, authentic blockbusters have inspired the level of discussion, as "The Matrix" (1999), that Mulligan's stew of kung-fu action picture, Japanese animation film, biblical epic, comic-book yarn and science-fiction adventure. Awash in philosophical notions and odd cultural touch points, it has given rise to a vast number of densely written essays and papers.

Rene Echevarria, a co-producer and writer of such television series as "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and "Dark Angel," recalls the first time he saw "The Matrix."

"I walked out of the theater thinking that something profound had just passed before my eyes," he says. "I can't say for a fact that I still feel the same today, but at the time, the movie struck me as something unique and powerful. It took a lot of digesting."

For many viewers, the impact of the first film in the trilogy continues to reverberate. And it seems likely that its two sequels, "The Matrix Reloaded," which opens May 15, and "The Matrix Revolutions," due in November, will only serve to expand on the ideas presented in the original.

Whether audiences who have, in the interim, figured out some of the intricacies of "The Matrix" will be affected to quite the same degree by "Reloaded" as they were by the first entry, remains to be seen. One thing is certain: The budget of the sequels will match the ambitious vision of the directors, brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski. If anything, "Reloaded" and "Revolutions" promise to be visually unlike anything else anybody has seen before.

Still, it's undeniable that "The Matrix" has tapped into something unusually meaningful - a well of cosmic disorientation, perhaps - for a pop-culture flick. Consequently, the fan debate and scholarly writings, some of which can be found on the movie's website (www. whatisthematrix.com), stretch way beyond the kind of casual curiosity most films elicit.

Deep in the psyche

Some of the essays and articles deal with the technological aspects of the film, the hard science material, the actors and characters, stuff that is fairly typical of any big effects-driven sci-fi film. But also to be found on the Web site, and all over the Internet, are papers that place "The Matrix" at the heart of something so deep in the human psyche that it reaches back two millennia and beyond, to a time when early Christian sects - specifically those known as the Gnostics - had ingested elements of various Middle Eastern and Asian religious ideas.

Like the Resistance fighters in "The Matrix," the Gnostics were a small rebellious group that believed the world was being manipulated by a malevolent God, a deity that created a world of suffering and pain. They further believed that only a handful of individuals could achieve true Gnosis ("mystical knowledge"), lifting the veil long enough to see the inner workings of the universe.

Michel Dejardins, professor of Religion and Culture at Wilford Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada, uses Gnostic texts, the Gnostic-influenced novels of science- fiction writer Philip K. Dick and movies like "The Matrix" in his classroom.

"It's very much an idea in the Gnostic philosophy that you can somehow put on the special glasses, as it were, and perceive the world in a way that others can't, that you wake up when others are fast asleep," says Dejardins.

In "The Matrix" storyline, our world has been reconfigured as a program, generated by thinking machines, who have enslaved the human population and are feeding them the fantasy of a workaday world. "The Matrix is everywhere," the Resistance leader Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) tells Neo (Keanu Reeves), the potential savior. "It is all around us even now, in this room. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. "You were born into bondage, into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch," he adds, "a prison for your mind."

Even more interesting is the idea, briefly touched upon in the film, that the fantasy is a deliberately flawed one, one that at best keeps people only moderately contented. As the main villain, Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), says at one point in the film, "The first Matrix was designed to be the perfect human world ... where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. As a species, human beings define their reality through misery and suffering."

Dejardins suggests that this reflects contemporary perspectives on the story of the Fall of Man. "There is a line of thinking that the snake is not a devil but a liberator," he says, "and that the Garden of Eden is a sort of forced paradise, that once they gain real insight, Adam and Eve deliberately escape."

Living an illusion

Erik Davis, a contributing editor at Wired magazine, and author of the book "Techgnosis: Myth, Magic and Mysticism in the Age of Information," says, "As we engage more and more with virtual worlds and virtual realities, be it computer games, Hollywood special effects or Internet situations, we are inclined to ask this fundamental question: What if the entire world as we know it is some kind of artificial construct, an imposed reality? And that idea especially resonates with kids who are growing up surrounded by any number of sophisticated simulations.

"There's a profound unhappiness at work, a feeling that there's something wrong with the world, something amiss," Davis adds. "And people can easily begin to believe that what we know is actually an illusion, and that there may be some other, better world outside of it. Once you start asking what is and isn't real, you start to connect up with much older ideas, whether it's Gnosticism or the Hindu idea that everything is maya [the illusion of the reality of sensory experience], and that, in turn, becomes good fodder for films like 'Blade Runner' [1982], 'The Truman Show' [1998] and 'Dark City' [1998]."

Many of these ideas were introduced to pop culture through Philip K. Dick's later novels, especially "VALIS" (1981), a book steeped in Gnosticism. It's hard not to see the influence on "The Matrix" of "Blade Runner" and "Total Recall" (1990), which were both based on Dick stories dealing with illusions, paranoia and malevolent authority (as was last year's "Minority Report").

"One reason we like Philip K. Dick is because he was never part of the bigger machine," says Davis. "And being marginal may be one of the only ways to stay outside the mechanism. When a film like 'The Matrix' becomes such an enormous success, it effectively becomes part of the machine, part of the problem, just another kind of Matrix.

"It's a very tricky thing, but it's not just on the level of some postmodern irony about how everything is a construct or simulation," Davis adds. "'The Matrix,' and hopefully people who have gotten more deeply involved with some of the philosophical angles on this material, have a deeper drive for something truer, and more liberating."

The story so far

In "The Matrix," Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), Cypher (Joey Pantoliano) and other members of a group of rebel fighters are determined to end the occupation of Earth by artificial-intelligence machines, who have enslaved all but a handful of humans. Their only hope is to find The One - or Neo (Keanu Reeves), a computer hacker. The rebels free Neo from physical and mental bondage and help him to discover his heritage, while constantly battling the machines and the treacherous Cypher.

In "The Matrix Reloaded," Neo will discover the extent of his own abilities and continue the fight for truth, justice and the human way as he helps the rebels protect the few remaining humans, who are hidden near the Earth's core in the city of Zion. He will also find more time to continue his love affair with Trinity. Expect amazing battles, an astonishing car chase, heinous villainy and enough special effects to bury most of the summer competition.

What you need to know

The Matrix: An elaborate computer program that keeps humans' minds busy while their life force is being drained to feed the power needs of artificially intelligent machines that have taken over the Real World. Humans who believe they are active and engaged in daily business are actually kept afloat in elaborate mechanical wombs, oblivious to the truth.

Zion: The last human city, deep below the Earth's surface, inhabited by people who are not plugged in to the Matrix. Zion is in constant danger of discovery and destruction.

The Agents: The bad guys, who dress in Kennedy-era suits, and who travel around the Matrix as a sort of Gestapo. They can possess the (virtual) bodies of anyone they choose, they are very hard to hurt, and in the new movie they can evidently clone themselves.

The Resistance: Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) is the general of a band of vigilante fighters who travel within and without the Matrix, engaging the Agents in battle and working in the Real World to protect Zion from being found.

The Ships: Morpheus is also the captain of one of a number of ships that travel within the crumbling underground infrastructure of the Real World, always dodging from a group of mechanical nasties known as the Sentinals or...

The Squiddies: These vicious predators attack without mercy, using tentacles and laser beams to kill humans and destroy ships. Expect to see a lot of them in "The Matrix Reloaded."

EMP: Electro-Magnetic Pulse - the only weapon the Resistance has that will effectively knock out all mechanical and electrical energy within a given area, including that which fuels the Squiddies. The down side is that it also knocks out the ships as well.

The Twins: In the new movie, there is a pair of independent bad guys (played by Adrian and Neil Rayment) who have some interesting ghost powers and whose hair seems to have a life of its own. Though they look a bit like Milli Vanilli, rest assured they are not.

Jacking in: The means of traveling from the Real World to the Matrix. It involves having a spike driven into a port on the back of the head. The bad news is that getting out involves finding a convenient and rare (non-cell) phone, and the really bad news is that dying in the Matrix means dying in the Real World as well. The only one to have survived such a death is ...

Neo: a.k.a. The One Part Jesus, part Superman and part Bruce Lee, Neo (Keanu Reeves) is the person the Resistance has been waiting for. He can manipulate the Matrix as well as the Agents, which means he can fly and do other neat stuff, as we will see in "The Matrix Reloaded."

THE STARR REPORT

Tomorrow's "Entertainment Tonight" (7 p.m./ Ch. 2) airs entirely from the set of "The Matrix Reloaded," with anchors Mary Hart, Bob Goen and correspondent Maria Menounos.

"ET" will feature interviews with the cast from key sets from the movie that were shipped from the film's location in Australia to Warner Bros. Studios' Stage 16 in Burbank. "ET" will also air Goen's interview with Keanu Reeves and Menounos' chat with Carrie-Anne Moss about their love scene in the film.

UNLOCKING THE MATRIX (***Major Spoilers***)

An exclusive look at the year's most avidly anticipated film epic.

By RICHARD CORLISS

Sunday, May. 04, 2003

Strap yourself in for a road-rage theme-park ride in The Matrix Reloaded. Trinity, coolest of woman warriors, is revving down the street with an old Asian man called the Key Maker in the backseat, her boss Morpheus riding shotgun—and the Twins, remorseless computer-world Restoration fops, riding machine gun in an SUV pursuing her. Cop sirens keen, steel-belted radials scream bloody murder, as bullets decorate Trinity's car. She takes a sharp turn, hurdles a median and crashes onto a freeway. One Twin vaults into the car to battle Morpheus, while a dark-suited Agent leapfrogs onto the hood, his gun aimed at Trinity. Their car takes a few too many bullets and is totaled. As Morpheus plays matador with another Agent's car, Trinity spots a truck with a cargo of motorbikes about to pass on a lower level. She and the Key Maker jump, and now they're thigh-hugging a 140-h.p. Ducati. She blasts off the truck ramp, onto the road and scoots between two semis—where Morpheus is miraculously perched to scoop up the Key Maker! But now he must fight a deadly Agent atop one speeding truck. And where the heck is Neo?

By now we're only partway through a 14-minute chase scene that has plenty more stunts, fights and fatalities in store. And that's just the car candy in a movie the writer-directors, brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski, have vacuum packed with enough action and meditation, enough complications, conundrums and kung fu to keep viewers rubbing their eyes and scratching their heads until ... well, at least until Nov. 5, when their finale to the trilogy, The Matrix Revolutions, is released. (This second episode ends with a cliff-hanger and the legend, "To be concluded.")

Reloaded, which opens around the world next week, is the expansion of what Keanu Reeves, who plays the central character Neo, calls a modern myth: "The first film was the birth of a hero; the second and third are the life of that hero." With a sequelmaker's ambition that dates back to Homer (don't most readers prefer The Odyssey to its predecessor, The Iliad?), the Wachowskis worked for four years with the aim of outdoing their 1999 cyberepic The Matrix, as well as every adventure film since that devoutly imitated its computer wizardry and dense action scenes. They had the bankroll for it. The two sequels, shot back to back over 18 months in Sydney, Australia, cost more than $300 million, or about five times the original's budget.

The Matrix was, in the words of Laurence Fishburne, who plays Captain Morpheus in the trilogy, "a combination of science fiction, Hong Kong kung fu, cyberpunk and classic American action, with heavy doses of spiritualism and philosophy." It earned critical hosannas, popular wow-ees and $460 million at the worldwide box office. But unlike the new film, which comes encrusted with four years of anticipation and expectation, the first one had the advantage, initially, of relative anonymity. Arriving in March 1999 with no special fanfare or pedigree, and thus no outsize expectations, the Wachowskis' movie rose like a surprise sunrise.

That cinematic dawn revealed a grave new world where nothing was as it seemed. What we knew as reality in the late 20th century, the movie suggested, was a fiction imposed on human beings by intellectually superior machines. In fact, it was the late 22nd century, when humans, who provided bioelectric power to the machines, spent their entire existence in pods; they were nourished by the liquefied remains of their fellows and by The Matrix, a virtual-reality computer program of their lives. A few rebels had escaped The Matrix with the aim of destroying it and liberating humanity. Now if Morpheus and his insurgents from the underworld city of Zion could only find a savior, the One of an oracular prophecy. Perhaps this One is a young man called Thomas Anderson. Code name: Neo.

The money earned by The Matrix was nice, especially for a movie whose audience was limited by an R rating. The film's success on video was gratifying. But the cultural impact was near phenomenal. Cybernerds, proliferating like the film's men-in-black computer Agents, studied the Wachowskis' host of referents—to the Bible and Buddha, to novelist William Gibson (Neuromancer) and comic-book artist Jack Kirby (Captain America), to cybernetics and higher mathematics, to Hong Kong action films and Japanese anime—and filled more than 1,000 websites with gnarly exegeses. Half a dozen books have investigated the film's subtleties and invented still more. The Matrix stoked the adrenaline of millions of moviegoers and the intellects of many active, lonely minds.

The Matrix also caught the wrathful attention of moral watchdogs when the fatal shootings at Columbine High School occurred a few weeks after the movie's opening, and it appeared that the two perpetrating teens had seen the film—as had 15 million people who didn't kill anyone.

Anyway, the movie was a hit. And a hit, in the lower math of Hollywood, demands a sequel, whether or not the story has been completed. The brothers, though, had a vaster vision—one not easily contained in a single film. They had conceived The Matrix as a gigantic comic book, then stripped it down to movie form. "In the first version of the script," producer Joel Silver recalls, "you actually saw Zion. But they didn't have the time or the money to do that. If the first film hadn't been successful, nobody would have seen the rest of the story. But the boys had it in their heads. So when the studio said, 'Let's make a sequel,' they had already planned a lot of it."

The brothers' production scheme was as audacious as their narrative vision: two films shot as one, and more than two years in the making of the real (sound stage) and virtual (computer-generated) elements. They also planned a dvd package called Animatrix—nine short computer films by top Japanese and American anime directors, elaborating on the trilogy's themes and subplots (it hits stores next month)—and a nifty video game,Enter The Matrix (see box page 74).

Hoping lightning could strike thrice, the studio—Warner Bros., which, like TIME, is part of AOL Time Warner—said yes to the tandem of sequels. "The success of the first one created an environment for the producers to give the brothers a lot of resources," Reeves says. "It allowed them to pursue their use of a virtual camera, the time we got to spend on our fights. They could build whole worlds, like Zion. And they got the shooting schedule that allowed them to put all these things on film."

It was no holiday, those long months spent Down Under; often it was a nightmare. Reeves' sister had a cancer relapse. Fishburne severely sprained his wrist. Carrie-Anne Moss, who plays Trinity, broke her leg. Gloria Foster—the Oracle whose pronouncements goad Morpheus to find the One—died at 64 after finishing Reloaded. Aaliyah, the R.-and-B. thrush cast in a major supporting role, died in a plane crash before shooting; she was 22. (Nona Gaye, Marvin's daughter, replaced her.) The attacks of Sept. 11 increased the cast's fear and isolation. Jada Pinkett Smith, cast as Morpheus' ex-lover Niobe, tried to back out because she was afraid to take commercial flights. But the Wachowskis had earned the allegiance of the first film's cast and crew. Nearly all of them returned for the grueling sequels. It meant more months of arduous training, often under the supervision of Hong Kong fight choreographer Yuen Wo-ping, who devised the films' fabulous action scenes (he also masterminded the fights in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). The result of those workouts shows onscreen: the stars look fitter, more weathered and sinewy than in the first film—their bodies reveal what they've been through. Says Moss, whose hard-earned buffness approaches the Amazonian look Linda Hamilton sported in Terminator 2: "I genuinely wanted to serve these two guys who gave everything of themselves to write this story and then to make it happen."

In addition to the long slog on Sydney sound stages, the team shot on a 11/2-mile freeway track built for the car chase at an old naval base in Alameda, Calif. Cadillac was so eager to hitch a ride, it fast-tracked two new models, the CTS sedan and Escalade EXT sport-utility truck, so they could be in the movie. GM engineers even fished spare parts for the prototypes out of the trash where they were due to be compacted.

As the opening date neared, Silver and the brothers judiciously nixed inappropriate merchandising tie-ins. "This movie doesn't fit into the Happy Meals world," Silver says. "And we were very concerned about fan backlash. We haven't beat them over the head with T shirts and board games and coffee cups and underwear. We want everything we do to look cool." The team also works hard to keep secrets secret. Unlike the last two Star Wars films, Reloaded did not find its script posted on the Internet—though there are two complete, fake scripts. Says Silver: "One of them was actually pretty good."

So what happens in Reloaded? You've been very patient, waiting for four years and wading through 240 lines of this story. You deserve a full description of the new movie. WARNING: The secrets are finally out. Gentler Readers who wish to view the film in blissful ignorance may turn this page now. We'll call you when it's over. Reloaded begins as The Matrix did, with green computer code drizzling down a black screen and Trinity kicking beaucoup booty as the Agents pursue her over and off rooftops. She demolishes several drone Guards with a virtuosic fury: fabulous helmet smashes and back-leg extensions. Soon she is hurtling streetward as an Agent blasts away at her. Thwock! One bad-guy bullet hits home. Trinity falls onto a parked car, terminally smashing it and her.

Neo is jolted awake from this dream, or prophecy, as Trinity sleeps next to him. The Nebuchadnezzar, Morpheus' ship, heads for Zion, the one city on Earth whose humans are not under the spell of The Matrix. Except for Neo's fight with three upgrade-generation Agents, the film's first hour is spent on political wrangling among the Zion elite. Morpheus tangles with his rival Lock (Harry Lennix) and realigns with lost love Niobe (Pinkett Smith). If you thought the Jedi Council debates were the high points of the Star Wars films, you'll love this part of Reloaded. The red-meat brigade will have to wait a bit for their action satisfaction.

Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), Neo's nemesis, has been busy. At the end of the first film, he thought he had killed Neo; in fact, he was witness to the birth of the hero. Now that Neo has learned to fly, Smith has acquired a trick of his own: this computer virus can invade any form, human or Agent, and take it over. After invading Bane, a Zionite, Smith cuts a gash in his hand. He's fascinated by the humanity he has assumed—by the blood, the vulnerability, the pain. Smith was always more warped than we gave him credit for.

Neo is summoned by the Oracle and realizes that she's "a program from the machine world." She gives Neo a quest: find the door to the Source. To do so, he must find the Key Maker (Randall Duk Kim), imprisoned by a desiccated French dandy, the Merovingian (Lambert Wilson).

First, Neo has a date with Mr. Smith—a lot of him—in a courtyard. Neo fights eight, then two dozen, then 100 Smiths. (He's a twist on an Austin Powers villain, the Many-Me.) In the "Burly Brawl," as the filmmakers call this sequence, numerical size doesn't matter. Neo deflects his assailants with his superior pole fighting or by swinging a spare Smith like an Olympic hammer to knock over many others.

Flanked by Trinity and Morpheus, Neo meets the Merovingian and his luscious wife Persephone (Monica Bellucci). The Merovingian is a Frenchman out of the Bush Administration bestiary: cruel, supercilious, with a love of cursing in French—which he describes as like "wiping your ass with silk." He refuses to release the Key Maker.

Persephone, livid at her husband's infidelities, tells Neo she will help him—at the price of a passionate kiss. Reluctantly, he gives her one, and she leads the Zion Three to the Key Maker. They are set upon by eight of the Merovingian's goons, including those fierce wraiths, the Twins. Neo grabs some ancient weapons and bests the bunch. Trinity and Morpheus depart for their wild ride with the Key Maker.

Having survived their freeway adventure, Neo, Morpheus and the Key Maker enter a skyscraper—the building in Neo's Trinity dream. Neo insists Trinity remain behind, to stay alive. "One door leads to the Source," the Key Maker says; he adds that the door will be accessible for exactly 314 seconds. Eventually, after more fighting, Neo finds the right door and walks into a room where an old man (Helmut Bakaitis) sits."I am the Architect," he says. "I created The Matrix. I've been waiting for you."

Watching the first film, skeptical viewers had to wonder: In a world where nothing was as it seemed, were Morpheus and his band the only realists, or were they the victims of a monstrous delusion? The Architect tells Neo he is a dupe: a false hope that springs among the tiny group of rebels who believe in a superman, a One, as their salvation. The coming of Neo and his five predecessors—for this is the sixth version of The Matrix, the sixth revolt of Zion—was programmed by "the mother of The Matrix." The Oracle.

The MatrixReloaded is sure to fuel avid speculation. Scholars will note that the Merovingians were a European tribe from the Dark Ages, and that Morpheus paraphrases King Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel. That strange number, 314: Could it refer to pi (3.14); or to Cerebral Cortex 314, the website for the Commander Keen computer game; or to the lifetime batting average of White Sox outfielder Bibb Falk? As for the Architect's apparently crushing revelation: Couldn't this be another lie—the biggest?

Warning over: All right, Gentler Readers. You can come back now. To get answers on Matrix arcana from the first film, TIME went to the Source: the Wachowskis, who cheerfully illuminated their dense, allusive text. But now, after just three features as writer-directors (their first was the darkly comic femme-revenge thriller Bound), the brothers have turned Trappist, gone Garbo, pulled a Pynchon—they've refused to speak to any journalists. At least that's what we're told. And if we hear they have broken their vow of silence, we'll be on them like a thousand Smiths.

Some of their actors are also reluctant to break the code. Fishburne: "I can't talk to you about them." (The brothers not only created a cult, they practically are one.) Others are less guarded. "They're not comic-book nerds," Pinkett Smith avers. "They're intellectuals. These cats study. Larry reads everything! When you think you've got him figured out, he pops something else out on you, like ... Cornel West!?"

Larry was such a fan of West's books Prophesy Deliverance and Race Matters that he wrote a role for West in Reloaded. So last April, the Princeton professor flew to Sydney to play Councillor West in an action blockbuster. For the teacher, it was quite an education.

"Larry and I got into these great philosophical discussions," West recalls. "We talked about the history of the epic, from Homer to Nikos Kazantzakis. The brothers are very into epic poetry and philosophy—into Schopenhauer and William James. It was unbelievable! We'd shoot from 6:30 a.m to mid-afternoon—50, 75 takes—it was hard fun and hard work. Then we'd go off to a restaurant and have a philosophical discussion. I was impressed with their sheer genius, their engagement with ideas. Larry Wachowski knows more about Hermann Hesse than most German scholars."

Hesse, Homer—Wachowski films contain multitudes. But not everyone goes to The Matrix for the articles. A few like the glossy pictures—the vivid color schemes, the pirouetting camera and, most of all, the special effects. The first Matrix introduced Bullet Time, the process that allowed us to see Neo outfoxing his opponents in super- slow motion. In Reloaded, which has some 1,000 virtual-effects shots (compared with 412 in the first film), special-effects supervisor John Gaeta trumped that effect with such devices as Universal Capture (putting five high-definition cameras on an actor so he can be duplicated or, in Agent Smith's case, centiplicated, and shown from any angle, as in the Burly Brawl) and Virtual Cinema (which can give emotion, in the anime style, to elements like fire and water). The idea was to make the effects so dauntingly sophisticated, says Silver, "that people can't just rip us off again."

That's the problem with being instant superstar auteurs. Hollywood has become a cult of Zion, and for just this moment the Wachowskis are a Neo duo: saviors of the intellectual action film. Now everybody expects everything—in box office (if it's less than a smash, it's a disaster), in artistic achievement (if it's less than a masterpiece, it stinks). Silver is already trying to deflect expectations: at the TIME screening last week, he said, "Remember, it's only half a movie." (But you will pay full price.)

Already audiences are in a show-me mood. At a screening for exhibitors, the courtyard fight and the big car chase raised the room temperature but didn't earn the spontaneous gasps and applause that mark a movie sensation. The reaction was less "Wow!" than "Huh?" Some thought it was half a terrific action movie—the second half—with a sluggish buildup. A few compared the film unfavorably to X-Men 2. That's unfair for a film as ambitious and demanding as this one.

Reloaded is a six-month cliff-hanger: the plot points in its slower early scenes may pay off in Revolutions. But, hey, it's tough being an action hero. And it's even harder being two brothers who, we'll bet, just want to make terrific movies.

—Reported by Desa Philadelphia/Los Angeles

Reeves reloaded

Toronto actor spent seven weeks on key fight scene

Matrix sequel set to open in movie theatres May 15

PETER HOWELL
MOVIE CRITIC

HOLLYWOOD — Nothing says "thank you" like a truckload of shiny new motorcycles, delivered to the people you've been kicking in the head.

That's if you're Keanu Reeves, the reclusive actor turned master of the grand show-biz gesture.

When work finally wrapped on the Burly Brawl, the key fight scene of the hotly anticipated sci-fi sequel The Matrix Reloaded, Reeves had a dozen Harleys delivered to the set as a gift for his stunt men.

It's the kind of thing Arnold Schwarzenegger or Bruce Willis might do, not the spotlight-shunning Reeves, who usually goes out of his way not to act like a movie star.

"That made me smile, man, for months," Reeves says, relishing the memory.

"I'd be in bed, and I'd be like, `Hah, hah, hah, hah!'"

The gift likely cost close to $200,000 (U.S.). But he could afford it — the former Torontonian is a millionaire many times over — and it was worth every penny to him to get everything just right in the Burly Brawl.

A jaw-dropping combination of martial arts mastery and special effects wizardry, the Brawl sets Reeves' cyberpunk hero Neo against more than 100 clones of Agent Smith, the diabolical avatar of the enslaving computers first enjoined in The Matrix, the surprise movie phenomenon of 1999. When Reloaded opens May 15, it is sure to be the scene most fans talk about, at least until Nov. 7, when the opening arrives for The Matrix Revolutions, the final part of a planned trilogy by the sci-fi visionaries Larry and Andrew Wachowski (a.k.a. The Brothers).

"I worked with 12 stunt men for about three weeks, intensely going through the fight," Reeves says, speaking inside a vast movie soundstage that has been decorated with large mechanical props from Reloaded.

"And then we filmed for basically almost a month, every day.... There was this one sequence where Neo gets grabbed by two agents and I do a back flip and kick two guys in the head. Flip back, and then the two guys get thrown back. Well, those guys got pulled into the floor 21 times. And every time I said, `I'd like to do it again' ... and it was like, `Yeah, man, let's go.'

"So we were all in this thing and we were all training together beforehand. So I just wanted to somehow, besides just saying thank you, say a bigger thank you, to all these guys who helped me make this, I think, one of the great movie fights in the history of cinema."

Reeves got so involved in the sweat and strain of doing the Burly Brawl, his co-star Laurence Fishburne was afraid to watch.

"I don't like being around Keanu when he's being hard on himself," says Fishburne, who plays Neo's mentor Morpheus in The Matrix trilogy.

"And he was hard on himself the whole time during the Burly Brawl. I used to be really hard on myself. But never as hard as Keanu is."

Told of Fishburne's comment, Reeves begs to differ.

"It's just because it was important," he says, shrugging. "It was my job to do whatever The Brothers asked me to do."

Does that mean he's not as self-punishing as people say?

"I can be," Reeves says. "But I don't think I need any therapy or anything. I'm not so out of my mind.

"But it's an aspect of the piece that, as well as (the fighting), we work so hard to get the emotional aspects right. Those are the scenes, in those sequences, where there's something about symmetry, about having those things that you believe in. If I do something and I don't hit it right, or if it doesn't look right, you instantly feel it, you see it: You go `aaah.'

"So you don't want that. You want it to just be perfect."

Getting The Matrix Reloaded perfect, and not just good enough, was a much tougher job for all the cast members than making the original film.

The Matrix came out of nowhere in 1999 to instantly establish itself as a classic of science fiction, combining way-cool style with a head-rattling mix of Western and Eastern philosophy.

It challenged conventions about what is real and what isn't, what is fate and what is choice.

The Matrix, which earned $460 million (U.S.) worldwide, also introduced a new form of physics-defying slow-motion fighting that came to be known as "bullet time," and which has been endlessly copied in films as diverse as Charlie's Angels and Shrek, much to the chagrin of The Brothers Wachowski.

The aim with Reloaded and Revolutions was to up the ante to stay ahead of the competition, with both the intellectual and physical aspects of the movie. If the dense philosophy of Reloaded doesn't wow you, the action scenes certainly will.

Reeves doesn't normally do sequels — he turned away a king's ransom for Speed 2 because he didn't like the script — but it took no persuasion at all to get him to don Neo's dark shades and natty black overcoat for 18 months of concurrent filming of Reloaded and Revolutions in Sydney, Australia.

"The scripts were great. And I had such great experience with and faith in Andrew and Larry Wachowski. I just said yes."

Reeves was so eager, in fact, he even gave away part of his percentage in the film, a profit-sharing deal that could potentially sweeten his $15 million per-film salary by many millions more. No wonder he can afford to buy Harleys by the dozen.

"What I did was I put part of what was given in my contract to create a pool so that other people who don't usually do profit participation could see some money," Reeves says, clearly not pleased to be talking about money.

Why'd he do something like that?

"I wanted to."

Reeves may be acting more like a movie star these days, but in many other ways he still seems like just plain Keanu from Toronto, a guy who loves playing and watching hockey, riding his own Harley and playing with his rock band Dogstar, which is currently in hiatus.

He'll turn 39 this year — he's pushing 40! — but he doesn't look a day over 25. He worked out hard to prepare for The Matrix and its sequels, but he looks lean, not muscle-bound.

In his 20-year acting career, he's seen both ups (The Matrix, Speed) and downs (Sweet November, Even Cowgirls Get The Blues), and he's wise enough to know that fame is ephemeral.

His attire for a day of press at Warner Bros.' Burbank studios in the Hollywood Hills is a thrown-together mix of a faded burgundy T-shirt with faded blue jeans, topped with an ill-fitting black sports jacket that looks as if someone loaned it to him for the day.

He's an unlikely combination of laid-back slacker and hyper-intense workaholic, which makes him perfect for the role of Neo, a computer hacker who is summoned to accept his fate as The One, the saviour of a mankind threatened by marauding machines.

"Keanu is unlike any actor I've ever met — any person I've ever met," says Vancouver-born Carrie-Anne Moss, who plays Trinity, Neo's lover and fellow warrior. The sexual heat between the two is much hotter in Reloaded than it was in The Matrix.

"Physically, he just takes himself to the edge," Moss says. "He's there because he loves the character and he loves The Brothers."

But Reeves, who has long been seen as one of Hollywood's most inscrutable stars, remains a difficult guy to really know, even for the people who work closely with him.

"I've known the man for five years and I love him," Fishburne says.

"But I don't know a thing about him."

Reeves is not about to change that, his flashy motorcycle gifts notwithstanding. He really does identify with Neo, who constantly queries what is real and what isn't, what is fate and what is choice.

"I really find that Neo is a beautiful man," Reeves says.

"His ethics and his morals and his search for his authentic life being, wanting to see how he deals with people and deals with himself, I really admire.

"It's like, can you live up to that? Can you live up to the best part of yourself every day? Which I think is a really great question. Can you live to the best part of yourself all the time?

"And it's hard. I can't. I try, but I think that aspect is something that the film is also asking."Additional articles by Peter Howell

Keanu loves a robust red

May 3 2003

No beer goggles for The Matrix: Reloaded star Keanu Reeves: he'd prefer a glass of vintage Australian red.

Hollywood star Keanu Reeves has revealed a thirst for rare and expensive Australian red wine.

The star of this month's blockbuster film The Matrix: Reloaded has a prized collection of Aussie red, particularly Penfolds Grange Hermitage and Mount Mary Quintet.

Reeves fell in love with Australia and its top shelf wines while shooting The Matrix in Sydney in 1998 and the two sequels, The Matrix: Reloaded and The Matrix: Revolutions last year.

"I had a great time in Sydney and I met some awesome people," Reeves told reporters in Los Angeles.

"I miss it, I want to go back."

Asked if he thought about buying a home in Australia Reeves licked his lips and replied: "I brought back some Australian wine. Yummm."

His favourites are among Australia's finest and rarest wines.

The wine cellars in his homes in Los Angeles and Toronto, Canada, are stocked with 1988 and 1990 vintages of Mount Mary Quintet cabernet, made in Victoria's Yarra Valley.

The 1998 sells for about $A270 a bottle and the 1990 a hefty $A420 a bottle.

"The Mary Quintet cabernet blend. Awesome," Reeves said.

"And the Penfolds Grange. The 71 and the 76 are just awesome."

A 1971 Grange sells for $A875 a bottle and the 1976 $A650.

The 38-year-old actor can afford the wine bill as he reportedly earned $US30 million ($A47.66 million) for shooting the two Matrix sequels.

The Matrix: Reloaded opens in Australia on May 16 and The Matrix: Revolutions is scheduled to open later in the year.

Dressing to Dodge Bullets: That 'Matrix' Look

By RUTH LA FERLA

In "The Matrix," the 1999 science fiction blockbuster, Carrie-Anne Moss, who plays the superhero Trinity, is sheathed in a glistening black vinyl cat suit that cleaves to her curves like shiny urban armor. Her garb, of a piece with the movie's multi-mirrored surfaces, functions as a reflective camouflage, one that helps her elude an army of black-suited, shade-wearing bad guys.

On its shimmering surface, "The Matrix" pits man against machine, the flesh-and-blood heroes scarcely a match for a race of sentient robots. The movie's ingenious plot twists and leaping action sequences, inspired by Hong Kong action flicks and video games, have given it cult stature, frequent video and DVD replay, and raised expectations for "The Matrix Reloaded," which opens May 15, the first of two sequels to appear this year.

But just as potent in the enduring spell of the series is the style of "The Matrix." Its visual vocabulary is expressed in settings, costumes and mood, which, even four years after the release of the first film, continues to seed popular culture, turning up as recently as the designer fashions shown on runways for fall 2003.

"Not since `Blade Runner' do I remember an action movie that has had that much style," said Stefan Sagmeister, a graphic designer known for his CD covers for the Rolling Stones and Lou Reed. "The slow-motion action, the uses of new technology, the special effects and the costumes, even the villains with their skinny ties, bad suits and queer sunglasses ・you definitely still see that around as an influence."

What keeps "The Matrix" relevant is its unconventional subtext, perpetuated in every frame, that style saves ・that literally and metaphorically, a great leather trench coat may well be the best defense. The messianic hero, Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, wears a sweeping black leather trench with an arsenal of firearms stitched into its lining. Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus, a vaguely mythical father figure, is more forbidding still in a lead-colored coat whose pyramidal shape suggests a majestic cape.

Now consider the Sean John collection for fall, which includes hip-belted, calf-length storm coats that quote Mr. Fishburne's look, as well as the streamlined silhouettes and street-tough fabrics of the film's other costumes. Or think of fall fashions from Balenciaga designed by Nicolas Ghesquiere, including leather leggings and tunics cut like armor. Or Dior's quilt-stitched overcoats by Hedi Slimane, all of which seem to owe a debt to the movie. Dolce & Gabbana, too, has turned out street wear that renders women as futuristic Valkyries, encased in calf-hugging pants and cropped jackets with multiple buckles, reminiscent of Ms. Moss's Trinity.

Like those fierce-looking fashions, the movie's costumes were conceived in part as urban camouflage. "The characters are always dodging bullets; someone is always after them," said Kym Barrett, the costume designer for all three "Matrix" films. Trinity's shiny cat suit was meant to look like an oil slick, Ms. Barrett said, "something like mercury, that you can't catch, it moves so quickly through your fingers."

Her costumes, she said, drew upon fairy tales, the robes of Tibetan monks and Chinese scholars, and the costumes in the samurai movies and American westerns she saw as a child. "When I read the script it reminded me of those movies," she said. "Everyone in them had long coats, and when they moved in slow motion, their costumes created a very strong silhouette."

For fashion designers, the movie's look made for an opulent feast. "The costumes' clean, straight lines, very pared down, dovetail with a renewed interest in minimalism," said Ed Burstell, general manager of Henri Bendel, the New York department store. "When `The Matrix' arrived, it hit with such an impact because it played into everyone's concern with what the next millennium would look like." That curiosity abated, but the influence of the movie's look persists.

Rick Owens, an avant-garde designer whose own aesthetic was shaped in part by science fiction films, said he is keen on the amalgamation of "sex and violence, loud music and graceful motion" in "The Matrix." He is just as taken with the clean graphic look of its costumes. A similar style, he predicted, would in one form or another color his next collection. The film series has a look that is "very precise and very sharp, one that we are all responding to," he said.

The movie's shiny, aggressive imagery, with elements of neo-punk street style and the futuristic runway fashions of the early 80's by Thierry Mugler and Claude Montana, speaks to design buffs in fields other than fashion.

"Whatever the components of style are ・confidence, cool, grace, and don't forget black leather ・`The Matrix' has it in abundance," writes Karen Haber in "Exploring the Matrix" (St. Martin's), a new collection of essays that probe the cultural influences of the film. Ms. Haber, a science fiction writer, speculates that if the influential editor Diana Vreeland were alive, she would have appreciated the film, because, with its "sexy use of rearview mirrors, doorknobs, spoons, all manner of reflections, and multiple images in video screens," it "could have come out of a fashion video or commercial."

Rock groups like Fischerspooner have adapted the street-tough look of the movie in their stage costumes. And films like "Traffic" were quick to exploit the movie's use of color in the service of a mood ・blue to signify the real world, green for the computer-generated virtual reality in which much of the movie's action takes place.

But not every champion of up-to-the-minute design applauds the film's influence. Karim Rashid, who creates flamboyant plastic products for the home, including a line for Target, was amused and dismayed to hear younger members of his design team wax effusive about the surreal stunts and brooding dystopian vision of the future in "The Matrix."

"I found the movie not the least bit prescient; it was even dated," he said. "We are looking at a future supposedly created by artificial intelligence ・one of bad suits, ill-fitting coats and cheesy shades? Is that the best they can do?"

Equally unconvincing, he said, is the movie's dark nocturnal look. "I want to design a film where the future is so brilliant, optimistic and beautiful," he said, "that you leave the theater saying, Boy, I can't wait for it to happen."

For others, however, "The Matrix" resonates in ways not all that literal. Its central premise, elaborated in the sequel, is that the world humans think is real is, in fact, a computer construct managed by cyborgs. The last remnants of a real human world, known in the movie as Zion, are hidden deep inside the earth.

In "The Matrix Reloaded," Zion will be prominently featured, and audiences will get an eyeful of its corroded surfaces, ancient pipes and dwellings that look like tin cans ・a decaying, postindustrial look. The idea, said Owen Paterson, the production designer, was to give both sequels the look of more human environments, to evoke in audiences a longing for slower-paced lives and human connections.

"That the real world is unreal is a very powerful metaphorical idea that resonates, particularly with the young," said James Sanders, an architect and the author of "Celluloid Skyline: New York and the Movies" (Knopf, 2001). People react to the high-tech, mass-produced world in which they live by attempting to get back in touch with their pasts, Mr. Sanders said. Some viewers might appreciate the slickness of the synthetic realm of "The Matrix," represented by a sprawling glass and steel megacity. But like the movie's protagonists, they would not want to live there, he said. The Lower East Side may be more to their liking than a slick simulated environment. "That, he added, "is why so many of them are returning to the older parts of cities."

'Matrix' Is Locked and Reloaded

The heavily hyped sequel promises to be the hottest, and the coolest, movie this summer

By Gene Seymour
STAFF WRITER

May 4, 2003

The media turn goggle-eyed and jelly-limbed at the sight of large quantities of currency. So when "The Matrix" made off with millions of dollars four years ago and became the most talked-about movie in a summer despite such stiff competition as "The Phantom Menace," "The Blair Witch Project" and "The Sixth Sense," movie pundits only looked at the money and generally shrugged off anything else. People, the media assumed, will buy anything, especially cool shades, black latex, state-of-the-art kung fu and chromium firepower.

Then, the pundits really got confused. Over the next four years "The Matrix" became more than just a lucky strike or a fashion statement. It was instant folklore, a pop-cultural phenomenon, a new platinum standard for technological romance. Other movies raided "The Matrix" for ideas, inspiration and, of course, parody. (Remember the princess' stop-action karate kick in "Shrek"?) All of which caught the movie industry and its observers by surprise - and made even those who can't tolerate science fiction exceptionally curious about what writer-directors Andy and Larry Wachowski would do in not one, but two sequels slated for this year.

It's because of such anticipation that, unless you were stranded on K2 the past six to eight months, there's no way you couldn't know that "The Matrix Reloaded" opens nationwide May 15. Even people who work at studios other than Warner Bros. (corporate home for the "Matrix" saga) are already conceding this will be the movie that eats the multiplexes this summer - and possibly beyond, at least until "The Matrix Revolutions" opens in November.

The pundits remain bewildered. They view "The Matrix" and its impact on culture solely in terms of commodities. It isn't just the money made by the movies themselves, but the $300 million spent on making the movies, to say nothing of the video games, software, books and other ancillary products of the "Matrix" trilogy. Put another way, they think it's all about the cool stuff and nothing else.

Any reasonable reply to this viewpoint begins by acknowledging that ... well, yeah, of course, the kinetic coolness of the concept, along with all the groovy threads and accessories, is a big part of the overall appeal. But all that cool stuff is wrapped around needs that are, at once, more visceral and spiritual than the mainstream could ever imagine. And it all goes back to the basic appeal of science fiction and fantasy, especially the kind of alternate-reality concept that plays itself out in "The Matrix."

The psychic territory explored by the Wachowski brothers was opened up long ago by the late novelist Philip K. Dick, whose fiction spawned such science-fiction films as "Blade Runner" (1982) and last year's "Minority Report." Dick also explored alternate realities in such books as "Time Out of Joint" and "The Man in the High Castle," neither of which has been filmed. Those novels' reconfiguration of history and the known universe fascinate to this day, yet the books are downers. Finding out that there's Something Bigger controlling their fate does nothing whatsoever to help Dick's hapless protagonists. In fact, they're crushed by this knowledge in the end.

With "The Matrix," however, there is liberation, potential, even ecstasy unleashed when Neo (Keanu Reeves), the movie's hero, finds out what the real deal is with the artificial plane of reality from which the movie takes its name. Dreams of empowerment and transcendence find their outlet in visions like those achieved by "The Matrix."

It's a vision that goes one better on such disparate films as "The Wizard of Oz" and "The Truman Show." In those movies you only peek behind the curtain and see who or what's pulling the strings. With "The Matrix," you use this knowledge to take flight and usurp some control over your destiny. Is it any wonder that young people who move unsteadily in a world they don't fully understand (and view with trepidation) have watched "The Matrix" over and over again? Do you doubt that these dreamers will be leading the lines coursing into the multiplexes a week from Thursday?

Part of why they're so anxious to show up is that there's not much that's being revealed about "Reloaded" or "Revolutions." (Efforts to get one or both Wachowskis to come to the phone for even a few minutes to talk to us have proved fruitless.) All that can be said for sure is that Neo (Keanu Reeves) is still the "One" who can stop bullets, fly through the air and beat the crap out of several guys at once.

In reality or "reality," Neo and such fellow renegades as Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) still operate deep beneath the Earth's surface to engage in a psychological battle against machines that have taken over the world and impaled human minds in a dream of Normal Life. Their captors assume human shape, chiefly in the shades and dark suits worn by the likes of Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), the snarling thought policeman who won't go down easily.

All the above-mentioned characters are returnees from the original "Matrix." Prominent among the new characters are Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), ace pilot and guerrilla warrior for the good guys, and Persephone (Monica Belllucci), the Matrix's sultry secret weapon against the human uprising.

Now you're as up to speed as anyone who has absolutely no clue as to why this thing should dominate the summer movie season before the season even starts.

Masters of the Matrix

Masters of the Matrix
By Christopher Parkes

Published: May 2 2003 19:57 | Last Updated: May 2 2003 19:57

As Morpheus informs Neo, alias Keanu Reeves: "Unfortunately, no one can be told what The Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself."

Those who have yet to log in to the sci-fi, comic-book, cyber-punk parallel worlds invented by the writer-director Wachowski Brothers, and unveiled in the 1999 cult-commercial hit The Matrix, will surely see "it" soon. They will find it hard to avoid a marketing blitz of unprecedented intensity in the history of the US entertainment industry.

It started in April with the release in cinemas of an animated short film, Final Flight of the Osiris, intended as a prequel to the sequel The Matrix: Reloaded, which opens in US cinemas on May 15.

Friday marked the shopping mall debut of a revamped double-disc DVD set of the original film. Yet to come are a multi-platform video game, out on the same day as the second film, closely followed by the launch of Reloaded on many of the nation's multi-storey Imax screens.

As the year progresses, eight more derivative cartoon shorts in the Japanese animé style are due to trickle onto the internet, and on November 5, the grand finale, The Matrix: Revolutions will open simultaneously on thousands of cinema screens worldwide. For good measure, it will debut on the same day on the US Imax circuit: a cinematic first.

"The aim is to advance the Wachowski Brothers' vision for telling the trilogy's story in multiple formats," says Joel Silver, producer of this digital deluge on behalf of financing partners Warner Brothers and Australia's Village Roadshow Pictures. Quite when this vision swept over the Wachowskis - Andy, 35, and Larry, 37 - is unclear. The pair may remain an eternal mystery unless they overcome the chronic media-shyness which has yielded only a handful of desultory interviews in an admittedly brief career. They even ducked out of filming the pre-requisite "director's commentary" segment for the DVD, claiming it would be unfair on the other collaborating artists for them to hog the limelight. And: "We were too tired."

In one modest and not altogether helpful breach of their code of silence, recorded by the New York Times shortly after The Matrix opened, they revealed a fascination with the relationship between Zen Buddhism and quantum physics. Larry said he had been re-reading The Odyssey - "I always get something out of it" - and the duo conceded that in the event of creative differences Mom was called in as arbiter.

The Wachowski Brothers were born in Chicago and have lived in lock-step since dropping out of college to take up house painting and carpentry. Since their first and only cinematic success they exist, like Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou?), as a single entity: Brothers with a capital B.

They shared a fascination with film noir and the career of Roger Corman, king of the B-movie, auteur of Attack of the Crab Monsters, and writer of How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime.

They had a sideline in writing and drawing comics. It was this craft which was to lead to their emergence as unlikely revolutionaries in the world of film. They wove The Matrix from a seeming rag-bag of philosophical, religious and fantasy material, kung fu, references to Alice in Wonderland and special effects.

Balletic "bullet-time photography" - combining ultra-slow motion and dynamic filming in a single series of frames - is one example of the innovative effects developed to their specifications. It has since been shamelessly exploited to further the careers of Austin Powers and Homer Simpson, reportedly to the irritation of the Wachowski maestros dedicated to their concept of an "intellectual action movie".

Their introduction to Hollywood came with their script for Assassins, a 1995 Sylvester Stallone/Antonio Banderas dud. A year later, their directing-writing debut with Bound won modest critical success, but squeezed only $3.8m out of the box office. And all the while the script of The Matrix was written and waiting.

"We started out thinking of it as a comic book," they told the New York Times. And that, in the end, was how they sold the idea to Warner Bros executives befuddled by the dense, convoluted story. With the aid of graphic novelist Geof Darrow and Steve Skrose, a Spider-Man comic artist, they turned in a 600-page hand-drawn storyboard delineating the entire movie. Keanu Reeves agreed to star and the studio suits saw the light.

By the time it had finished its run in cinemas and first DVD release, The Matrix, made for about $80m, had earned worldwide revenues estimated at more than $700m, a record for a film with an "R" rating intended to exclude many of the younger, most ardent moviegoers in the US.

But the latest Wachowski project is altogether more audacious. The two films, shot in parallel in Australia to keep costs down, are said to have cost $150m apiece. Total marketing costs are close to $100m.

"When you think about it, it's one hell of a gamble," says one Hollywood executive. "They've only made one good movie, and I still don't know what that was about. But I wouldn't have minded having a piece."

Releasing two sequels in the same year has never been tried before. Launching a video game as the box office opens is also an innovation, as is the experiment with Imax.

But the "buzz" is already deafening. Amazon.com reports strong pre-orders for the game, Enter the Matrix. At the latest count, Warner Bros reported 4.5m internet downloads of the film's trailer. According to a poll by Fandango, the online cinema ticket seller, together with final installment of The Lord of the Rings, was by far the most anticipated release of the year.

Wall Street analysts estimate The Matrix Reloaded could garner $200m-$300m in US cinemas alone, compared with $171m for The Matrix. It is not just audiences and investors who are enthusiastic about the project. The leading actors, including Mr Reeves, rejoined the Wachowski brothers to finish the trilogy - and to script and film an extra hour of footage and dialogue for the video game. Principals typically disdain such "ancillary" work, leaving it to specialist development and software companies.

The Wachowski brothers clearly prefer the warmth of the cult to the glare of the limelight. But it is impossible to decide whether they are enigmatic in the teasing Hollywood fashion, or merely shy. They have been known to call themselves "nerds". Sightings have produced reports of a geeky, dishevelled duo. Even producer Joel Silver appeared still to be foxed when he remarked from the set of The Matrix Reloaded: "Little is known about the Wachowskis: they have a secret code . . . They're not very verbal."

Like their comic book heroes, the brothers are long on action and short on words. This much was clear from an online chat on the Warner Brothers website. Asked for their favourite lines from The Matrix, they replied in speech bubbles: " 'Dodge this' and 'There is no spoon'. We also liked that one."

Matrix multiple personality disorder

03.05.2003

Hollywood is billing it as the greatest special effect of all time. In the film The Matrix, the characters had to wrestle with the question of whether everything they saw was real or computer-generated.

Now in its sequel, Matrix Reloaded, viewers will get the same experience - and they won't be able to tell either.

In a central scene in the new film, Neo, the hero character played by Keanu Reeves, fights his nemesis, a black-suited "agent" called Smith, played by Australian actor Hugo Weaving.

But not one Smith: the fight scene contains hundreds of them, all indistinguishable, all apparently the real people, as close inspection even of the film-quality trailer, available on the internet, suggests. Except that they are not. At the beginning of the scene, the real Reeves and Weaving walk into the scene, which takes place in a city-block landscape.

But once the action starts, there is an indistinguishable transition - and while reality clearly stopped some time earlier because there are hundreds of Agent Smiths on the screen, there's no way to tell just when.

Generating all those virtual characters and choreographing a fight in which the camera swoops and whirls, and where occasionally time stops, took vast resources of computing power - probably more than has even been used on a single film - spread over years.

"The point is to be able to construct events that are so complex, in terms of what human bodies need to do, that the total effect is impossible choreography," said John Gaeta, the special effects supervisor for all three Matrix films. Gaeta was the inventor of "bullet time", where time seems to stop during a moving scene while the camera pans. But that technique, which requires dozens of cameras and rigorous computer post-production to wipe away the cameras, has become commonplace.

For the next film, he went further - capturing the tiniest details of the actors' faces to generate them on to computer and produce lifelike movements from them.

It required the efforts of 270 technicians capturing data from five cameras filming the real scene where a team of kung-fu extras practised the form of the fight that would become Neo and Smith.

INFORMATION OVERLOAD

The curse

R&B singer Aaliyah, cast in The Matrix Reloaded as Zee, was killed in a plane crash in August 2001. She was replaced by Nona Gaye, daughter of Marvin Gaye. Two months later Gloria Foster, who played the Oracle in the original film, died of a heart attack.

Carrie-Anne Moss, who plays Trinity, was later badly hurt shooting an action scene in Sydney.

Keanu Reeves has suffered a series of misfortunes. First his sister was diagnosed with leukaemia. Then on Christmas Eve 2000 his child with girlfriend Jennifer Syme was stillborn. The loss strained their relationship and they broke up. The following April, Syme was killed in a car accident.

Reeves later broke his ribs and ruptured his spleen in a motorcycle accident and broke his ankle on set.

The numbers

* The two sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, have cost more than $536 million.

* Trailers for the sequels were downloaded two million times in the first 72 hours.

* The 2500 different special effects in the new films cost $114 million.

* "Bullet time", the trademark special effects trick in The Matrix, in which the camera appears to spin 360 degrees around a central image, has since featured in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Charlie's Angels, and been parodied in Shrek and Scary Movie.

The comparisons

If you love The Matrix, other movies you will like ...

* Brazil (1985)

Like The Matrix, Brazil owes a debt to Orwell's grim futuristic vision. Jonathan Pryce is a timid technocrat in a world controlled by intrusive technology and bureaucracy until he is mistaken for a terrorist, forced to go on the run, and sees the chance to escape to a better life.

* Strange Days (1995)

Set in 1999 on the brink of the new millennium. Ralph Fiennes plays a sleazy ex-cop turned hustler who sells computer discs containing recorded memories and emotions to vicarious thrill-seekers. An energetic thriller steeped in pre-millennial angst.

* The Truman Show (1998)

Jim Carrey thinks he has a perfect life: loving wife, important job and picket-fence house. In fact, he is the unwitting star of the world's longest reality TV show where his every move is captured on camera. It drew lavish critical praise and now seems eerily prophetic.

* Existenz (1999)

Released in the same year as The Matrix, David Cronenberg's film is darker and stranger but revolves around a similar virtual reality idea. Jennifer Jason Leigh is a leading computer games designer who is forced to enter one of her games when she is targeted by an assassin.

Enter the Matrix now

by Leona Ang
" Faci sau nu faci, incercare nu exista "
2nd May, 2003 "We have shown you the door. You must walk through it.”

In 1999, Brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski brought us The Matrix, and opened our eyes to a whole new world. Four years later, The Matrix returns, bigger and definitely more spectacular. In fact, 2003 has been aptly dubbed “The Year of The Matrix”.

The much anticipated sequel, The Matrix Reloaded, will be released in May, followed by the third installment, The Matrix Revolution six months after. In addition, there is also the release of The Animatrix, a dazzling synthesis of CG-animation and Japanese anime, as well as the video game, Enter the Matrix.

Enter the Matrix, will be released on the same day as The Matrix Reloaded. The game was written by Andy and Larry Wachowski and was inspired by The Matrix movies. Many main actors from the films were used for voice-overs and motion-capture, and the game was produced simultaneously with the shooting of the two sequels.

Here are some interesting tid-bits about the game that you might want to know.

The Wachowski Brothers
Enter the Matrix is the creation of brothers Andy, 35, and Larry, 37, Wachowski. They are huge fans of video games and Japanese animation, and this is their first effort at writing a video game. Their previous work, apart from writing and directing The Matrix, is writing for the movie Assassins, starring Antonio Banderas and Sylvestor Stallone.

Enter the numbers
Enter the Matrix was in development for well over two years and consists of a total of six CDs. Twenty-five real actors are used for the voice acting and motion-capturing sessions, and the entire process includes over 4,000 shots, thousands of script lines. The whole exercise took six months. A brand new script, spanning more than 200 pages, was written for Enter the Matrix. The game features over 20 weapons at your disposal, and has approximately 80 characters, with the familiar baddies like Agent Smith and the dreadlocked twins that appear in the movie sequels.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Matrix
To make the fighting scenes to look realistic, martial arts expert Master Yeun Wo Ping was asked to choreograph all the fight scenes. Master Yeun was the choreographer of the three Matrix movies, as well as the brilliance behind the dazzling martial arts moves in the epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

There are four martial artistes acting out all the kicks and moves of Niobe, Ghost, the SWAT officers and miscellaneous characters in the game. The martial arts moves that appear in the game are said to be exactly like how it was performed by the real-life martial artistes.

Presenting...
Here’s a guide to the heroes of the game: There is Niobe, the Captain of the Logos hovercraft. She is the best pilot ever in the rebel fleet and a combat assassin. The other main character is Ghost, the first mate of the Logos hovercraft. He is a gun specialist and an assassin. The third lead is Sparks, the Logos operator who issues the mission objectives.

Breaking new ground
Enter the Matrix is not The Matrix: Reloaded transformed to a game. The Wachowski brothers shot one hour’s worth of footage solely for Enter the Matrix at the same time that they were shooting the movie sequels.

The in-game cinematics are powered by the game’s proprietary engine. By integrating this footage into the game, the directors are able to tell their story through the game and the movies, meaning that the storyline in Enter the Matrix runs parallel to the two Matrix sequels, with the plots in the movies and the game intertwining at some point.

In fact, gamers will have a better understanding of certain events in Matrix: Reloaded as they are triggered by the events in the game. This only means that to get the entire story, they will need to play the game as well as see the movies.

Marker-ball suits
The main characters of the game, Niobe (Jada Pinkett-Smith) and Ghost (Anthony Wong), had to act out their scenes just like they would, in a movie, except that they had to put on high-tech marker-ball suits. These suits were able to be motion-capture their every movement and then transferred to the game.

Neo, Morpheus, Trinity?
Key Matrix characters like Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity will appear at the start of the game, as well as turn up frequently in the movie footage and in-game cut scenes, but none of them are playable. The main reason key Matrix character Neo is not playable to because he is just too powerful. If he appears as a playable character, it would no doubt, diminish the challenge of playing the game.

Meticulous makers
The Wachowski brothers are very meticulous about their craft, overseeing all aspects of the game development and are constantly thinking up new scenes that requires additional filming. Once, the duo even made Niobe star Jada Pinkett Smith fly back to Australia to shoot some extra scenes for the game.

Making the game
The sheer amount of effort put into the development of the game is astounding, so much so that the game’s publisher, Infogrames, plans to release a 30- minute Making of Enter the Matrix DVD some time this year.

Across all platforms
Enter the Matrix is one of the rare games currently in the market that will be released on all gaming platforms, letting gamers have the choice of purchasing whichever they desire.

Keanu Kicks Major 'Matrix' Booty!

April 30, 2003

May 15 is just around the corner, and the countdown to the highly anticipated 'The Matrix Reloaded' is underway! Our own BOB GOEN visited the hard-working cast of producer JOEL SILVER's 'Matrix' sequel during the arduous shoot to find out just how high they're raising the bar for the next installment!

"When I was training for the first one we wanted to raise the bar," KEANU REEVES tells Bob. "Now it's, 'I want there to be, like, no bar. Forget about it.'"

Bob interviewed Keanu on day 211 of the back-to-back shoots for 'The Matrix Reloaded' and its sequel, 'The Matrix Revolutions.' At that point, the cast and crew were so deep into the rabbit hole that some were getting quite homesick.

"I've only been here for nine months," explains Keanu of the Australian location. "I'm going to cry. Don't make me cry. This film pushes you. ... I mean, acting is something I think is beautiful, but it is just missing home and missing friends and family, that's the hardest thing."

Compounding those feelings was the rigorous physicality of the role, with its wirework, weapons training, martial arts, and the sometimes incessant takes to get it just right.

"I did take 72 in a kung-fu sequence," says the now-38-year-old actor. "We got to take 72. It was like one, two, three, four, five [punches] and I had to do a kick, seven, eight, and, duck, nine, and a backhand, so there was, like, 10 [moves]."

Although co-directors ANDY and LARRY WACHOWSKI are keeping the 'Matrix' sequel storylines tightly under wraps, you can be assured that LAURENCE FISHBURNE, CARRIE-ANNE MOSS and bad guy HUGO WEAVING turn up the heat for the back-to-back sequels. Newcomers to the fold include JADA PINKETT SMITH and MONICA BELLUCCI.

After 'The Matrix Reloaded' opens in theaters May 15, '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!

So, after the 'Matrix' trilogy finishes up in theaters, will Keanu be ready for a 'Matrix 4'? "It will be someone else," he sighs. "I'm tired."

‘The Matrix’ Reloads:

Ready to rage against the machines? Next month the second installment of ‘The Matrix’ will storm into theaters—and launch a high-flying season at the movies

THE STORY SO FAR: in the original, a hacker named Neo (Keanu Reeves) discovers that it’s up to him to save humanity from enslavement by a race of machines. In “Reloaded,” which will be followed in November by the series capper, “Revolutions,” the fight continues. As the machines threaten to destroy Zion, the last human city, Neo learns that his destiny could come at a steep price. NEWSWEEK spoke with the saga’s trio of heroes—Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Laurence Fishburne.

Were you surprised by how much the first “Matrix” influenced pop culture?

Yes, but what I really love is the excitement and enthusiasm and fondness people have for the movie. People seem almost grateful that they actually saw a film they liked. The [Wachowski] brothers made it refreshing to go to the movies.

Your martial-arts repertoire keeps growing. In the sequels, you’re using a sword?

I actually use four different weapons. I get to use a scythe, two sticks—one big stick called a kun—and a sword. They were all tricky, but the kun was really tough because you twirl it. And if you don’t twirl it correctly, it’ll hit you in the head.

Your producer, Joel Silver, has made movies with Jet Li and claims that you’ve equaled Jet’s martial-arts abilities. Your thoughts?

No. No way. I mean, Jet Li—he’s far beyond my skill. He’s been studying martial arts since he was 4 years old. How very kind of Joel to say that. But it’s not true.

Did you ever think that you’d come back to this character?

No, I didn’t. During the last couple weeks on the first movie, the brothers talked about some images that they thought might occur if they ever did another one. I would always say, “Wow, that’s cool.” And I knew that they had written a trilogy originally. But they never shared it with me. When Warner Brothers wanted to do it and Larry and Andrew wanted to do it, I wanted to do it.

You’ve said that, for Neo, “Reloaded” is about choices. How do you feel about how the character is evolving?

I love Neo. I find Neo to be a beautiful man. I love his dignity, his love for Trinity, his search. Playing him is like playing the best parts of us. I like that he’s a man who, in the Matrix, has this superhuman ability but also has this incredible responsibility. And in “Reloaded” you’ll see that he also has empathy for the machine entities.

You spent almost a year in Australia while you were shooting the sequels. Did you get an apartment?

I stayed in a hotel in Sydney that had apartments, so I had a kitchen and laundry.

Did you bring along any personal touches?

I had a couch made. The couch is very important. To sit on. To make it home, sweet home. It was red velvet, very deep, very high. That was my resting place for the entire year.

Your costars Aaliyah and Gloria Foster died early in the shoot. You also were dealing with family crises, weren’t you? Your sister’s leukemia relapsed?

[Reeves looks down and is silent for several seconds, then he smiles.]

If you want to change the subject, just tell me.

I think I just did.

In retrospect, do you regret being away from home for so long?

No, I was grateful to be there. I liked the demands of these films. I liked the intensity. I liked the journey. It was like crossing an ocean.

Silver chose slightly more rugged imagery. He compared it to the Crusades.

Ah, Joel. [Laughs] Well, I’m going to stick with “crossing an ocean.”

TRINITY, BABE WITH BITE

Your costars say the martial-arts training was considerably more intense this time.

The first time around I didn’t know what to expect—and it was really hard, but ignorance was bliss. This time it was brutal. I broke my leg the first week of training.

What happened?

I don’t know, exactly. I know that I was on a wire and my landing was too hard and I ended up with a broken leg. I’m a very strong person. But I will never do another kung fu movie again. [Laughs] It’s too stressful. It’s stressful on the body and on the spirit. I mean, I loved it and it was great to have a challenge like that—no, you know what? I didn’t love it. I love that I did it, but I didn’t love it. It was really hard for me.

Did you find that your skills from the first movie had diminished??

Hmm. I don’t think I have much skill, to be honest.

So right now you couldn’t just beat up someone off the street?

Oh no, I probably could.

What did you do the day after you finished working on the sequels?

I did another movie—like, the day after. Isn’t that insane? But it was good, because it helped me get right into something else. After the first “Matrix,” I grieved for months. Really. I was so sad for months not to be part of that film anymore. This time, I really did love every day that I was on that set, but I was ready to say goodbye and say hello to my life.

Tell me about the Wachowskis. Joel Silver calls them “the boys.”

Yeah, the boys. It’s funny, I never call them that. It makes me feel old, you know? [Laughs] What can I say? They are two of the neatest men you’ll ever meet. I guess that’s a bad word—neatest. I absolutely adore them. I really love being able to trust my director, and you can’t always, you know? I trust those guys 100 percent.

Are you into any of the things they’re into? Comic books?

No. They’d hand them to me and I’d be like, “Mmm, no.” It’s a guy thing. Every guy I know likes comic books.

When did they give you the new scripts?

About seven months before shooting began. And nothing changed. Nothing. Not one of my lines. They just know exactly what they want. They sent me the scripts and after I read them, I immediately wrote them a fax because I was so blown away. I was weeping.

How is the aftermath not a letdown? What do you do next?

Well, you know, you live your life. I’ve had an experience that most actors, most people, will never have. I mean, we’re talking an intense experience. I was away from my husband for a long time. We lost Aaliyah. We lost Gloria. September 11 happened and we were far from home. It was brutal.

Did you ever feel jinxed?

No, I never felt that. I refuse to even go there. I don’t believe in that.

MORPHEUS, WISE MAN

Is this your first experience with nutso megafan culture?

This is my first experience with a real bona fide, worldwide, super-insanity and everything that comes with that. What’s nice is, between now and May 15, we all have a minute to get ourselves together, to deal with what inevitably will come. This movie’s going to be huge. We’re all really lucky to be a part of it, but we will get a lot of attention—and maybe not all of it’s going to be positive. [Laughs]

And it’ll keep going all year.

That’s right, this will go on, man. And I reckon that sometime between July and the end of the year, it’s going to be really f—ing intense.

That’s a beautiful suit you’re wearing in the “Reloaded” posters. It must’ve been fun getting dressed for work every day.

Yeah, I loved my clothes.

Did you make any requests about your wardrobe this time around?

I made some demands. [Laughs] You might not notice, but in the freeway chase, when I take off my jacket, I have those sleeve garters on. That’s all me. See, I’ve always thought Morpheus was a barber when he was in the Matrix—you know, before he woke up.

A barber? Really?

Yeah, that’s just my own stupid f—ing character-background thing. [Laughs] My feeling is that he was a barber and that he used to have nightmares about cutting people’s throats.

So he was a well-dressed barber.

I wanted him to have a little bit of an old-timey 1930s Chicago look. To me, Morpheus is like an old rotary phone.

In that freeway chase, there’s a bit where you’re fighting an agent on the roof of a speeding 18-wheeler. Obviously some of that is CGI, but was there a point where you were actually atop a moving truck?

Oh yeah, definitely. It was incredible. Larry and Andy were deliberately trying to make the most elaborate car-chase sequence ever filmed, and I believe they’ve done that. Kudos to them for having the f—ing courage. Now, for my money, the car chase in “Bullitt” is always going to be the car chase, ‘cause Steve [McQueen] did his own driving.

Morpheus has gone from an unknown figure to a movie icon. Was it harder to play him this time?

My approach didn’t change at all. Larry and Andy made me the custodian of a man called Morpheus. He’s mine. And he only comes out if I let him. [Laughs.]

How do you make sure you’re not typecast as this guy for the rest of your career?

Well, I’m talking to people who have had this experience.

Like who?

Like Clint Eastwood.

What was his advice?

Well, I can’t tell you that. [Laughs] But I’ve already taken care of it. Listen, for a lot of people, that’s how it is: I’m going to be remembered as that guy. But that’s OK. If I gotta be remembered as somebody, Morpheus is a good cat to be, you know what I’m sayin’?