Keanu Reeves Becomes Spider-Man's Neighbour

Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire has a new neighbour - fellow screen super hero Keanu Reeves.

The Matrix Reloaded star has just bought a gated estate three doors down from Maguire's Hollywood home for $5 million.

Reeves - who has famously lived in hotels over the past years - is finally settling down in a neighborhood which includes the home of star couple David Arquette and Courteney Cox.

The home Brittany Murphy has recently purchased from singer Britney Spears is also located in the exclusive area.

John Sutherland

Keanu claims he enjoys living out of a suitcase. So can a few fireplaces and ornamental fish tie him down?

Monday June 2, 2003
The Guardian

One face has gazed at us, enigmatically and ubiquitously, over the past three weeks. It glides by on the sides of buses, stares down from hoardings, looks up - impassively but beautifully - from glossy magazine covers. Almond shades, orientally high cheekbones, Anglo Saxon pallor: Keanu, Neo, the "One", blend of all races, cool wind over mountains (does the Hawaiian actually mean that?).

One thing we thought we knew about Mr Reeves: he's a nomad. He's been described as "the world's richest homeless person". A wandering star, he lives out of a suitcase. His preferred resting place is poolside at the Chateau Marmont (where Belushi drugged himself to death), playing computer chess, chain-smoking, soothed by the ceaseless hum of traffic on nearby Sunset Boulevard. "There's something about me," he told an interviewer, "that enjoys the fact that I can move around freely and not have any material things which tie me down to any one point."

It's part of the mystique. For Keanu to own a house (fix the plumbing, put the cat out) would be like Leonardo DiCaprio pumping his own gas, Tom Cruise grouting floor tiles, or Winona queuing up like the rest of us to pay for her purchases.

No more Gypsy in his soul. Last week the real estate section of the Los Angeles Times announced to the world that "Keanu Reeves, star of the futuristic thriller The Matrix Reloaded, has purchased a Hollywood Hills home for close to $5 million."

It is, we learned, a "gated estate built in the late 80s as an art collector's residence". It has dramatic city views, high ceilings and massive wall space for displaying art. There are three bedrooms and three-and-a-half bathrooms in slightly more than 5,000 sq ft. The one-storey "contemporary" also has a koi pond, a 50ft infinity pool, a centre-courtyard and three fireplaces.

Fans like me cut through the realtors' fluff to the important stuff. The paper didn't give the address. But it recorded that "Richard Ehrlich and Kurt Rappaport, both with Westside Estate Agency in Beverly Hills," had the listing.

Like all high-profile agencies, Westside ("Quality - Service - Discretion") has a website (www.w-e-agency.com) with video tour facilities. Properties linger a few hours on the lists, until the huge amounts of money dawdle across bank accounts.

I quickly scanned the Westside inventory. The only possible property, at that price and with those named agents (on 6%, gross), was clearly identifiable. It had gone off the site the next day - but not before I had a chance to video-saunter by the koi pond, inspect the master bedroom, and even peek at the bathroom pedestal which, wonderful thought, will receive those starry buttocks. Peeping John.

Some might pay for my information. Websites such as www.contactanycelebrity.com charge you $30 for access to their database. I wouldn't mind betting they don't have Keanu's home address. Yet.

I drove out there last night, spurning the hawkers at the border of Beverly Hills with their tawdry "Star Maps". But Keanu's new home is, I have to report, no big deal. At least, not to the naked, unlensed, eye.

Peering through the gate, it didn't look more impressive than what a podiatrist might aspire to. Hell, if I'd got in before the last housing boom, I could have owned something like that myself - not in Beverly Hills, but certainly out in Bill and Ted's hometown, San Dimas.

Westside's current listings start with mansions going for $18m. The five-mill-and-under stuff is strictly low range. Keanu allegedly got $30m for the Matrix sequels. Why would someone with that kind of money buy something so, well, "blah"?

It worried me. Looking at the unimpressive facade, a terrible thought struck me. "Agent Rappaport"? "Agent Ehrlich"? "Real" Estate? Is it? Am I, horrible thought, caught in a ... Quick, give me the red pill.

'Matrix' machine comes to Japan

By Allen Wan, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 3:58 AM ET May 27, 2003

TOKYO (CBS.MW) -- Keanu Reeves says "The Matrix" movie franchise owes its popularity to the vision of the writer-director duo of brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski to create a film with broad appeal.

"The film has universal elements," the actor said during a Tokyo publicity tour for "The Matrix Reloaded," the blockbuster sequel about humans battling against enslavement by computers.

"It's enjoyable and rich in terms of stories, and I believe that there is something for everyone," he said. Reeves attended a news conference along with producer Joel Silver and fellow cast members Lawrence Fishburne, Jada Pinkett and Hugo Weaving.

"The Matrix Reloaded" -- distributed by Warner Bros., a unit of AOL Time Warner (AOL: news, chart, profile) -- will make its debut in Japan later this week. The movie has already set a record for the biggest opening week in U.S. history.

Silver said the third installment of the series will open Nov. 5. He said that "The Matrix Revolutions" was initially supposed to open during the summer but the plan was delayed because the visual effects required more work as they were "far more complicated" than in the previous movies.

That's fine for Weaving, who pointed out the Nov. 5 launch date may prove to me more apt, given that is also Guy Fawkes Day in Britain. Fawkes, a revolutionary, was executed for conspiring in the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the king and members of the British Parliament.

Allen Wan is the Asia bureau chief for CBS MarketWatch, based in Tokyo.

Getting inside the 'Matrix'

TOKYO ; Keanu Reeves has some advice for movie fans before they go to see "The Matrix Reloaded" ; don't come with any preconceived ideas, be open and just enjoy yourself.

That may be easier said than done since the long-awaited sequel to the surprise 1999 hit has been preceded by a massive publicity machine all around the world ; and will culminate with the third and final part of the trilogy, "The Matrix Revolutions" on Nov 5.

Japan rolled out the green carpet for the 37-year-old Reeves and co-stars Laurence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett Smith, producer Joel Silver and conceptual designer Geoffrey Darrow during their visit this week. Since the trilogy's writer-director brothers, Larry and Andy Wachowski, are notoriously shy, it has been left up to Reeves & Co to jet around the world plugging the movie, a video game "Enter the Matrix" and nine animated shorts that make up "The Animatrix."

Reeves is not a talkative character at the best of times, but he was in a chirpy mood during this visit to Japan, attending the MTV Video Music Awards Japan 2003 in Saitama, a special premiere at Roppongi Hills Arena and giving 10-minute interviews to a procession of media.

"The Matrix has been a big part of my life since 1998," he said. "We filmed parts two and three back to back over 22 months and it has had a positive impact on my life both as an artist and person."

Born in Lebanon to an English mother, and Chinese-Hawaiian father, Reeves, whose name means "cool breeze over the mountains" in Hawaiian, credited the worldwide success and cult status of the "Matrix" to the Wachowskis.

"Their vision is accessible to ordinary people. They know how to tell a story that has universal elements and themes and synthesize it all together. You come away from this movie experiencing something on many different levels."

Made on a $300 million budget

Packed with special effects, "The Matrix Reloaded" was made on a budget of $300 million, five times the budget of the original. When they are not engaged in kickfights in the air, slow motion gun battles, car and motorbike chases, the characters look cool in long black trench coats, dark glasses and skin-tight leather.

"Reloaded" picks up where the original ended: a computer hacker named Neo (Reeves) learns that his whole existence is a computer-generated reality in which humans basically serve as batteries for the master machines. Neo and his allies Morpheus (Fishburne), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Niobe (Pinkett Smith) must go back into the matrix to save the last surviving stronghold of humans deep inside the Earth's core from being wiped out by a horde of attacking machines.

"It has become a personal quest for Neo," Reeves said of his character, also known as The One. "He has matured in his matrix being, accepted the mantle of The One, even though he doesn't understand what he has to do and now has the courage to go forward."

The shoot was long and grueling ; Moss broke a leg in the first week of training, Weaving injured a disc in his neck and Fishburne sprained his wrist. Some fight scenes required up to 90 takes. Everything was shrouded in secrecy: the scripts were written with black ink on purple paper to prevent photocopying.

For Australian actor Weaving, this has been a big year as he is also starring in another blockbuster trilogy ; "Lord of the Rings." But he is quite down to earth about it.

"For me they are just like any other films," he said. "You choose a film based on the material, the story and then the directors. The scope of the films has nothing to do with it. The success of the trilogies is a testament to the directors Peter Jackson and the Wachowskis. They are three brilliant men. What can I say about them? Jackson is a bit like a hobbit, while Larry and Andy have extraordinary minds."

The brothers will try something really extraordinary on Nov 5 when they plan to open "The Matrix Revolutions" in every major market of the world on the same day at the same time.

May 28, 2003

Japan Today Discussion
The Wachowskis are definitley brillant!
tenchi28 (May 31 2003 - 20:25)

I can't think of any other directors or wriitens in Hollywood that could create such a complex, intresting menagerieof character and philsophical undercurrents.

I'll seen many movies since which have been "inspired" to just really shoddy wanna-bes i.e. Minority Report.

I really respect the Wriiters/directors as intellectuals. It would be really cool to have dinner with the Wachowski brothers just for the intresting conversations.

it was a cool movie..HarryC (Jun 2 2003 - 06:52)

I'd like to see it again in the theater. The first one though is by far the best I've ever seen so far.

Other movies I'd reccomend is "Waking Life", it was so philsophical and in-depth when i watched it in the theater three years ago

Revealed - the secret brotherhood of The Matrix

May 20, 2003

The realm of The Matrix is full of question marks, but here's a brain-twister from reality: Who are the reclusive brothers behind the computer-phobic fantasy?

Larry and Andy Wachowski, the former carpenters and comic-book scribes from Chicago who dreamed up the parallel digital world of The Matrix Reloaded, do their best to remain out of sight.

They have refused to be interviewed since the release of 1999's The Matrix.

Their official Warner Bros biography mentions their only other directing credit, Bound, before claiming: "Little else is known about them."

While these evasions make them seem as shadowy as their sunglasses-at-night heroes, those who know the Wachowskis say they are slightly timid "regular guys" who love basketball, their parents and hiding from the press.

Keanu Reeves, who stars in the Matrix films as Neo, the man trying to save humanity from a counterfeit computer-generated reality, says the brothers can be intensely focused, prone to joking or deeply reserved.

Each seems to know what the other is thinking.

"You can go to either of them and ask a question and much more often than not they'll agree and tell you the same thing," Reeves said. "They are independent and together."

Both are married, have thinning hairlines (Andy showed up at the Reloaded premire with a shaven head) and favour backward baseball caps. Both are university dropouts who wrote comic books and horror scripts while supporting themselves through carpentry and house painting.

The bespectacled Larry, 37, is shorter and thinner than his sibling. He projects a professorial image that some say fits his bookish nature - although he sometimes likes to wear pirate-style hoop earrings.

"Larry reads everything. I mean everything," said Jada Pinkett Smith, who co-stars in Reloaded as the human revolutionary leader Niobe. "One thing I've learnt from working on this film is that life is about research, and Larry, he's constantly researching and constantly reading."

Andy, 35, looks like he could be his older brother's bodyguard: taller, broad-shouldered and thicker, sometimes with a dark goatee. Most say Andy is the quieter of the two.

The Matrix films are a fusion of the brothers' main interests: Hong Kong chopsocky movies, gritty Japanese animation, computer games, fairytales and eastern mysticism.

"They kind of cooked it all up and made a soufflé out of it," said Joel Silver, who produced all of the Matrix films.

Silver met the brothers, whom he calls "the boys," when making the 1995 Sylvester Stallone action film Assassins. It was the Wachowskis' first produced screenplay, and they despised the way it was altered during filming.

"I was very supportive of them and what they had tried to do," Silver said. "One day after a particular unpleasant experience with the director and another writer, they said, 'You know, we wrote something else that you might want to read.' "

That was The Matrix, a special-effects extravaganza packed with flying fights, huge explosions, marble-wall-pulverising gunfights - flavoured with philosophy about the nature of consciousness and perception.

The brothers wanted to direct it themselves, despite their lack of experience behind the camera.

So they did Bound, a low-budget lesbian heist thriller, in 1996. "I always felt that they went on and did Bound as an audition to prove they knew what they were doing," Silver said.

Bound became an independent cult hit. Warner Bros. then expressed interest in the brothers, and Silver told the studio bosses he had the Wachowski's next screenplay. "They said, 'It probably costs a fortune, right?' I said, ... 'Yeah.' "

Made for about $70m mainly in Australia, The Matrix became an international phenomenon, winning four Academy Awards for technical achievement and earning more than $460m worldwide.

The pioneering visuals - such as freezing a battle while the camera swings around it, and "bullet time", when characters dodge gunfire in slow-motion limbo moves - were imitated by countless other filmmakers. Which was ironic, because some critics complained that the Wachowskis themselves borrowed too heavily from Hong Kong action films and Blade Runner.

The 2001 films Charlie's Angels, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and last year's Spider-Man were among many featuring high-flying fight scenes reminiscent of The Matrix.

The camera-swinging move was even spoofed by the grouchy princess in Shrek.

Larry and Andy were not pleased by the mimicry. "The brothers in the beginning were really flattered and then at the end they were irritated by it," said Carrie-Anne Moss, who plays the romantic warrior Trinity in the Matrix films.

The Wachowskis devised a multimedia approach to the sequels (the finale, The Matrix Revolutions, is due in November). They tell the main body of the story in the films, but develop offshoots via a new video game, Enter the Matrix, and a series of animated shorts called The Animatrix.

Two of the shorts, which will be included on a DVD, explain how machines came to dominate humans. Others background the characters and threats in Reloaded.

Silver said Larry Wachowski explained how The Matrix game, shorts and movies would weave together by scribbling a diagram on a yellow notepad during a 1999 flight from Japan to Los Angeles. "It's not just marketing. It's not just hype," Silver said. "The story is being told in these different mediums."

How Larry and Andy divide their duties remains a mystery. Although Larry sounds like the brains to Andy's brawn, their colleagues remain unsure who is responsible for what in the Matrix world.

"I watch them, a lot of times, and I've never see them have a disagreement or argue about anything," Silver said. "Clearly, they spend a lot of time talking about things beforehand."

He said it would be wrong to characterise them as "one brain in two bodies" - but even the cast seems to forget that at times.

As Reeves put it: "They're one of the most sensitive people I've ever met." - Sapa-AP

Keanu buys plush new Hollywood pad

26/05/2003 - 11:07:36

Matrix star Keanu Reeves, who earned a reported €32m for the two sequels to The Matrix, has bought a home in the Hollywood Hills for more than €4m, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Until now the reclusive actor has been renting a small apartment in Santa Monica.

His new home, a gated estate, was built in the late 1980s as an art collector’s residence. It has three bedrooms, a swimming pool, koi pond and a centre courtyard.

Reeves, 38, bought the house before he accompanied his co-stars Carrie-Anne Moss and Laurence Fishburne and producer Joel Silver to the Cannes Film Festival.

BLOCKBUSTERS 'R' US

By LOU LUMENICK

In "The Matrix Reloaded," Keanu Reeves proves he's The One - with the license to print money despite the R rating.

May 26, 2003 -- JUST like the original "The Matrix" reinvented the sci-fi action thriller, megahit "The Matrix Reloaded" is rewriting the rules for ratings-restricted movies. The first R-rated summer "event" movie with a supersized budget in three years, "Reloaded" will almost certainly become the first "R" to break the $300 million barrier at the box office.

And in challenging the prevailing wisdom in Hollywood that only PG-13 movies are sane investments of $100 million or more, "Reloaded," which reportedly cost more than $150 million, may open the door for more such costly R-rated efforts.

"This will definitely give ammunition to filmmakers who want to make R-rated films, by pointing to the success of 'Reloaded,' " says Martin Grove, a box-office analyst for the Hollywood Reporter.

"It will do the same thing for big R-rated films that 'Titanic' did for films longer than three hours, which were considered not to make economic sense because they limited the number of showings per evening."

"Reloaded" is only the tip of the R-rated iceberg.

Coming soon to theaters are two other blockbuster sequels which, like their predecessors, carry R ratings: "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," with a reported price tag of $175 million, and "Bad Boys 2," which is said to have cost a cool $150 million to reunite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.

And the fall will see the R-rated "The Matrix Revolutions," which concludes the trilogy, as well as the R-rated prequel "The Exorcist: The Beginning."

While less costly horror and teen flicks - like the upcoming sequels "Freddy vs. Jason" and "American Wedding" - have always boasted R ratings, big-ticket action movies have gone almost entirely PG-13 since the summer of 2000, when "Gladiator" and "The Patriot" opened with R ratings.

Two things have pushed the studios away from costly R's ever since: politics and profits.

In 2001, the Federal Trade Commission accused Hollywood of marketing R-rated films to under-17s, who theoretically need to be accompanied by a parent - but in practice, often buy tickets for PG-13 movies and sneak into R's in other multiplex auditoriums.

Under attack by politicians, the studios responded by promising that they wouldn't advertise R-rated flicks on TV before 9 p.m. - or on shows and in publications targeted at under-17s - and joined theater owners in promising to police the ratings more rigorously.

Given the new rules, Hollywood also increasingly pressured producers of popcorn fare to avoid the dread R, which declined from 67 percent of all titles in 2001 to 58 percent just one year later.

Then there are the numbers: The biggest grossing R-rated film of all time is still "Beverly Hills Cop," which set a record of $235 million way, way back in 1984 - and currently ranks a lowly No. 21 on the list of all-time hits.

"Most family-friendly films sell big," says John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners. "Most R-rated features do not."

David Poland, who runs the moviecitynews.com Web portal, says a PG-13 can bring in an additional $10 million to $15 million at the box office as opposed to an R - a powerful economic incentive.

"Which is not to say you can't sell a 'soft' R like 'Reloaded,' which doesn't have really hard-core violence, to families," he told The Post.

"With kids playing violent video games like 'Grand Theft Auto,' and watching the original 'Matrix' at home, parents are comfortable with 14-years-olds going to a theater to watch 'Reloaded' or 'T3,' because what they're getting is comic-book level violence in movies with a moral foundation."

So if "T3" and "Bad Boys 2" do as well as expected, we may well be seeing fewer epics like 2001's "Pearl Harbor," in which the violence was sanitized at Disney's insistence to obtain a PG-13 rating.

"Audiences want to see something that's real," says that film's producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, who is covering his bets this summer with both the R-rated "Bad Boys 2" as well as the $125 million PG-13 adventure "Pirates of the Caribbean."

"With a war," he said, "they don't want everything to be sugar-coated."

Behind the glamour

May 26 2003

Vincent Gallo (above) had to face the press for the film, The Brown Bunny.

For all the glitz and Pierre Cardin parties, the Cannes Film Festival is hard work, insists the duty-bound Stephanie Bunbury.

[Snipped for Keanu]

Less of a surprise was Keanu Reeves's snappy repartee in the press conference for The Matrix Reloaded. Someone asked kindly whether the success of the film had made it more difficult for him to live a private life. Reeves thought for some time, his expression still as artlessly innocent as we remember him in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, the film that made him what he is today. Laurence Fishburne, who was sitting next to him, decided to help him out. He whispered in his ear for a long time. Reeves nodded. He faced his interlocutor, took a breath and then exhaled slowly. "No," he said. No. No! That was it! Isn't Keanu fab? And come to think of it, he doesn't seem to be ageing either. Get that boy to Thunderbird Island right now!

TOP PEOPLE: KEANU'S A MAN OF FEW WORDS

AFTER weeks of blabbering on about nothing in particular, I finally met a superstar to tell you all about in My People.

I managed to collar Keanu Reeves at the premier of the Matrix Reloaded. Fancy that.

Now, I would like to tell you he was a lovely man who talked to me as a fellow human being, was courteous and made me laugh, but I can't.

Reeves has trained for months in Kung Fu for his role as Neo, spent hours in ice baths to soothe his aching muscles and read various books on ancient mythology to undertand his character.

So, you'd think he'd be buzzing at the opening night of the flick. No, not Keanu.

The shy pin-up had few words to say and what he did was fairly uninteresting.

On the other hand there was the bubbly Jada Pinkett Smith and producer Joel Silver, who were rumoured to have fallen out recently.

Instead, both bounced into the London premiere with widescreen smiles.

Joel told me: "It's done so well so far and I hope those catching the Matrix Reloaded in Britain and Ireland enjoy their night out.

"Making it has been a huge project and it's wonderful to come over here and see it finally hit the cinemas.''

Matrix Revolutions is due in November.

Now, as host of the premiere I should be able to spill the beans on the last part but, unfortunately, not even a £60 quid bribe could persaude Joel to reveal a single nugget of info.

I SHOULD also mention that last weekend I spent a boozy night in a hotel room - mine - with a bunch of folk.

Apparently, I got so drunk I invited everyone back to a Cardiff hotel to my mini-bar.

I remember Skint Records boss Damien Harris talking to me about EastEnders for an hour, but I can't recall comic Alan Davies there. Such is life.

So, if you ever see me running around a hotel at night and fancy a free drink then please feel free to take full advantage. Everybody else does.

GUN TERROR FOR KEANU

HOT PEOPLE: GUN TERROR FOR KEANU

I CAN reveal the truth behind the brawl at a London club which forced KEANU REEVES to flee.

A man was stabbed when two rival gang members started scrapping at Mayfair's Funky Buddha.

Up to 20 others joined in and horrified customers had to duck flying glasses. It was said that one man was carrying a gun.

The fight spilled out onto the street with paparazzi diving for cover. An onlooker said: "It was carnage."

Keanu, in London for the Matrix Reloaded premiere, had been in the VIP section with co-star JADA PINKETT -SMITH. They were rushed outside and sped off in their limo.

Keanu lighten up a bit?

By EMILY SMITH
Deputy Bizarre Editor

MOVIE hunk Keanu Reeves has earned a whopping £15million in a week — and he STILL looks miserable.

Keanu, 38, negotiated a bumper deal for 15 per cent of box office takings for The Matrix Reloaded.

The blockbuster, which opened in the UK on Wednesday, is on course to smash records by raking in £100million worldwide in its first week.

But Keanu barely cracked a smile at the London premiere — despite becoming one of the richest men in Hollywood.

A Matrix insider said: “Keanu has had a gruelling schedule promoting the movie and hasn’t really had any time to enjoy its success.

“He has been in Cannes for the worldwide premiere, flown over to London to promote the movie here and now is off to Japan.

“It is not unusual for the biggest stars to negotiate a box office percentage. It ensures that the big names return for sequels and it keeps their initial fee lower.”

The sci-fi spectacular, second in the Matrix trilogy, has already grossed £52million in the States in just over a week.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets holds the UK record for first week’s takings with £18million.

Keanu is now in talks to sign a £46million three-film deal with Warner Brothers.

It will put him on a par with Hollywood big earners Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks. Why, it’s enough to make you smile.

More than 10,000 fans braved the rain in London’s Leicester Square to catch a glimpse of their idol.

The star spent 30 minutes signing autographs but looked deadly serious the whole time.

Matrix Mansion

Matrix Mansion
Betsy Schiffman

Who's buying, who's selling in the world of high-end real estate:

Reeves Finally Settles

Are his new digs "Neo" classic?

Keanu Reeves, the leading man in The Matrix Reloaded, is buying a flashy Hollywood Hills home to match his flashy box office success, according to the Los Angeles Times. Reeves bought a $5 million three-bedroom house, which spans 5,000 square feet, and has a 50-foot infinity pool, three fireplaces and a courtyard. The home is in a gated community, and since it was first built for an art collector during the 1980s, it has large wall space to hang an art collection.

Reeves, 38, had a slew of fairly respectable roles early in his career (including Chevalier Danceny in the critically acclaimed 1988 film Dangerous Liaisons) but he didn't really gain mainstream fame until he established himself as a teen idol playing the blissfully ignorant Ted "Theodore" Logan in1989's Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

In The Matrix Reloaded, which was produced by AOL Time Warner's (nyse: AOL - news - people ) Warner Bros. studio, Reeves took on the revered role of rebel leader Neo for a second time. Although he was reportedly paid $30 million for both the first and second Matrix films, Reeves was known for living out of a hotel, in order to avoid committing to a home. He once said in an interview, "I guess I'm not the settling type....Someday." Now it looks as if that day will fall quite soon.

The Reclusive Keanu

The guy's made almost 40 films in nearly 20 years, but even his closest costars admit that Keanu Reeves remains one big mystery. Us answers all about the very private star of The Matrix Reloaded.

By Matthew Graham

What's he really like?

If his costars only knew. "There is something closed about him," Reloaded's temptress Monica Bellucci, for one tells Us. "He's very shy. You want to understand more about him, but he doesn't let everybody approach him as a person." Laurence Fishburne, who worked with Reeves on 1999's original Matrix and spent a year with him in Australia filming Reloaded and its upcoming sequel, The Matrix Revolutions, is equally in the dark" "I love the motherf-ker, but I don't know a thing about him." Well, this much we do know: He is undeniably generous. After spending weeks shooting one action scene, he presented each of the 12 stuntmen with a Harley Davidson motorcycle. "That made me smile for months," Reeves tells Us.

How does he stay so fit and trim?

"I don't think there's any other person that I've seen work as hard as that man," says his Reloaded costar Jada Pinkett Smith. No joke. Before filming began, he went on a high-protein, low-fat and oil-free diet and trained for six months, working out at 7:30 every morning, often for up to 10 hours. but that didn't quite prepare him for the daily two-hour stretching routine he adopted to prepare for fight sequences once filming began. The brutal sessions often left him screaming in pain. "It's 20-pound sandbags on your legs," he says. "It's people pushing down on you until you get that 'pop' sound." To help him recover, he kept a bottle of McClelland's in his trailer. "A glass of scotch after some fightin'," he says, "is really good."

Where does he call home?

Although he keeps an apartment in New York City, Reeves lives like a nomad, checking into one hotel room after another, depending on where he's shooting. (Los Angeles's chic Chateau Marmont is a common hangout.) "That's the way I like things. I like room service," he has said. Still, "I'd like to have a home with all my belongings in it, but things just haven't worked out."

Is he single - or taken?

Reeves is famously mum about his personal life, especially since his ex-girlfriend, Jennifer Syme, miscarried before giving birth to their baby in 1999; tragically, Syme died in a car accident in 2001. But he's been spotted with Amanda De Cadenet, 31, ex-wife of Duran Duran's John Taylor, and he huddled at an Oscars after-party last March with actress Clare Forlani, 30. She was spotted on May 5 at the Viper Room in L.A., where bass player Reeves was performing with his latest band, Becky. Says costar Bellucci, who smooches him in Reloaded as she did as a vampire in 1992's Bram Stoker's Dracula: "He's a good kisser. It wasn't painful."

What's next on his agenda?

He's currently filming the drama Thumbsucker, and he's attached to Constantine, another potential franchise that's based on the comic book Hellblazer. He's also teeming with Jack Nicholson, in a still-untitled romantic farce in which the two fall for the same woman ・Diane Keaton! So, is Reeves funny? "I hope so," he says with a laugh. "I think they're all hoping."

Just the essential facts

Name

Keanu Reeves (His first name is Hawaiian for "cool breeze over the mountain.")

Age/Height

38/Six foot one.

Hometown

Born in Beirut, Lebanon, moved to New York City, then Toronto as a child; moved to Los Angeles at age 20.

Career High Points

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (above, 1989), Speed (1994), The Matrix (1999)

When Not Acting He's

Riding motorcycles, playing hockey and performing with his new rock band, Becky. The group recently played concerts in Japan and Bangkok, Thailand [sic: this was Dogstar]

5-Second Synopsis

In The Matrix Reloaded, the machines that created the virtual-reality world of the Matrix have discovered Zion, the last human city. Now they plan to destroy it! It's up to Neo (Reeves), who, as in the first film, battles a now-reprogrammed super-cloning Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving, left) to save the world from annihilation.

Keanu's Fight Night

Matrix Reloaded star Keanu Reeves was forced to flee a London nightclub Wednesday night, after a fight broke out.

Keanu decided not to intervene using martial arts skills he learned in the hit sequel when the brawl broke out after last night's British premiere - choosing instead to escape the Funky Buddha venue.

A dozen clubbers were involved in the brawl.

An onlooker says, "Keanu heard the commotion and was advised to get out quickly. As he left, the gangs were at each others throats by the door and he looked stunned."

Photo Copyright Chris Weeks / Getty Images

Keanu in London for Matrix première

22/05/2003

Keanu in London for Matrix première
Keanu Reeves was in London last night for the première of his new film 'The Matrix Reloaded'.

Co-stars Laurence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving and Jada Pinkett Smith were also in attendance at Leicester Square.

Reeves, who returns as Neo in the sci-fi thriller sequel, said he was amazed at the reaction from the crowd.

"Some people have been really anxious for this film to come out and I just hope it lives up to their expectations," he said.

"I've loved making the film and I just hope that it brings as much enjoyment to those who watch it."

Despite the rain, the stars spent half an hour signing autographs for fans who had gathered outside the Odeon cinema.

'The Matrix Reloaded' has already topped the US box office, taking a near-record $93.3m in its first weekend there. It goes on general release in Ireland and the UK this weekend.

The sequel to 1999's 'Matrix', 'The Matrix Reloaded' will be followed by a third film, 'The Matrix Revolutions' in November. All three are written and directed by brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski.

Interview of the week: Keanu Reeves

Interview of the week: Keanu Reeves
By Karen Butler
United Press International
From the Life & Mind Desk
Published 5/23/2003 1:25 AM
View printer-friendly version

Keanu Reeves, star of "The Matrix" and "The Matrix Reloaded," says he feels tremendous satisfaction in knowing he will always be remembered for his portrayal of Neo in the sci-fi blockbusters.

That said, the 39-year-old actor refuses to take credit for the "Matrix" phenomenon, stating the filmmakers created the "Matrix" world and he and his fellow actors simply performed in it.

"If anyone comes up to me, it's about 'The Matrix.' It's always the film and I think all of us characters are really just part of this world of 'The Matrix' that Larry and Andy Wachowski have brought to us... But it's really 'The Matrix.' That's it. We're just part of it," he explained.

Asked when he realized Neo had reached the status of pop-culture icon, Reeves downplays the achievement.

"As an actor you have the role to play," he said. "Neo in 'The Matrix' is an ass-kicking kind of guy. It's just finding that aspect in one's self and meeting it with the character and trying to play the role, so it's pretend, but it's also coming from a source in myself. He's a fun guy to play."

"The Matrix Reloaded," the sequel to the 1999 film "The Matrix," smashed box-office records this month, earning a staggering $151.9 million in its first six days in theaters. Released last Thursday, the movie was filmed simultaneously with the final chapter of the saga "The Matrix Revolutions," due out later this year.

Reeves said filming the two movies at the same time made them feel like one film, one story.

"There really isn't a distinction between the two," he said, pointing out that the films span a short amount of time. "It wasn't like doing a Chekhov play: 'Four years later and now it's winter...' There wasn't that kind of transformation to be junping back and forth to. The timeline of the piece is very short. I believe it takes place over 72 hours, both films."

Filming the two movies together also meant Reeves didn't have to retrain for all those beautifully choreographed, breathtaking fight scenes that are hallmarks of the "Matrix" movies. Part kung fu, part ballet, the actor said the fighting style in the movies is unlike that in any other film.

"It's the 'Matrix' style," Reeves said. "I wanted to have a certain style of fighting in the 'Matrix.' I wanted it to feel physical and visceral, but at the same time to have a kind of style to it because it really is not physically happening, I wanted to have an otherness feeling to it, but I wanted it to still feel physical, like there is physical effort on his face and there is physical impact, but I wanted to have a certain leegance so that there was the aspect of effort, but there is also the aspect of effortlessness to it at the same time. So, that was the kind of style I was trying to create in my depction or in my acting out of the choreography that was developed by the directors."

So, now that he has etched his place in film history, could Reeves ever see himself acting in another comedy like "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" or "Parenthood," or in a period drama like "A Walk in the Clouds" or "Bram Stoker's Dracula"? Reeves says, sure, dude.

"I can't control who hires me," he reasoned. "It has always been my hope as an actor to work in different genres and play different characters."

He then added with a sigh: "I need to do a play. I want to go do a play. Hopefully next year. I'm trying to find a new play. I've got to get back on stage because I love it. I need to. I really want to play as an actor. Just to go through the process as an actor. It's not short segments of acting. It's the whole experience. It's an interactive medium... It's really for me, home. I love it. I love it."

Copyright © 2001-2003 United Press International

WACKY WACHOWSKIS

By MARCUS BARAM

May 21, 2003 -- LARRY Wachowski wears long hoop earrings and seems to enjoy spending time with a busty dominatrix. His brother Andy spends hours discussing philosophy and quantum physics in coffee shops. But that's only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the weird ways of the brothers Wachowski, the reclusive geniuses behind "The Matrix" movies.

After breaking box-office records, the sibs are as far from the spotlight as possible.

Andy, 35, has been described as a brawny, beer-drinking sci-fi fan while the more refined Larry, 37, prefers to discuss philosophy. And a report in the Mail on Sunday suggested he may be into bondage and donning heels and dresses.

But they seem joined at the hip when it comes to their fascination with Japanese anime, comics and B-grade movies - and their horror of the spotlight.

Soon after moving to Hollywood, where they at first worked as housepainters and carpenters, they wrote a gory screenplay, "Carnivore," about cannibals who preyed on yuppies. It was too dark to attract investors.

"The script was too disturbing," Andy told another newspaper in a rare 1999 interview. "We showed it to some people in Hollywood who said: 'This is a bad idea. I can't make this. I'm rich.' "

The brothers had to cut their 1996 lesbian thriller, "Bound," after test audiences walked out of a graphic sex scene and a violent sequence in which a character's finger was sliced off with pruning shears.

"The fun is in bending and twisting convention," Andy said in the interview.

The fun, for them, is also avoiding the press. Since starting work on the first "Matrix" in 1999, the brothers have refused to do any publicity. They have a clause in their contract that they wouldn't be photographed or quoted in any promotional material for "The Matrix Reloaded" or the third installment of the trilogy, "The Matrix Revolutions," due Nov. 5.

"They love everything about moviemaking except one thing: the press," "Matrix" producer Joel Silver told USA Today. "They want their films to do the talking for them."

That press paranoia seems to extend to others - family member Julie Wachowski, reached in Chicago, hung up yesterday on a Post reporter, shouting "We don't talk to the press."

Nor do they mingle much: On the set of "The Matrix Reloaded," crew were reportedly instructed not to talk to the brothers and to keep at least 20 feet away from them.

The secretive siblings grew up in Chicago and still have homes in the city's tony Andersonville neighborhood.

Their mother, Lynne, who still resolves arguments between the brothers, was a nurse-turned-expressionist painter (whose work's been described as "bursts of color and monsters").

Their father, Ronald, owned a machinery-importing business. On weekends, the family would go on "movie orgies" where they'd see three pictures a day.

The brothers became obsessed with comic books and "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy as teens, creating their own comics, writing in longhand on legal pads, passing dialogue back and forth to each other.

After dropping out of college (Larry went to Bard College in upstate New York, Andy to Emerson College in Boston), the brothers moved back to Chicago and set up a housepainting and carpentry business. Their final project: a home for their parents.

After moving to L.A. in the early '90s, they painted mansions in the Hollywood Hills until they read about how low-budget director Roger Corman financed his own movies.

That inspired them to write "Carnivore," which may have repelled investors but attracted Dino De Laurentiis, who hired them to write "Assassins," the Sylvester Stallone-Antonio Banderas action movie. The Wachowskis tried taking their names off that flop after the studio altered the movie.

At that point, they nearly quit the movies, but they were determined to combine their interest in philosophy and martial arts, spending years refining the idea behind "The Matrix."

To convince the execs at Warner Bros. to finance the movie, the brothers hired cartoonists to make a 600-page comic book which became the visual blueprint for the movie.

Despite their enormous success - "Reloaded" made $93.3 million over the weekend and they've personally taken home $10 million-plus - the brothers stay close to their Chicago roots. Although they both own homes in Venice Beach, Calif., they avoid the Hollywood scene as much as possible.

"They threw a party for the cast and crew of 'The Matrix' at their house, but they haven't done anything this year," says Susan Hurst, a Chicago neighbor who's yet to meet them.

"I just hear reports from their family and other neighbors," she said. "They really keep to themselves."

The Matrix show descends on London

by Keily Oakes
BBC News entertainment staff

Keanu Reeves was protected from the elements by a Matrix umbrella

The savvy marketing people did not miss a trick at the UK première of The Matrix Reloaded movie - ordering in a stack of branded umbrellas just in case.

And, as predictable as the British weather can be, the heavens opened as the stars began to arrive for the screening in London's Leicester Square.

The rain fell for the entire hour that it took the celebrities to walk the black carpet - which cannily replaced the traditional red as its the colour of much of the merchandise around the movie.

Thousands of fans lined Leicester Square patiently waiting to catch a glimpse of their sci-fi heroes.

Unfortunately, many would have left without seeing the movie's main stars, just their flashy cars which drove past a vast throng of would-be spectators.

Missing

There were also interviews conducted by BBC Radio 1 DJ Colin Murray who did his best to try to collar the celebrities who were attending the screening.

The absence of girl/boy bands, and reality TV contestants and strictly C-list celebrities from the guest list was noted - perhaps the organisers had managed to keep them away. Producer Joel Silver seemed genuinely pleased to be in London But the fans were really there to see the stars of the movie and they were there in abundance.

The only major actor missing from the line-up was pregnant Carrie-Ann Moss, who plays Trinity, who did not make the trip to London with the rest of the cast.

Lawrence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving and Jada Pinkett Smith all had a word for the crowd who had turned out to see them. But some seemed slightly jet-lagged and unusually reticent about talking about themselves and their movie for movie stars.

Keanu Reeves himself is not known for being a great interviewee, with his shy manner and monosyllabic answers, and he just repeated what a great experience it had been working on the movie while looking embarrassed.

Ecstatic

But nobody was really there to see him talk, the screams of the female fans as he walked past was testament to that.

And the star attraction for the evening was the consummate professional, going out of his way to sign as many autographs as time would allow and touching as many of his admirers as possible. Lawrence Fishburne, Jada Pinkett Smith and Keanu Reeves attended the UK screening

But some of the stars did seem ecstatic to be the centre of attention, including British twins Neil and Adrian Raymond, who play the albino villains in the movie.

After a meteoric rise to fame the pair, who wore matching purple suits and orange shirts, already look every inch the Hollywood stars as they kept their sunglasses on even in the rain.

Sunny

The Rayments, who graduated from TV handymen to action heroes, were humbled to be part of the Matrix bandwagon that has seen them travel the world filming and promoting the film.

And producer Joel Silver, who as one of the biggest in the business is probably richer than all the stars, appeared to be truly excited about being in London.

With a smile fixed on his face, he said: "I'm sorry it's so rainy but it feels like a sunny day to me."

And with the final part of the trilogy opening in just six months time the Matrix rollercoaster could once more grace London. And hopefully next time the umbrellas will stay firmly folded.

Under the Matrix influence

By Stephen Dowling
BBC News Online entertainment staff

The Matrix philosophy is taken seriously by some film fans

As the long-awaited The Matrix Reloaded premières in the UK, BBC News Online examines its cult status.

When The Matrix hit cinema screens in mid-1999, the sci-fi film community were waiting with bated breath for George Lucas' belated return to the Star Wars universe.

But come the end of the year, as film critics and moviegoers totted up their best of the year lists, The Phantom Menace was appearing in the year's great turkeys, not triumphs.

The Matrix, however, had made an enormous impact.

It was not hard to see why. When the Wachowski Brothers' big-budget debut appeared on screen, it instantly added a handful of iconic moments to cinema history, and has become a major influence.

Its heroes were almost impossibly cool, its premise both simple and brain-boggling, its design and special effects familiar and groundbreaking at the same time.

The Matrix took place in a dark future, where evil machines had enslaved the human race and cocooned them in pods, plugging them into a gigantic virtual reality.

What is 'real life' for the humans is just an illusion, created to keep their brains active while the machines milk energy from the cerebral cortex.

Eye-popping

Hero Neo, (Keanu Reeves), has been chosen as the leader of a group of breakaway rebels intent on overpowering their robotic overlords and saving the human race. He is an unwilling messiah with no inkling of his powers.

On the face of it, the Matrix's plot was no different to a raft of dystopian, the-machines-have-taken-over sci-fi flicks.

But on screen it was different.

Neo's ability to move inside The Matrix (ie the apparent real world) and defy its physical laws led to some of the film's most eye-popping moments.

The Wachowski Brothers pioneered the use of a device called flo-mo - a set up of dozens of still cameras arranged around a subject so that actors seemed to stop in mid air while the cameras wheeled around them.

First seen when the rebel Trinity (Carrie Anne Moss) beats up a 'virtual' police officer at the start of the film, it was pure visual poetry. And it is a line that has been cribbed time and again.

In Charlie's Angels, Cameron Diaz floats through the air while the cameras flo-mo around her.

Fluid design

Even Shrek, the animated adventure featuring a giant green ogre, used the effect - though for laughs.

Though The Matrix owed its martial arts fight scenes to respected choreographer Woo-ping Yuen, it in turn allowed an Asian fight film an audience it might not have had - the fight scenes in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon owe plenty to the film's balletic fight scenes.

Just as Star Wars led to a raft of imitations, so other film-makers have picked up on The Matrix's dark production design, kung fu choreography.

The most blatant of these, it seemed, was this year's Equilibrium, starring Christian Bale, whose characters even wore long black leather coats like Reeves' Neo.

It is not just the influence the film has had on other films, however. The fluid design and 'bullet-time effect' (where bullets zip by in slow motion) has been used in computer games such as Max Payne.

Philosophical ideas

The Matrix's complex philosophy - one drawing on everything from Christianity to Buddhism and the laws of higher mathematics - has reached out to fans in a way, for example, The Lord of the Rings or the Terminator films, could only dream of.

Not since Star Wars has a film's guiding philosophy been taken so seriously.

Despite Hollywood's caution at religious movies (young moviegoers are not supposed to be into spiritual films), the Matrix managed to promote them alongside other ideas to which teenagers could relate.

These are 'outsiderness', choice, responsibility, faith in oneself, as well as the fear of technology and authority.

The Matrix's success in taking complex philosophical ideas and presenting it in way palatable for impressionable minds, may after all, be its most influential aspect.