Reloaded swipes another $14.7m for Warner

Jeremy Kay in Los Angeles 24 June 2003 04:00

The Matrix Reloaded kept up its fine international form over the weekend as it grossed an estimated $14.7m from 6,700 international screens and drew 2.5m admissions.

The sci-fi sequel’s international running total is now $377m.

The film held on to its number one position for the third consecutive week in Japan, adding $6.4m (Yen 763m) from 630 screens for a $52.9m running total (Yen 6.3bn).

The Japanese weekend drew 529,611 admissions and represented a 28% drop from the previous weekend.

Get fit with Keanu

by Ceri Gould, The Western Mail

Bored of aerobics? Try the Matrix Reloaded workout - it's the hottest new gym trend ... and you don't even need a black mac...

THE Matrix Reloaded is a smash at the Box Office but it's also becoming a bit of a fad at the gym.

Fitness chiefs reckon that Keanu's gravity-defying moves can be tweaked to give you the perfect all-over workout.

We asked Fitness First experts to devise a routine so that we can get the reloaded body at home - but we're afraid getting a Keanu for the home is out of the question ...

To run like Keanu you need stamina. To add a cardiovascular element to your workout, experts at Fitness First Cardiff West suggest the following exercise: run on the spot for 10 seconds, then jump in the air, and land in the lunge position (with one leg in front, with the knee bent at up to 90 degrees, and the other leg out behind to stabilise you). Jump back to run on the spot, and continue until you can't go on.

For dodging bullets by bending over backwards, you need ... strong abs

Remember the amazing scene (in the original) where Neo (Keanu Reeves's character) fell back in slow motion to avoid the bullets? It has inspired this exercise. Obviously, you won't be able to do it quite like Keanu without a special-effects machine.

How to:

Lie on an exercise ball, so that the ball is supporting your lower back. Keep your knees at a 90-degree angle, your feet flat on the floor, and keep your head in line with the rest of your spine, as above. Raise your arms, take a ball from your training partner, and lie back, taking the ball over your head. Draw your abs in, exhale and, with straight arms, crunch forward, raising your shoulders off the supporting ball to give the smaller ball you are holding back to your partner.

To punch your way out of a tighter corner you need ... to practise jabs and crosses.

This is an age-old fighting skill, but one still applicable when facing futuristic monsters. Speed is what's important here.

How to:

How to: Holding small weights, take up the Standard Boxing Stance, with hands raised in the "guard" position. Put one foot forward and one back (if right-handed, start with the right foot forward) with your weight distributed evenly between your feet. Jab straight forward with your leading hand, then, swivelling your body so that your back heel comes off the floor, throw a "cross" punch with the other hand.

To tackle the bad guys with high kicks, you need ... strength in all your thigh muscles.

Balance and control is the basis of all martial-arts kicking. This will help you with both.

How to:

How to: Stand with your feet directly beneath your hips, and your hands raised in the "guard" position, as left.

Raise your right knee in front of you, then swivel it out to the side and kick out at hip height. Bring your knee back to the centre, then lower your foot. Repeat to the other side.

To jump across rooftops, you need ... power in your thigh muscles.

Your quads and hamstrings are where the explosive power in your legs comes from.

How to:

How to: Stand with your feet more than hip width apart, with a football in front of you. Sit backwards into a squat, keeping your knees over your heels. Don't lean forward. Pick up the ball and then, pushing through your heels, jump up from the squat position, as above. Sink back into a squat, put down the ball, and jump, this time raising your arms above your head.

To develop the core strength you need for side-kicks you must work the outer thigh and bottom muscles.

In the films, the ability to side-kick is key.

How to:

How to: Stand with feet more than hip-width apart, sink into a squat as above (either alone or holding your training partner's hands, as above), then come up and kick one leg to the side at waist-level. Repeat, kicking with the other leg.

Community Snapshot

06/23/03

What do Beaverton's new connections to Keanu Reeves and Linus Torvalds say about the city?

Reeves is among Hollywood's hottest actors. Neo in this summer's blockbuster "The Matrix Reloaded," Reeves soon will head to Beaverton to shoot the film "Thumbsucker" -- (with Matthew McConaughey). Reeves plays the understanding orthodontist of an awkward teenager. The seven-week shoot begins July 9 and takes place in Beaverton and Vernonia in Washington County, and Trillium Lake in the Mount Hood National Forest.

Torvalds is the big daddy of Linux. The popular operating system is considered a challenger to Microsoft. Torvalds will work with Beaverton's Open Source Development Lab, testing features on the operating system he developed as a university student. He'll still call California home, but his business cards will come from the Beaverton lab.

How do you think these moves reflect on Beaverton? With top dogs in movies and high-tech tied to projects in the city, has the Portland suburb come of age? Is this just another step toward greatness for a city that already claims Nike and Tektronix among its world-known names? Or will the city be lucky to be left with a "Keanu slept here" sign at the Shilo Inn and a "Linus sat here" sign in one of the city's nondescript boardrooms?

%%bodybegins%%Tell us what you think. We'd like to publish your response. To reply by e-mail, send responses to west@news.oregonian.com. To use The Oregonian's Inside Line, a free service inside the local calling area, dial 503-225-5555 from a touch-tone telephone, then enter category number 6689. Responses will be published in next Thursday's Washington County Weekly. %%head%%METROWEST STAFF %%endhead%% %%bodybegins%%The MetroWest News Bureau is in the Cedar Hills Shopping Center at 10100 S.W. Park Way, Portland, OR 97225. Here is how to reach us (all area codes are 503):

General news: 294-5950 or 297-8861; fax: 203-1813 Hillsboro office: 640-9364, fax: 615-5775 Jerry Casey, bureau chief, 294-5952; or jerrycasey@news.oregonian.com Kathleen Gorman, Hillsboro area assistant bureau chief, 294-5929; or kathleengorman@news.oregonian.com Karen Pate, Beaverton area assistant bureau chief, 294-5953; or karenpate@news.oregonian.com David Anderson, Hillsboro area news, 221-4388; or davidanderson@news.oregonian.com Esmeralda Bermudez, general assignment, 294-5962; or ebermudez@news.oregonian.com Nicole Chvatal, Beaverton news clerk, 294-5963; or nicolechvatal@news.oregonian.com Richard Colby, Beaverton area news, 294-5961; or dickcolby@news.oregonian.com Shirley Dang, schools and youth issues, 294-5956; or shirleydang@news.oregonian.com Holly Danks, public safety, 294-5934; or hollydanks@news.oregonian.com Aaron Fentress, Washington County prep sports, 294-5954; or aaronfentress @news.oregonian.com Ryan Frank, business news, 294-5955; or ryanfrank@news.oregonian.com Laura Gunderson, county government and transportation, 294-5958; or lauragunderson @news.oregonian.com Patrick Harrington, courts and corrections, 221-4377; or pharrington@news.oregonian.com Michelle Mandel, people and lifestyles, 294-5959; or michellemandel@news.oregonian.com Laura Oppenheimer, growth and development issues, 294-5957; or loppenheimer@news.oregonian.com Paige Parker, schools and youth issues, 294-5199; or paigeparker@news.oregonian.com. John Snell, Community news, 294-5949; or johnsnell@news.oregonian.com Jill Smith, community news, 294-5908; or jillsmith@news.oregonian.com Dana Olsen, MetroWest photo staff, 294-5962

The Matrix Reloaded gross

The Matrix: Reloaded is running out of ammo. It appears the movie has been big, but not as big as Village and its 50-50 partner, AOL Time Warner, hoped.

It has grossed $US257.5 million ($383 million) in the US, and $US347 million outside the US, including $US44 million in Japan.

A total gate of between $US800 million and $US900 million is possible. That would put the movie in a list of top 10 all-time grosses but it would be less than the $US1 billion-plus payday targeted. About 45 per cent of the gross will stay with exhibitors, reducing the Warner-Village partnership's take to $US440 million-$US495 million.

Village and Warner paid about $US220 million to make The Matrix: Reloaded and the final episode of the trilogy, The Matrix: Revolutions. Marketing for The Matrix: Reloaded was immense and would have pushed the total cost out towards $US300 million.

That leaves between $US140 million and $195 million, from which comes percentages paid to the stars, director, producer etc. The big payment goes to Keanu Reeves, who reportedly received $US30 million (15 per cent of after-costs gross) for reprising his character, Neo.

Deduct it all down and the theatrical release of The Matrix: Reloaded could deliver between $US100 million and $US135 million to the Warner-Village movie-making partnership. More profits will be booked from sales of DVDs, videos, computer games etc.

The partnership is more than halfway through a 40-plus film deal, after which profits and losses are netted out.

So there's a way to go. But there is added pressure on November's release of The Matrix: Revolutions.

Beaverton Goes Hollywood

Feature Film Shoot Coming Soon

BEAVERTON, Ore. -- Keanu Reeves and Matthew McConaughey are set to begin shooting a new film in Beaverton, possibly as soon as July 9, according to movies.com.
The film, "Thumbsucker," an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Walter Kirn, will bring more than just heartthrobs to Oregon. It's the estimated $1.5 million in revenue that has state legislators excited.

Friday, on a Northwest Portland soundstage, Gov. Ted Kulongoski and some of the film's producers announced the upcoming plans for "Thumbsucker."

Beaverton and Washington County officials said they only found out recently about the filming.

Kulongoski is excited about the prospect of filming more movies in Oregon, and praised the vastness and variety of Oregon locations. Recent blockbusters filmed in Oregon include "The Hunted," "Bandits," and "Men of Honor."

"Thumbsucker" is the story of a teen with a thumb-sucking problem who turns to his orthodontist (Reeves) and his debate coach (McConaughey) for help.

Movies.com reported that Vincent D'Onofrio will also appear in the film, and rottentomatoes.com lists Elijah Wood as a cast member, as well.

Hollywood, Oregon?

By AP Wire Story

(Portland-AP) -- Governor Kulongoski wants Hollywood to come to Oregon.

Sort of.

The governor has found a way to lighten Oregon's budget woes: using a "strategic investment program" to lure film productions to the state.

His flagship project is "Thumbsucker," a drama based on Walter Kim's novel. It stars such big names as Keanu Reeves, Matthew McConaughey and Vincent D'Onofrio.

The three (m) million dollar production begins shooting in Beaverton in July.

The state plans to offer the film's makers a ten percent rebate on their spending. That's provided they drop at least one (m) million dollars into Oregon's economy.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press.All Rights Reserved.)

Keanu and Ted's excellent adventure

Shelly Strom

Keanu Reeves, Matthew McConaughey, Tilda Swinton and Vincent D'Onofrio top the cast headed to Oregon to make a feature film. Gov. Ted Kulongoski announced Friday that an adaptation of Walter Kirn's novel, "Thumbsucker," will be filmed in Beaverton.

"Film and video productions provide high-wage, skilled jobs and bring new outside money into local communities, providing a direct and sizable impact on local economies," Kulongoski said. "This recruitment is a success story for our state. Like 'The Hunted,' 'Bandits' and other films recently produced in Oregon, it helps show Hollywood and the rest of the world that our stunning natural scenery, thriving urban areas and friendly, picturesque communities make Oregon the perfect place to shoot a blockbuster film."

Most recently, director Gus Van Sant filmed the yet-to-be-released feature "Elephant" in Portland.

Thumbsucker, directed by Mike Mills, will provide jobs for at least 75 local film and video crew people and approximately 300 actors and extras, according to Kulongoski.

Name actors such as Keanu Reeves and Matthew McConaughey can help bring more attention to the viability of producing film in Oregon when the movie is released.

Recruitment of this production shows the importance of both a strong Film Office presence and incentives to make Oregon a competitive location to capitalize on such opportunities, according to Kulongoski.

A film production incentive plan pending in the Oregon Legislature would offer film productions a 10 percent rebate on their spending in Oregon, up to a maximum rebate of $250,000, or $30,000 per episode for a television show. No payments would be made to a film company until after the film has created jobs, spent money in Oregon and submitted paperwork to prove the level of spending. The bill has passed the Senate and is before the House Revenue Committee.

Kulongoski authorized use of monies from his Strategic Reserve Fund to provide a production incentive to bring the film to Oregon.

The state competed against Vancouver, B.C., where the Canadian government offers labor cost rebates and tax credit incentives.

Production on "Thumbsucker" is slated to start July 9 and will continue for seven weeks in the vicinity of Beaverton. The film will be produced by This is That Inc.'s Anthony Bregman and Bob Stephenson of Cinema-Go-Go.

Contact Shelly Strom at 503-219-3414 or by e-mail at sstrom@bizjournals.com.

© 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.

Stuntmen Get Physical With Digital

How computer technology has changed the wild world of movie stunts.

Watch Monday 6/23 at 10 a.m., 6 p.m. Eastern.

By Scott Warren, Tech Live
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Falls and fires, punches and car jumps, tricks on top of motorcycles and horses, they're all part of a stunt professional's daily grind.

Not much changed in the industry for decades. That is, of course, until the computer came along. Tonight on "Tech Live," see how a computer can alter the outcome of a staged stunt and help make a movie more memorable.

"Visual effects have changed our industry -- totally changed it," says Chad Stahelski, the stuntman who doubled Keanu Reeves in the "Matrix Reloaded."

All wired up

"If you watch the park fight scene in 'Reloaded' we have eight or nine guys on wires at once, all interacting so there's no cuts," he continues, referring to the nonstop action behind the stunt.

Like the entire film series itself, many of the stunts in the "Matrix" trilogy would have been impossible before the advent of digital effects.

Now, nearly every action picture has a stunt person flying or falling, using some sort of wire rig. The camera picks up the wire, but computers can now erase them in post-production.

In "Terminator 2," big cables flew Arnold Schwarzenegger's Harley across the Los Angeles River. Jack Gill was the stunt coordinator on the film. It opened his eyes to the power of computers.

"After it was all over," Gill says, "I sat there with this computer guy and said, 'So how long will it take to paint that out?' And he said, 'About five seconds.'"

Computers killing stuntmen?

Digital effects go further than erasing the wires that support death-defying stunts. They can replace stunt people all together.

In a scene from "Titanic," a person falls off the monstrous ship, as it begins to sink stern over bow. Stuntman Brett Jones, who appeared in "Wind Talkers," says it would have been a stunt that was impossible for a human to do.

"The guy fell off the back of the ship and hit the propeller on the way down," Jones says of the next-to-impossible stunt. "You couldn't do that without the assistance of the computer, at least not in a wide shot. I think camera tricks can only go so far. CG is alright, it has its place."

But if stunt-folk are afraid of losing their jobs to computers, they can take solace in the opinion of Jack Gill. He says that while special effects have eliminated the need for stunt people in some scenes, there's even more work now for some stunt professionals.

After all, with bigger, badder computers come bigger and badder stunts.

Can't live without 'em

"It did take away some of the business," he says, "but it also provided jobs for a lot of cable-riggers. Most of the movies I do now, I keep between five and six cable riggers with me all the time."

April Weeden-Washington is the stuntwoman for Halle Berry in the movie "Swordfish." She believes there will always be a place for stunt people in movies, computer or not.

She says, "I think with digital (technology), everyone's afraid that it's going to take over but I don't think so. "They're always going to need someone somewhere."

And the stunts in film will continue to get more daring, packing more and more action into films all the time. Posted June 20, 2003

News Article: People Continue to Enter The Matrix

News Date: 06/19/2003
Source: Press Release

Worldwide sales have now reached 2.5 million.

ENTER THE MATRIX JOINS ATARI'S "MORE THAN 2.5 MILLION SOLD" CLUB

Fastest-selling Title in Company's History

London - June 19, 2003 - In little more than a month on store shelves, Atari's Enter The Matrix has sold through 2.5 million units in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan), making it the 14th - and fastest-selling - title/franchise in the Atari catalogue to cross this sales threshold.

Enter The Matrix joins the following Atari titles/franchises which have surpassed sales of 2.5 million units: Driver, RollerCoaster Tycoon, Civilization, Monopoly, Test Drive, Unreal, Dragon Ball Z, V-Rally, Backyard Sports, Deer Hunter, Tonka, Putt Putt, and Freddi Fish.

"Having a hit title right out of the box is enormously gratifying but seeing the steady worldwide demand for Enter The Matrix is even more compelling," said Bruno Bonnell, Chairman and CEO of Atari. "We have a long history of multi-million selling games, and our experience tells us that titles with this level of sales success typically have a long shelf life. From what we have seen to date, Enter The Matrix is right on course."

Enter The Matrix is a third-person action game that parallels Warner Bros. Pictures' and Village Roadshow Pictures' action blockbuster, The Matrix Reloaded, the second chapter in the Wachoswki Brothers' revolutionary film trilogy. The game hit stores May 15 in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific for the PlayStation2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox video game system from Microsoft, the Nintendo GameCube and the PC. Enter The Matrix will be available in Japan on June 19.

Developed by award-winning Shiny Entertainment (an Atari studio), Enter The Matrix is a revolution in interactive entertainment, a game that effectively blurs the line between Hollywood blockbuster films and next-generation video games. The game is directed by and features a script written by the Wachowski Brothers, writers/directors of The Matrix movie trilogy, creating the most intensive collaboration between a video game publisher and a movie studio to date.

Enter The Matrix includes approximately one hour of never-before-seen footage - shot exclusively for the game - using the actors, sets and crew from the blockbuster film, The Matrix Reloaded. In addition, the game features an hour of cineractives, directed by the Wachowskis and rendered within the game engine to help tell the epic story of Enter The Matrix.

Reported by: Lasse Pallesen

Psst! Beaverton's going Hollywood

06/20/03

MICHELLE MANDEL

BEAVERTON -- It's a secret. That's what the governor's office wants us to think. At least until 10:30 a.m. today, when Gov. Ted Kulongoski officially spills all the oh-so-juicy details at Cine Rent West soundstage in Northwest Portland.

Except, the news has already hit Daily Variety, a Hollywood trade publication. Which means it's hardly under wraps.

So here goes: Keanu Reeves and Matthew McConaughey, two of Hollywood's hottest hotties, have signed on for the movie "Thumbsucker," which starts filming July 9.

In Beaverton.

OK, shriek. Get it out of your system. Salivate about possible Keanu and Matthew sightings.

Where they'll be, we don't know. Probably at a school, though. Variety says "Thumbsucker" is the story of an anxious teen with a serious thumb-sucking habit who turns to the only sensible people he knows: an orthodontist (Reeves) and a high school debate coach (McConaughey).

The governor, apparently, is pretty puffed up about the recruitment of another major film to shoot in Oregon. The last brought "The Hunted" and its stars, Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro, to Portland.

Beaverton hasn't exactly been a hotbed for Hollywood entertainment -- though history shows filmmakers liked the city in the 1920s.

"Flames of Passion," billed as a Northwest melodrama, was made here and distributed in 1923. In it, the manager of a Northwest lumber camp discovers a plot to delay a shipment of logs, then gets in a tiff with his girlfriend's father, before rescuing both from a forest fire.

It was hardly a blockbuster. Probably because Keanu and Matthew were two generations from birth, let alone the big screen.

This we know from Variety: Bull's Eye Entertainment is financing and producing "Thumbsucker." Mike Mills wrote the screenplay based on a novel by Walter Kirn. Tilda Swinton and Vincent D'Onofrio also have joined the ensemble cast.

Beyond that, everything else is pretty much a mystery. Beaverton and Washington County officials had no clue a major film was coming.

But Mayor Rob Drake had something official to say about it: He's for the economic boost, but against closing any major roads for filming.

"There's an upside and a downside to it," Drake said. "If you live in Aloha and are coming from Portland, you don't care if it's a movie."

Maybe that's because Drake's a guy, and guys don't get Keanu and Matthew.

Joyce Storms, Drake's assistant, does.

"She said, 'If they come, I'm taking the day off,' " Drake said. David R. Anderson of The Oregonian contributed to this report.

How the stars stay in shape: Keanu Reeves

Jun 19 2003

By The Journal

This week we find out how Hollywood heart-throb Keanu Reeves stays in shape.

Thirty-eight-year-old Keanu (it's Hawaiian for 'Cool Breeze from the mountains') was born in Beirut, but after his father walked out when he was two, the family bounced from Australia to New York before settling in Toronto, where his English mum, Patricia, designed costumes for singing stars, including Dolly Parton.

Since he starred as a macho cop in the blockbuster Speed, he's been offered almost every action movie going. His role as Neo in the two Matrix sequels makes him the highest-paid actor in Hollywood, as he commands a staggering $206m for the movies.

Framework

His 6ft 1in body is covered in scars thanks to his insisting on riding his motorbike too fast, and without a crash helmet. A near-fatal bike crash 12 years ago has left him with an 18-inch scalpel incision running down his torso; they had to remove his spleen. Despite his many accidents, he still roars around town, flouting the law and refusing to wear a crash helmet, calling the rule "petty government c***."

Exercise

For the film Speed, he shed his greasy grunge look and pumped himself up to become a crew-cut, hard-muscled hunk. "I wanted my chest and arms to be beefy," he says. "I linked up with an Olympic gymnastic trainer and alternated weight training with aerobics. I play a lot of basketball and ice-hockey, and ride horses at the LA Equestrian Centre in Burbeck. I also like ballroom dancing."

For the The Matrix sequels, he spent months training to do the aerial fight scenes.

Diet

"I don't take liberties with what I eat, but, generally, I like lots of chicken, pasta, rice and vegetables. I eat three good meals a day, but small portions. I also like the occasional beer and wine."

Love Life

He's had lots of girlfriends - including Lori Petty, Paula Abdul, Sandra Bullock, Rachel Weisz and Kate Beckinsale.

He was briefly engaged to Amanda de Cadenet. Though he has been voted one of the sexiest men alive, he prefers to dress in woolly hats and dilapidated jeans.

Warner Brothers to invest in Paradise Cinema

Wednesday, 18 June , 2003, 08:55

Shanghai: US film giant Warner Brothers is preparing to invest in Shanghai's Paradise Cinema, the first foreign film company to do so, state press reported Wednesday.

Warner Bros will hold a 49 percent stake in the joint venture with the remaining shares going to Paradise Film City Company, the Shanghai Daily reported, citing unnamed officials.

The year-old Paradise Cinema, located in Shanghai's downtown Xujiahui district, will be renamed "ParaWarn Cinema", the report said.

Box office collections at Paradise ranked second in Shanghai, after Studio City, the city's leading movie theatre.

If all goes well, a deal will be announced on July 12 at the premier of "The Matrix Reloaded" - Warner Brothers' latest blockbuster, the report said.

The premiere was scheduled for May 29 in Shanghai two weeks after its worldwide release in the US but the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome delayed plans.

"We meant to invite Keanu Reeves for the May local debut but now it's impossible," said Paradise marketing manager Xu Xiaomeng.

The report did not say how much the deal is worth.

Reeves just likes to jam

Reeves just likes to jam 17/06/2003 - 12:43:20 pm

He may be the world's hottest action man but Keanu Reeves loves his music.

He took time out from his heavy schedule promoting "The Matrix Reloaded" to take in an obscure blues band playing at a Santa Monica club recently.

He couldn't have been happier when they asked him onstage where he happily played the harmonica for over an hour with the group.

Later, the star took all four-band members to a late-night dinner at a local greasy spoon.

Weaving gets discovered in an alternate reality

By BRUCE NEWMAN
Knight Ridder Newspapers

LOS ANGELES -- In The Matrix Reloaded, our hero Neo receives several gifts, including an earpiece attached to a coiled wire. This telex was the piece of equipment that connected Neo's arch-nemesis to the Matrix -- a computer-generated synthetic world -- and its arrival can mean just one thing:

Agent Smith unplugged!

Smith is played by Australian actor Hugo Weaving, who also plays Elrond in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Weaving's face is far better known than his name, but that may be changing. By early next year, after the release of The Matrix Revolutions in November and the Ring's epic finale, Return of the King in December, the combined box office grosses of Weaving's movies could challenge Harrison Ford's.

In The Matrix, Agent Smith was the embodiment of the machines' determination to control their vast operating system. As the movie's hero, Keanu Reeves wore Neo's rectitude bolt-upright, as if his cassock had come back from the cleaners too heavily starched. As created by writer-directors Larry and Andy Wachowski, Agent Smith was the perfect foil for an actor who was a bit of a stiff.

Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving, left) returns to take on Neo (Keanu Reeves) in The Matrix Reloaded. Smith is a piece of software who has become liberated from the Matrix. He is a program so far past his use-by date that new agents -- Neo calls them "upgrades" -- have been dispatched from the Mainframe to take over for him. In Reloaded, Agent Smith has even begun to have human feelings such as anger and ego. "He's changing quite a lot," Weaving says. "His ego grew to such an extent that he couldn't bear not to hide out in the Matrix and kill Neo."

And he's not particularly fussy how he does it. For reasons that aren't completely clear, in Reloaded Smith has developed the nasty habit of sticking his hand into people's chest cavities. This turns out to be far more annoying than having a finger repeatedly poked in your chest, and leaves his victims -- among them Neo -- looking like hot fudge sundaes.

"I don't know, technically, quite how that happens," Weaving says. "To me, he's become like a computer virus. And I think that's actually what's happening. He's taking over other programs."

Before taking over the character, Weaving had to come up with just the right user interface. He spent a lot of time getting Smith's voice just right. "I wanted him to sound kind of human, but not really," he says, "like a news-reader." Weaving says he borrowed bits of Spock from the Star Trek Vulcan, and HAL from the artificial intelligence voice of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

But when it came to finding a model for the character's distinctive way of verbally burrowing into other people's heads, Weaving looked no further than Larry and Andy Wachowski, the films' writer-directors. "They wrote the character, so I figured there's a lot of them in him," Weaving says. "I think quite a lot of their vocal qualities injected themselves into Smith."

Weaving was not well-known outside Australia before The Matrix was released. He had received good notices five years earlier for his performance as Mitzi Del Bra in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and parlayed that into a voice role as Rex the Male Sheepdog in Babe.

But his life changed when Matrix producer Barrie Osborne signed on to produce the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and asked Weaving to play Elrond. Suddenly Weaving found himself with significant roles in two of the most successful movie franchises in history.

Because of the martial arts training required for The Matrix movies, Weaving spent three years working on that trilogy and a bit less than that on Lord of the Rings, in which he has a relatively smaller role. Remarkably, the production schedules of this sprawling sextet of films rarely overlapped, with a lengthy location shoot in Sydney -- where Weaving lives with his family -- for The Matrix, Reloaded and Revolutions.

After filming the fight scene in which 100 Agent Smiths fight with Neo in Reloaded, he raced off to New Zealand to do re-shoots for The Two Towers, the second installment of The Lord of the Rings triptych.

"They were very time-consuming projects, particularly as I wasn't involved in the shooting every day," he says. "I couldn't really go off and do anything else." So he sat around and just waited for stardom to arrive.

Nicholson leads ensemble having fun in the Hamptons

Liz Smith

Originally published June 16, 2003

OH, YES, they're having a hot time in the Hamptons. Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Keanu Reeves and Amanda Peet have been filming the much-talked-about Nancy Meyers' "Christmas project" - that is, a movie with no title yet. These biggies rented houses in the Hamptons, and they filmed all over the place, including the mansions on Meadow Lane. Now the stars are in Manhattan briefly before going to Paris. Nancy dreamed up this Christmastime project for Columbia after being divorced from her director-husband, Chuck Shyer, some years back. She'd rented a house in Sagaponack to recuperate and had an idea about an ad guy, 63, dating a young beauty, 29. She takes him home to mother, 55, on Long Island. A stint in the Southampton hospital brings them all together with a handsome doctor, 30.

Guess what happens next? Some people call this "The Older Woman's Revenge," but I'm sure they'll think of something better to name it for the marquee. Meyers' credits include What Women Want, Private Benjamin, Father of the Bride and comedies of that ilk.

He's Off the Hook

June 16, 2003

'Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens, we have to keep going back and beginning all over again," wrote the scribe Andre Gide.

OH, YES, they're having a hot time in the Hamptons. Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Keanu Reeves and Amanda Peet have been filming the much-talked-about Nancy Meyers' "Christmas project" - that is, a movie with no title yet. These biggies rented houses in the Hamptons, and they filmed all over the place, including the mansions on Meadow Lane.

Now the stars are in Manhattan briefly before going to Paris. Nancy dreamed up this Christmastime project for Columbia after being divorced from her director-husband, Chuck Shyer, some years back. She'd rented a house in Sagaponack to recuperate and had an idea about an ad guy, 63, dating a young beauty, 29. She takes him home to mother, 55, on Long Island. A stint in the Southampton hospital brings them all together with a handsome doctor, 30.

Guess what happens next? Some people call this "The Older Woman's Revenge," but I'm sure they'll think of something better to name it for the marquee. Meyers' credits include "What Women Want," "Private Benjamin," "Father of the Bride" and comedies of that ilk.

The Matrix is really loaded

FILM star Keanu Reeves helped British boost cinema bookings to almost 14million last month.

His sci-fi blockbuster The Matrix Reloaded took £20.7million in May. That included £8.9million in its first weekend, the highest opening ever for a 15-certificate film.

Matrix Reloaded, Cadillac Remade

Cadillac reboots its image amid sci-fi action

By Thomas Voehringer

Photography by courtesy of the manufacturerMotor Trend

Nothing is what it seems. In the thematic Matrix universe, data is tangible, reality is virtual, and the mind's power is nearly infinite. In a world of high-gloss, green-tinged special effects, Cadillac believes appearance is everything and the deft product placement in this summer's slickest sci-fi extravaganza may grant the luxury brand more youth appeal than Led Zeppelin's entire back catalog could accomplish.

The depth and diversity of The Matrix blasted conventional ideas of sci-fi moviemaking by using the best of a spectrum of philosophical and dramatic sources woven into a textured, multilevel tale exploring the transcendental nature of human existence and free will. Heady stuff for popular consumption. It doesn't hurt to surround that tale with a very tasty crust of visual candy. An eclectic and rapid-fire assemblage of kung-fu, machine guns, and swordplay tantalize the eye, triggering adrenaline no complex discussion of causation ever could.

Amid the dangerous action, Cadillac scores premium real estate in marketing heaven, putting the American luxury division one step closer to a total makeover of its public perception. For nearly 15 minutes, millions of eyes will be focused on a familiar automotive icon: Cadillac's crest and wreath.

The Matrix Reloaded begins shortly after the conclusion of the original film, pitting heroes Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus against both new and familiar villains. The action centers on Neo and crew halting a mechanized blitzkrieg bent on the destruction of the last bastion of human civilization, Zion. Shutting down the attack requires direct access to the digital world known as the Matrix. Like the typical corporate IT manager, only one man has the knowledge and ability to unlock the portal, the KeyMaker. Spiriting him away from his malevolent host and twin banshee henchmen involves a foot chase that erupts into a sedan vs. SUV shoot 'em up.

Casting two Cadillacs in leading roles required setup both on- and off-camera. Before film was ever loaded, suitable vehicles approved by its auteurs ﾂ・ the Wachowsky Brothers -- had to be found. A tip came into GM about a spot available in Reloaded. It was aggressively pursued by the Cadillac promotions department. Cadillac's general manager, Mark LaNeve, states, "...this is the first time Cadillac has strategically invested and leveraged its products in a major film." Matrix Producer, Joel Silver, puts it a bit more succinctly, "They were so desperate...er, anxious..."

Silver, though, admits that his previous experience with GM has been very good, paving the way for this tie-in. Nearly every vehicle in his 1993 feature "Demolition Man" was a GM concept with the hero car, a stunning red Olds 442, making the film a real treat for observant car enthusiasts. Though itﾂ痴 no longer a concept, at the time of filming, a production CTS was a long way off. Jim Taylor, Vehicle Line Executive for CTS, said that working protoype test vehicles, or "mules," were available for the Wachowski's inspection. They were accepted. But, the Escalade was a more difficult sell. The SUV simply didn't have the right look. Drawings of the proposed EXT, a "sport/utility truck" based on the Avalanche, finally got the nod. Since no EXT had yet been built, Chevy Avalanche prototypes and Escalades donated their chassis for reskinning with fiberglass EXT panels.

Chase scenes are notoriously taxing on vehicles even without gun play. Silver said an axle shaft broke on the very first jump. Vehicle attrition, or the "General Lee Effect," necessitates the procurement of multiple stunt, static, and camera-mount vehicles. Some may only require partial bodies or interiors. GM provided the better part of 24 vehicles in total, 14 CTSs and 10 EXTs, to cover that need. Each was essentially hand-built with work completed by the production crew. Taylor notes that this diversion did not interfere with the CTS production schedule that was further in the future. Interior replicas were the last pieces provided because they had not yet been finalized by Cadillac. At the end of filming only six vehicles remained from the original batch.

Introducing the vehicles into the plot structure begins with the aforementioned foot chase, which terminates in an underground garage housing several vintages of Cadillacs. From this fleet Trinity snatches the sporty silver CTS as her car. The evil banshee twins float into a big, black Escalade EXT for the villain car and the chase begins.

Action proceeds from inner city, to aquaduct, and finally, to the freeway. Here, the CTS, carrying Trinity, Morpheus, and the Keymaker crash, slam, bob, and weave through myriad commuting vehicles in an effort to shake loose the deadly posse that swells to include agents and police officers.

The freeway is the cornerstone of the action sequence. A three-month construction project yielded 1.4 miles of three-lane psuedo-freeway purpose-built for this chase sequence. Cost? Peanuts: about 30 million dollars. Every on-ramp, off-ramp, and overpass (two of each) gets a serious workout leading to a Cadi-clismic conclusion on an overpass. Our heros vacate their bullet-riddled CTS, and Trinity and the Keymaker hitch a ride on a trailer full of new sportbikes. Morpheus remains and lays waste to the Twins and the Caddies. Unfortunately for Cadillac, this is where the chase scene becomes truly exciting. Trinity hot-wires a Ducati 996 motorcycle, jumps it off the trailer, and threads the Keymaker through speeding head-on freeway traffic. While Morpheus had his hands full with an agent, the sudden appearance of another protagonist, Niobe (Jada Pinkett-Smith), in a blue '67 Firebird actually drew cheers from the crowd. Was it the car or the girl? Both. In The Matrix the heros traveled in a '65 Lincoln. It makes a fleeting cameo in Reloaded as well.

The Cadillac/Matrix deal began in 2000, long before automotive ad campaigns and rap videos thrust those aggressive chrome grills into the public consciousness. As a by-product of long post-production and Cadillac's own intensive public awareness program, the wow factor for both vehicles has diminished in 2003. In terms of movie-making, this chase will likely never achieve the cult status of the Mustang/Charger battle in Bullit. It may, however, mark a cultural event horizon in terms of Cadillac's brand evolution. "We no longer want to be exclusively associated with the white-hair crowd," said Cadillac Promotions Manager, Mary Moore. In terms of audience acceptance, Moore, surprisingly, sees little or no active involvement trading on Reloaded promotional opportunities like die-cast vehicles. Being prominent fixtures in a blockbuster adventure may be its own reward, given liberal distribution and the vitality of DVDs. It is certain that when the film launches, more than a million eyes will see not only see the launch of two new GM vehicles, but witness the remaking of an entire brand.

(Review)Matrix Reloaded: 'stunning example of blockbuster filmmaking'

Matrix Reloaded: 'stunning example of blockbuster filmmaking'

By Travis Lowry

In 1999, the original Matrix movie burst on to the scene and instantly became a pop cultural phenomenon. Not only were the special effects truly special and the story one that was somehow simultaneously familiar (a science fiction movie about man vs. machines) and wildly innovative (reality as a giant computer program), but The Matrix also had a terrific gimmick to promote the movie, which always looked cool but was shrouded in secrecy. The ads and the Web site for the movie all asked, "What is the Matrix?" George Lucas didn't stand a chance.

Well, four years and many, many limp sendups later, The Matrix returns and nearly every man, woman and child in the world now knows exactly what the Matrix is. The Matrix: Reloaded has quite an act to follow, and for the most part, the new movie is a stunning example of blockbuster filmmaking and a sequel that doesn't just try to one up its predecessor, but actually attempts to expand and grow on the original to fully flesh out this futuristic world.

Don't get me wrong, The Wachowski Brothers liberally sprinkle the new movie with the ingredients that made the first such a memorable hit. Watch Neo stop not just a few bullets, but an entire firestorm of artillery headed at his torso. Thought Trinity could move in the first one? Wait until you see her here, jumping off buildings and flying through the air on a motorcycle. Reloaded often feels repetitious, and if the film has a failing it's that the story doesn't seem to trust its audience's knowledge of the first movie. Aside from tricks we've already seen, there is also a lot of awkward explanatory dialogue that could have been avoided simply because audiences already know The Matrix's history quite well.

Also returning for the sequel is the philosophical psychobabble that some argue make The Matrix a thinking person's action movie and others argue is simply silly. The Reloaded script fluctuates between fascinating discussions and personal revelations to leaden mumbo-jumbo that may make sense, but appears to be talking for the sake of talking.

However, though the philosophical and religious aspects definitely enhance The Matrix: Reloaded, the movie's stunts, special effects and design are what really make the movie soar. The climactic freeway chase scene is literally breathtaking, with Carrie-Anne Moss hurtling against highway traffic on a motorcycle while being chased by both Agents and the new ghost-like programs the Twins. Neo, who flies now, literally leaves streets turning in his wake, and also fights 100 Agent Smiths in the already famous fight scene.

Everything from the first Matrix has been turned up a notch here; the philosophical discourse, the action, and unfortunately, also Morpheus' preachy preachiness. While he was tolerable in the first film, Fishburne reaches near Heston heights of overacting when he addresses the crowds of Zion before the squiggly sentinels attack. He could very well be condemning the people for creating and worshipping a golden calf. This powerful, booming speech is followed by a giant rave/orgy scene that keeps going and going, creating one of the oddest scenes you will ever see in a mainstream summer movie.

Aside from Fishburne, and his rival who also now happens to be with Morpheus' ex-girlfriend Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), the cast all put in good turns. Reeves and Moss have genuine chemistry together, which could be because they look like fraternal twins. Hugo Weaving and Gloria Foster both come back to basically do the same thing they did in the original, but they play their roles well. Of the newcomers, my favourite character is Persephone, played by Monica Belluci. Her role is one of the weirdest and most dangerous, and she never once picks up a gun or wire-fus someone's ass.

The Matrix: Reloaded suffers from such high expectations by fans that it is doubtful that everyone will leave theatres satisfied. But it is a decent sequel to a good movie which incorporates the traits of the original that made it a classic while expanding on and in some places actually refuting the original's story to create a compelling movie that should keep audiences intrigued and eagerly awaiting the final Matrix movie. Let's hope the chatty and mysterious Colonel Sanders gives us some solid answers about Neo's true role in the saga by then.

Rating: 78%

Celebrity Q&A

Sigourney Weaver is considered sci-fi's No. 1 heroine, but after watching The Matrix Reloaded, I'd vote for Carrie-Anne Moss any time. Why hasn't she become as big a star as Weaver?

With the second in the Matrix series having earned almost $250 million as of last weekend, and the next sequel, The Matrix Revolutions, only five months away, it would seem that Moss' turn at stardom has finally arrived. Now 35, Moss, who was born in Vancouver, was 20 when she parlayed her striking looks and lissome 5-foot-9 figure into a career as a model in Europe. After her first acting experience in TV's Dark Justice, which was shot on location in Spain, she headed for Hollywood to star in a short-lived 1993 series titled, coincidentally, Matrix. Her movie debut in 1994's The Soft Kill didn't catch Hollywood's attention, but her performance as Trinity, Keanu Reeves' love interest, in 1999's The Matrix, did. This led to roles in Memento, Red Planet and Chocolat, in which she played Judi Dench's embittered daughter.

Although Moss will be out of action for a while -- she and her husband, 32-year-old actor Steven Roy, are expecting their first child this fall -- she has completed a movie for release in 2004. Titled Suspect Zero, it's a crime thriller in which she co-stars with Aaron Eckhart and Ben Kingsley.

(Review)Piece of mind

Forget about beginnings, middles, and ends. The new storytelling is about making your way in a fragmented, imaginary world

By Louis Kennedy, Globe Staff, 6/1/2003

I finally get it. I get ''The Matrix.''

No, I'm sorry, I don't get the plot, so please don't ask me to spell it all out for you. I'm just as baffled as the next person when it comes to what's really going on in ''The Matrix: Reloaded'' probably more baffled, because I have not immersed myself deeply in the ''Matrix'' world.

But that's exactly my point. That's what I finally get: This isn't a movie. It's a world.

Those of us who grew up with movies -- and, even more premillennially, with books -- have had some trouble grasping this concept. We have criticized the ''Matrix'' movies for their obscurity, their wooden characters, their confusing story lines, their contradictions and illogic. If we have thought about the ancillary games and animated shorts and other complementary pieces of this larger whole, we have dismissed them as so many marketing tie-ins. We have, in short, completely missed the point.

Because these movies aren't about the things we have spent our lives thinking movies are about -- much less what older forms of storytelling, from theater to novels, are about. They don't much care about character development or plot. They don't care about starting at point A and moving neatly and clearly to point B, with the action motivated and enriched by the believable, carefully portrayed needs and desires of the humans who enact it.

But what they do care about, and deeply, is creating a world -- a rich, multifaceted, and complex environment that the viewer can enter and explore in a variety of ways. That's why the games and the shorts -- and even the whole web of audience response and interpretation that has sprung up on, where else, the Web -- are not just more products for us to buy or fan clubs for us to condescend to, but an integral part of the experience of watching ''The Matrix,'' ''The Matrix: Reloaded,'' and presumably the third movie due this fall, ''The Matrix: Revolutions.'' We can critique the makers of the ''Matrix'' series, Larry and Andy Wachowski, for lots of things, but we should not fall into the trap of calling them bad storytellers. They aren't exactly storytellers at all. They are worldmakers.

''. . . interruption is one of the fundamental devices of all structuring. It goes far beyond the sphere of art. To give only one example, it is the basis of quotation. To quote a text involves the interruption of its context.''

-- Walter Benjamin, ''What Is Epic Theater?''

Let me interrupt myself here to note that this idea of worldmaking isn't mine. I got it from Henry Jenkins, who directs the comparative media studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has written extensively on fan culture and video games. While doing some online research on something completely different, I came across a piece Jenkins wrote a couple of years ago with Mary Fuller, drawing parallels between the narrative structures of early world explorers' accounts and of video games -- specifically, Nintendo's Super Mario Brothers.

If this sounds interesting, you should read the piece (www.rochester.edu/College/FS/Publications/FullerNintendo.html; I'll wait), but the basic idea is what held me: that the story of Super Mario Brothers, like the story of Pocahontas, isn't really a story at all. It's a narrative designed to help us explore a previously unknown world. Such narratives don't pay a lot of attention to logical plotting, with clear motivations leading to believable outcomes; they don't focus on character development or the subtleties of relationships; they're all about landing you in a new space, describing it (in prose or pixels), and letting you wander around in it.

Suddenly all the things that had always annoyed me about video games -- the seeming triviality of the goal, the flatness of the characters, the ceaseless meandering from one level to the next -- made sense. The meandering was the whole point. Not the characters, not the story, not getting to the end -- just being in that world and exploring what it felt like. In a way, I think even the extreme violence of many games (and gamelike movies) makes more sense when viewed from this perspective. It's not intended to move us deeply or make us think about real pain in the real world; like the stew of gnostic and Buddhist philosophies that has provoked way too much analysis on ''Matrix'' websites, it's there to heighten the texture of the sensation-drenched, overwhelming world that a particular game is trying to create. (And no, that doesn't mean I think they're good fun for small children.)

Then I got assigned to review the latest ''Pokemon'' movie. It was, as I noted in my one-star review, pretty awful. But as I watched it I found myself thinking, maybe because there wasn't much onscreen to make me think, about Jenkins's idea. And it made sense here, too. ''Pokemon'' isn't about the characters or the story -- all of which can be summed up as ''cute creatures morph into monsters and fight each other'' -- but about the Pokemon world.

''Gotta catch 'em all!''Implicit in the Pokemon slogan is the tricky truth that you can't catch 'em all. There will always be more Pokemon out there, waiting to be found. And that is (aside from a parental nightmare at the cash register) an invitation to keep exploring, to keep going, to keep wandering deeper into an unknown world.

I decided I needed to talk to Jenkins about all this. So I called him, and we had a couple of conversations, in part because he's working on a book about these new forms of storytelling. His argument, grossly oversimplified, is that people like the Wachowski brothers are using a combination of media to tell stories in more complex and interactive ways -- and, yes, he said, he sees a connection with Pokemon.

''This is a story that has no central originating text,'' Jenkins said. It didn't start with a single book or movie, but with cards and video games and TV shows and toys and all the other things your kid wants you to buy -- but he wants you to buy them because they all carry real meaning for the Pokemon fan. ''From between those things, we've unfolded a hundred-plus species. And the information about those species doesn't reside in any one place. Every piece is a piece of the whole. The kid is expected to develop a full understanding of the world. They have to understand a lot of the Pokemon lore. The kid is being taught how to learn a mythology.''

No wonder a single Pokemon episode makes almost no sense to the uninitiated parent. And no wonder that the kids who've grown up on Pokemon now want to see movies like ''The Matrix: Reloaded.''

''If people like this kind of hunting and gathering behavior,'' Jenkins said, ''then they're going to want that kind of complexity, breadth, and depth from other stories that they consume.''

The ''Matrix'' movies are the most fully realized attempt to make this new kind of story. But even something like the ''Harry Potter'' movie franchise makes sense in this context; one of the most pleasing moments in those otherwise noisy but ploddingly faithful adaptations comes when we get a glimpse of Diagon Alley, the magical London street where wizards buy everything they need. It's not essential to the plot that we know what's for sale there, but our eyes eagerly explore the Diagon Alley scene, trying to put together as much information as we can about the wizarding world.

The movies that are trying hardest to create a world are, not coincidentally, often baffling or disappointing to viewers looking for more traditional forms. (Would it be unfair to note that most of these baffled viewers are over 30?) ''X2: X-Men United,'' for example, makes very little sense if you don't already know about the X-Men from their comic-book history; it's almost entirely incomprehensible if you didn't see the first movie. That used to be a sin; now it's just part of the deal.

''The Matrix: Reloaded'' ends so abruptly that you gasp, but then you realize -- as the words ''to be concluded'' flash on the screen -- that of course it's not ending; it's just pausing between rounds. You've been playing a game, and your mom just told you to stop for supper. No problem; you'll pick up where you left off.

People who have grown up on games don't expect any one piece of the puzzle to make sense by itself. Part of the pleasure, in fact, comes from piecing the puzzle together themselves.

''Mom, wanna play X-Men?''

''OK. Which one should I be?''

''Anyone you want.''

''Who will you be?''

''I'll be Wolverine. I like those silver claw things. Then I'll turn into Cyclops. Oh, wait, can I be Nightcrawler? He's really cool. He can stick to walls and he can go through things.''

-- A conversation with my 5-year-old son, who has never read an X-Men comic book, seen an X-Men movie, or watched an X-Men cartoon, but who plays X-Men every day on the playground with his friends.

''In a sense what we're doing now is kind of a modern mythology, in which the story is just a piece of the world.''

Jenkins again. I almost feel as if I should just print the transcript of our conversations, but of course there are digressions and non sequiturs that I need to edit out. Besides, you'd rather just read the really good parts, right? Interruption is structure.

Here's another good part, about what some critics are missing.

''They're trained to think in very traditional story structures. What they see as the collapse of storytelling -- if we read that, we should ask whether the public suddenly lost interest in story, or whether we're seeing new forms of stories. They're demanding stories that are told in more complex ways. It's not that they're dumbing down.''

But are the stories different? ''If you look at them by old criteria, they may seem to be more fragmented,'' Jenkins said. On the other hand, fragmentation is nothing new.

''When the Greeks heard a story about Odysseus,'' Jenkins said, ''they didn't need to be told who he was or where he came from or what his mission was. Homer did that in very small chunks on the fly. Which is why high school students around the world have struggled with `The Odyssey.' ''

Aha. Freshman English; I'm plowing through ''The Iliad.'' All these characters, all these names, all these quick little tags to identify them -- swift-footed brilliant Achilles, tall Hector of the shining helm -- why would I care what his helmet looks like? Because he's not a character. He's an avatar. He's a guy I can pretend to be, so I can enter more fully into the action and really explore his world. Where's my Achilles action figure?

Like Achilles or Odysseus, Jenkins says, Wolverine and Neo and the rest are ''almost dehydrated characters -- just add water! We do add water.'' We put ourselves into the characters' shoes, which is why we don't want to know too much about what size shoes they wear -- this way, one size fits all. Or at least all who want to play.

And, of course, if you don't want to play, you don't have to. ''The Matrix: Reloaded'' is just one of many options we have available to us in a world that still stages Shakespeare and reads Dickens and screens Truffaut. ''The Matrix'' is one hell of a game, but it's not the only game in town.

''Over the years I've had to revise my notion of where I `get' my ideas. Or is it that they get me? I think that ideas are huge things. . . . Ideas move like waves through the populace. . . . I don't much care about being a solo artist with original ideas. I care about being awake. Awake to Dream. I believe we collaborate with the idea wave; with past, present and future dreams. Our buoyancy, our drifting consciousness has as much to do with our `having ideas' as anything. Exploring and creating with others throws a bigger net over the wave.''

-- Rick Berry, ''Dreaming Real'' in ''Exploring the Matrix: Visions of the Cyber Present,'' edited by Karen HaberIt's the collaboration, as much as anything, that I'm finding interesting. I have some ideas; I bring you some more ideas from other people; you add in a few more ideas of your own. Here's one more excerpt from Jenkins:

''Modern storytelling is worldmaking, and those worlds can be created collaboratively or by an individual. Ultimately, they're re-created by the audience.''

I'm curious about what you've created, or re-created, in your part of the world.

Louise Kennedy can be reached at kennedy@globe.com.