An inspired mission

By MUMTAJ BEGUM

MATRIX fans everywhere had equal opportunity to find answers to the burning questions that arose from the complex world created by the Wachowski Brothers when the final part of the trilogy opened on Wednesday. MUMTAJ BEGUM flew to Sydney for the movie's gala premiere and a chance to touch base with the now hugely famous stars, Keanu Reeves, Hugo Weaving and Jada Pinkett Smith.

KEANU Reeves and Hugo Weaving are describing one of the many challenges they faced while filming The Matrix Revolutions at a recent press conference in Sydney. The two actors, who became friends while training for the first film, The Matrix, in 1997 – play arch foes Neo and Agent Smith in the trilogy; the scene being discussed now is the ultimate fight scene (or the “Super Burly Brawl”) in the pouring rain. Both Reeves and Weaving had prepared long and hard, and thoroughly studied the fight choreography right up to the day shooting commenced.

“Everyone was ready and it’s ‘Take one, action, go!’ ” relates Reeves excitedly. “Then it starts to rain, and it’s like a tonne a minute or something, Hugo and I are wearing glasses and we got our things on, and I can’t see him! And he can’t see me!”

Weaving continues, “Later on, it’s still raining, and we have to talk to each other. Not only can’t I hear Keanu, I can’t hear myself. That was difficult because we couldn’t see or hear.”

“But we were fighting each other so much that by the end of it, it’s like, ‘I don’t even need to see,’ ’’ says Reeves, all Zen-like.

And when the fight takes place in the sky, there were different sets of problems to deal with. Both the Martial Arts and Visual Effects teams invented a device called the Tuning Fork. It enabled actors and stuntmen to simulate weightlessness while fighting.

“The Tuning Fork rotates this way or that and basically we can spin, hanging 20 feet above the ground. Other people would move it back and forward and we’d lost control of where we could go. We would be spinning into each other, literally getting into these positions that were just unbelievable,” smiles Reeves. “At the same time, you are in these rigs and once in a while Hugo and I would be upside down, hanging out between the shots.”

Weaving explains, “The only way to relax is to turn upside down.”

Reeves: “Like bats. We were like bats. Good clean fun.”

The three actors – Reeves, Weaving and Jada Pinkett Smith (who plays Captain Niobe) – and producer, Joel Silver, are in high spirits as the press conference in Sydney is a reunion of sorts since the filming of The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions ended in August 2002. One thing that immediately strikes an observer is the genuine warmth and respect they have for each other.

When questions are asked, the three actors instinctively take the lead at different points in time. When one is talking, the others listen attentively, and interject when the situation calls for it.

Pinkett Smith shares how after being introduced to everyone, she was taken to the training room and, “Laurence (Fishburne) showed me the stretches and explained to me the routine that needed to be done.”

“I remember his introduction,” says Reeves, before deepening his voice to resemble Fishburne’s, “Jada! Welcome to the House of Pain!”

If formal fare such as a press conference can be this much fun, it is no wonder Weaving sighs at the thought of having to say goodbye to everyone after the premiere of Revolutions is over.

Set in a bleak future, The Matrix trilogy is about a time in which machines rule and humans live in a computer simulated world. Among the better informed are the last free humans who live in Zion and who have the coolest names like Neo (Reeves), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), Morpheus (Fishburne), Niobe (Pinkett Smith) and Mifune (Nathaniel Lees). The Matrix trilogy introduces the idea of that world and the war between machines and humans while discussing the evolution of machines, programmes and human beings.

“Everyone, I felt, who acted and worked on this project had a real sense of enthusiasm,” says Reeves. “The vision that Larry and Andy (Wachowski) had, brought us to do extraordinary work and to make an enjoyable film that can be enjoyed on different levels.”

Sadly, the global arrival of The Matrix Revolutions on Nov 5 marks the beginning of the end to the most original and groundbreaking trilogy in cinema’s recent history.

Producer Joel SIlver (left) with cast members Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett Smith and Keanu Reeves as they arrive for the Sydney premiere of The Matrix Revolutions.

“This is it,” affirms Silver. “The Matrix is a three-part movie, and that is completed with this chapter. And completed in an incredible way. It resolves the story and answers the questions. It ends in the way they (the Wachowski brothers) set out to do.”

But wait!

“While the movie series is over, we’re going to continue in some different aspects of the Matrix universe. There’s a plan for a multi-player game online, probably released as early as the coming summer. Some of the ideas and some of the characters will continue. There’ll be another video game down the line too,” explains Silver.

Thus far, The Matrix has spawned The Animatrix, a series of nine feature-film-quality short animated films, each between six and 16-minutes long; video game Enter The Matrix and books The Art of the Matrix and The Matrix Comics, released by Red Pill Productions.

When The Matrix opened back in 1999, just below the radar of the much-hyped Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, nobody was ready for the impact it was going to unleash on both moviegoers and the movie industry. From the opening scene of the now-familiar streaming green digits, there was no doubt The Matrix was going to raise the bar by several notches and create new heights in visual effects, kung fu fighting and/or the sci-fi genre. The movie became a cultural phenomenon.

According to Reeves, “There’s so much movie on the screen in terms of epic – the battles that takes place, the romance that occurs in the film, big romance, big action, and the world that’s created. If you want to go to a place where there’s something you’ve never before, you’ve got to see The Matrix.”

And it all comes back to the exceptional writer-director brothers from Chicago, Larry and Andy Wachowski, who somehow incorporated all their passions – Hong Kong films, Eastern and Western philosophies, anime, comic-books and science fiction – into this extremely complex Matrix trilogy. While they let their work to do the talking for them, the brothers admitted in The Matrix Revisited (the making of DVD) that the trilogy comprises every idea they ever had in their entire life. The directors who had a tough time convincing anyone to do the film initially seem to have made a fan out of everyone, especially Reeves.

“The Wachowskis, the kind of cinema they make and write, they push the boundaries of science fiction or action-drama,” says Reeves. “They synthesise so many elements – ideas, plots, characters and emotions – what they do, it’s just a kind of cinema you don’t see. I find it remarkable.”

For Weaving it was because of the two directors that he agreed to do the other two movies. “It was strange saying yes to something that I hadn’t read. I’ve never ever done that. I would never do that. But because of the project and Larry and Andy, I said yes.”

But The Matrix wouldn’t be The Matrix if not for Yuen Wo Ping (who choreographed the martial arts sequences and turned the kung fu virgin-Westerners into what looked like pros on screen), visual effects supervisor John Gaeta (whose team designed the revolutionary Bullet Time, Burly Brawl, Super Burly Brawl and other virtual cinematography) and conceptual artist Geof Darrow (who did the storyboard).

Silver says, “They (Gaeta and the Wachowskis) decided to create images that no one could copy. And the results are staggering. These guys didn’t just raise the bar for action filmmaking, for visionary storytelling, for what is visually possible – they obliterated it.”

There’s no denying the film has changed a lot of things within the film industry and outside of it. Pinkett Smith notes one of her observations, “One thing I can say, I definitely get phone calls for roles – I guess, what would you say – not written specially for black women. I’m getting asked to do all types of things. The Matrix has probably done that.”

And what does The One think of the film?

“I like the film – from the actor’s stand point, from the movie stand point. When I started filming, just the vision that they had, and the world they wanted to create. I really enjoyed it. All I hope is people enjoy it as much as I did.”

KEANU RELOADED

'Matrix' star had to be smart as a whip to shake image of being dumb as a post

Friday November 07, 2003

By Stephen Whitty
Newhouse News Service

NEW YORK -- Keanu Reeves is smarter than you think.

Sure, those two long-ago "Bill and Ted" movies stereotyped him in a heinous way. ("I used to have nightmares that they would put 'He played Ted' on my tombstone," he admitted.)

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And, yes, he has said some silly things in the past and even merits his own chapter in the snarky book "Movie Stars Do the Dumbest Things."

And -- OK, OK -- he does tend to overuse the word "awesome," and salute people with "hey, man," and wonder aloud about things like spontaneous combustion, and did utter the movies' most famous "Whoa!" in "The Matrix."

But Keanu Reeves is also smart enough to love Shakespeare, and read the great Russian novelists, and listen to Joy Division. He's been smart enough to say yes to working with Gus Van Sant and Bernardo Bertolucci, and no to making "Speed 2."

And he was smart enough four years ago to see something in the screenplay for "The Matrix," and to sign on for a sci-fi milestone -- and increasingly profitable payday. (Reeves' reported salary on "The Matrix Revolutions," which opened Wednesday: $15 million plus 15 percent of the gross.)

"When I saw the script for the first one, there was just a kind of modernity in it that appealed to me," he says, sprawled in a Manhattan hotel suite. "The synthesis of all the forms -- classic myth, a love story, even kung fu. I loved that. And the question, 'What is the Matrix?' you know, being really 'What is the world? What is reality? How do we get past that veil to see the truth?' I thought that was fantastic."

The movie's vision of a sexually liberated, casually colorblind society appealed, too.

"It doesn't draw attention to itself and yet it's there," says Reeves of a script by the reclusive directors Larry and Andy Wachowski that gives equal weight to all its characters. "It takes this opportunity to go beyond racial issues and gender orientation to create this kind of inclusive world, and I thought that was a really cool element as well."

The movies don't often feature that sort of multicultural world. Yet, growing up, it was the only one Reeves knew.

Born in Beirut to an English mother and an Asian/Pacific Islander father -- "ke anu" is Hawaiian for "the coolness" -- Reeves, his mother and a younger sister moved around a bit after the marriage failed. Eventually they settled in Toronto's now-posh Yorkville section, then a patchouli-scented neighborhood of hippie crash pads and incense shops.

"It was just awesome," Reeves remembers happily. "There was no fear, no worry -- I remember chestnut fights, and hide-and-go-seek games that would go on in the street until 11 o'clock at night. . . . People fought, but it was never about anything more than two people wanting to fight. I didn't hear a racial epithet until I was in high school, and when I did, I was just like, 'Are you kidding me? Did you actually just say that?' "

Reeves wasn't much of a presence in high school, where he seemed to major in hockey. But then one day in a sophomore English class, he was called on to recite one of Mercutio's scenes from "Romeo and Juliet." And something happened.

"I just remember that it was really fun, and I felt really alive, and I said, 'This is what I'm going to be,' " he says. " 'I'm going to be an actor.' "

The boy who had no interest in going to school during the day started taking serious acting classes at night. By 22, he'd landed a couple of parts on Canadian TV and a supporting part in the Rob Lowe film "Youngblood." Encouraged, Reeves moved to Los Angeles, where he got a bigger part in a better film: the creepy, alienated "River's Edge."

It was a dark little classic about aimless youth, but co-star Crispin Glover got most of the attention, while Reeves got stamped as a pleasant, not-too-bright hunk. Signing on for "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" in 1989 (and then doing the voice for the Saturday morning cartoon spinoff, and returning for the 1991 movie sequel) only confirmed his image as a handsome, vaguely hammered high schooler.

It was profitable for a while, but in the end it was unwelcome and mostly undeserved. Reeves' performance as the clueless Ted was sweet and unforced, and gave Hollywood its funniest dope since Sean Penn lit up "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." Yet while everyone knew Penn wasn't Jeff Spicoli, no one seemed able -- or interested -- in telling Reeves apart from Ted.

Eventually Reeves pulled himself out of the rut by taking on more challenging material such as Van Sant's "My Own Private Idaho" and Bertolucci's "Little Buddha." Neither was a mainstream success, but they helped Reeves shake the surfer-dude image and rebuild his credibility as something more than a movie stoner.

Then "Speed" hit and made him a major star at 30.

Since then, Reeves' career has been marked by some odd choices and even odder films. (Remember "Feeling Minnesota"? "The Last Time I Committed Suicide"?) For every "Speed" and "The Matrix," there have been two or three or four films such as "Sweet November," "The Watcher" and "Johnny Mnemonic."

His life has been marred by some horrible tragedies, too. His good friend River Phoenix, a co-star in "Private Idaho," was lost to drugs in 1993. In 1999, Reeves' child with girlfriend Jennifer Syme was stillborn. Two years later, Syme was killed in a car crash.

Some of that Reeves has used in his work ("I've lost my best friends," he says, "and that can't help but be a part of certain scenes"). Much of it he's tried to deal with and move past.

And so Reeves now plays bass in an underachieving band called Becky. He rides vintage motorcycles, way too fast. He thinks about marriage, and kids, but not too much. ("Before you get married, you have to meet someone you want to marry, and you can't control that.") He hangs out with old buddies, some of whom he's known since grade school.

"I've been fortunate to make some pretty incredible friends in my life, and friends keep you down-to-earth," he says. "But my nature is pretty down-to-earth anyway."

He still looks like a college senior and talks like a bright high-schooler, but Reeves turns 40 next year. Although he has a number of projects either already finished or lined up -- including the romantic comedy "Something's Gotta Give" in December -- he has "no idea" what the next decade will be like. This one has been dramatic enough to last for quite a while.

Mostly, he says, he's looking forward to continuing to act, to "finding the truth in the make-believe," and to simply enjoying life.

"I watch my little goddaughter and I think, life is so precious, so beautiful. There's so much possibility and potential in it. It's all such a gift. So why can't we just enjoy it?"

It's not such a dumb question. And sometimes Keanu Reeves sounds like he just might be smart enough to figure it out.

'Revolutions' Opens Big, But ...

(CBS) Which way do you spin "The Matrix Revolutions"? The third movie in the cyberpunk trilogy earned $24.3 million at the domestic box office in its first day of release, Warner Bros. said Thursday.

That's a great one-day total for any other movie, but it comes in far below what "The Matrix Reloaded" collected in its nationwide debut last spring.

In May, "Reloaded" opened with a few late-night screenings on Wednesday evening and earned about $5 million. Then it expanded to 3,600 theaters on Thursday and earned about $37.5 million, according to Brandon Gray, proprietor of BoxOfficeMojo.com.

At the time, Warner Bros. lumped the Wednesday totals in with the Thursday figures and announced a total debut of $42.5 million for "Reloaded."

Gray said there may have been less anticipation for "Revolutions" simply because of the rapid-fire release timing.

"With the last one ('Reloaded') there was four years of pent-up demand and 'Revolutions' comes out after only six months," he said. "It's not quite the same event as the one that came out after a long drought."

Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. head of U.S. distribution, dismissed the notion that some viewers may be less enthusiastic about the franchise after "Reloaded," which scored poorly with critics and many fans.

"These are staggering numbers," Fellman said. "If you talk to any large theater operator they're totally out of their minds with joy."

"Revolutions" also collected $18.8 million internationally after staging the widest simultaneous release for a single film by opening in an unprecedented 18,000 screens around the world at the same hour (9 a.m. ET), according to Variety. Part of the studio's worldwide effort was to combat piracy.

"Revolutions" also ranked as the third best Wednesday debut for a movie, behind $28.5 million for 1999's "Star Wars: Episode I

The Phantom Menace" and $26.1 million for last year's "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers."

Although hampered by critics who lambasted "Revolutions" as a glorified videogame, the Keanu Reeves sci-fi adventure could still come close to topping $100 million domestically by the end of the weekend.

Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Exhibitor Relations Co., said he would wait until the weekend to judge how "Revolutions" compares to "Reloaded."

The critically acclaimed first film, "The Matrix," earned $33.7 million in its first weekend in April 1999 and went on to rake in $171.5 million.

"Reloaded" earned a total of $281.6 million and became the year's third highest-grossing movie of the year, behind "Finding Nemo" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," respectively.

Matrix Set to Break $200 Million in 5 Days

Movie experts have predicted hit sequel "The Matrix Revolutions" will make $200 million in its first five days of release.The Keanu Reeves-starring blockbuster was released simultaneously in 80 countries Wednesday and movie bosses hope it'll rake in mountains of cash."The Matrix Reloaded" earned $166 million in the first four days of its release in May.

'Matrix' Fans Revisit Zion in Droves

Thu, Nov 06, 2003, 01:11 PM PT
By Hanh Nguyen

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Audiences re-entered the world of "The Matrix" on Wednesday, Nov. 5, racking up record numbers for "The Matrix Revolutions," the final installment of the Wachowski Brothers' trilogy.

"Revolutions" debut earned $24.3 million at the domestic box office, the third highest gross ever for a film opening on a Wednesday. The sci-fi flick averaged $6,942 per theater, showing on 3,052 screens nationwide.

Only the releases of 1999's "Star Wars: Episode One -- The Phantom Menace" and last year's "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" have exceeded "Revolutions'" box-office take, earning $28.5 and $26.2 million, respectively.

In the highly anticipated "Revolutions," the rebels' long quest for freedom culminates in an explosive battle. As the Machine Army wages devastation on Zion, its citizens mount an aggressive defense, trying to stave off the relentless swarm of Sentinels long enough for Neo (Keanu Reeves) to harness the full extent of his powers and end the war.

The film also offered audiences a unique opportunity to experience Wednesday's premiere at the exact same moment in time in every major city around the world. The unprecedented simultaneous distribution scenario took place in over 50 countries, garnering the film a one-day total of $43.1 million in ticket sales worldwide.

The previous two chapters of the "Matrix" series have consistently built an audience from modest beginnings. The original film also opened on a Wednesday with $4.8 million. The middle film, "The Matrix Reloaded," opened on a Thursday, and earned a four-day weekend total of $134.3 million in ticket sales, the second best opening weekend of all time. Both films have earned a total of $1.19 billion worldwide.

'Matrix' Dodges Critical Bullets, Debuts Strongly

Wed November 5, 2003 05:28 PM ET

By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Dodging critical fire faster than Neo evades bullets, "The Matrix Revolutions" debuted to sold-out theaters on Wednesday in a global opening that had fans lining up for blocks to be first to see the film.

"We've had tremendous crowds, and early (box office) numbers are very strong," said Dick Westerling, spokesman for the No. 1 U.S. theater chain Regal Entertainment Group. .

Dan Fellman, film distribution chief for Warner Bros. studio, the unit of Time Warner Inc. that makes and markets the "Matrix" movies, said a first-day box office estimate would not be ready until Thursday.

Fellman added, however, that his phone had been ringing off the hook since the curtain rose on "Revolutions" at 9 a.m. EST with tales of sold-out crowds. He said several theaters reported selling $40,000 worth of tickets before noon.

"That is a staggering number for a Saturday before noon, let alone a Wednesday," Fellman said.

A spokesman for No. 2 U.S. theater chain AMC Entertainment Inc. reported similarly crowded theaters in the morning and said many of Wednesday night's screenings were sold out in advance.

Movies normally debut on Friday and see their biggest crowds Saturday, but the futuristic "Matrix" movies, about a group of bullet-dodging humans battling for Earth against software-controlled machines, have been such huge hits that Warner Bros. has released them early to meet initial demand.

UNFLATTERING REVIEWS

The first "Matrix" in 1999 hauled in $456 million in global ticket sales and this past May's "The Matrix Reloaded" eclipsed that figure with $735 million at worldwide box offices.

Demand may be strong and the fan base large, but major reviews lacked any sort of luster. The Los Angeles Times said "Revolutions" landed in theaters "with a thud" and asks "how did something so cool, get so dorky?"

The New York Times said "'Reloaded' was certainly a lumpy, gaseous treatise of a movie, but viewers of 'Revolutions' may find themselves looking back on it fondly." Continued ... 1| 2 Next

Fortunately for Warner Bros. and for theaters, die-hard fans as a general rule don't care about critical reviews and to please the series' fans -- as well as combat piracy -- Warner Bros. undertook the most wide-scale debut ever of a film.
It raised the curtain for "Revolutions" on over 10,000 movie screens in 107 markets simultaneously in the United States and Canada, and in China, Russia, throughout Southeast Asia and Europe.

A normal release for a major Hollywood movie would see it opening in the United States and Canada first on 2,000 to 3,000 screens, then playing in various countries over the subsequent months.

As happened with "Reloaded," so-called "pirates" who copy films for resale on black markets or place them on the Internet for free file-swapping have made movies available the same day -- or even before -- a movie's debut in theaters.

"Revolutions" also debuted on giant Imax Corp. movie screens, and Westerling and Fellman said those showings were seeing strong crowds, too. Previous 1| 2

© Reuters 2003. All Rights Reserved.

'Matrix Revolutions' storms into 65 countries at once

An epic battle for world conquest erupted on Wednesday, as the final part of the Matrix trilogy was released simultaneously all over the world. But instead of fighting an army of evil machines, Neo and his band of rebels were locked in combat with the world of movie piracy.

Stars Keanu Reeves and Jada Pinkett Smith were in Tokyo for the premiere, which took place at exactly the same moment in 65 countries. Warner Brothers are hoping to deter potential pirates by staging the coordinated release.

At exactly 1400GMT, which equates to 6am in Los Angeles, 9am in New York and 11pm in Tokyo, eager fans got their first look at The Matrix Revolutions.

In the movie our hero once again faces the evil Agent Smith in a final confrontation between mankind and the machines. And it sounds as though Keanu is going to miss playing "the One".

"It was a journey of self," said the actor. "You start with this kind of loner, which a lot of people can relate to, and he goes out into the world. He falls in love, he has self-doubt, he's questioning the truth and reality. There's a strength about him, but a vulnerability at the same time. I really enjoyed playing him - he's a very honourable guy."

Silent revolution

Bruno Lester

LEONARDO DiCaprio is playing Howard Hughes in Martin Scorsese's film biography of the legendary reclusive US billionaire but Hollywood insiders suggest Matrix star Keanu Reeves would have been a better choice.

It would be the obvious choice, for the Beirut-born, Toronto-raised superstar is turning into this century's Howard Hughes.

The 39-year-old Reeves has been a loner since he arrived in Hollywood 20 years ago.

The shy, off-beat hunk has always kept to himself, preferring to ride alone around Los Angeles on his motorcycles, usually at night when he doesn't have to contend with fans and paparazzi.

His love of speed has resulted in plenty of scars; a squiggle on his leg, a snake on his abdomen, a bald spot in the whiskers above his lip. Like a gypsy, he has little interest in material things and lived in hotels for a decade, accompanied by his guitar and works on Shakespeare.

He spends much of his free time playing bass in the underground band Dogstar.

Not since Greta Garbo has a Hollywood superstar kept so quiet about his private life.

He simply refuses to talk about his life and has never issued denials of stories about his sexuality – once he was said to have married gay producer David Geffen, even though Geffen later told the press he had never met Reeves – or of rumoured drug use after his friend River Phoenix died of an overdose.

According to recent reports, his behaviour rivals that of Hughes, the billionaire whose eccentricity defied description.

It is said Reeves has turned more sad and withdrawn than ever, dressing like a tramp in worn clothes. He refuses to use a computer or mobile phone because he dislikes calls and e-mails, and he spent his last birthday, in September, eating alone at a West Hollywood restaurant. Reeves in the chair as Neo: "In Matrix Revolutions, Neo is trying to find out, 'what's my life'? And it's kind of cool what happens."

Don't such tabloid articles upset him?

"I've been befuddled and bamboozled about all those so-called 'facts' about me," he answers calmly. "But they've gotten so crazy; they're not even worth thinking about. I don't care if anyone thinks I'm gay or not, or if I'm on drugs or not.

"I just try to keep a very low profile in my private life. I don't like to be seen out on the town because I don't feel at ease when I'm being chased or photographed. So I avoid events that will lead me to be seen."

During his 20-year career, Reeves has never taken a girlfriend to any of his film premieres – and there have been 40 of them, including Dangerous Liaisons, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Speed, Little Buddha, Much Ado About Nothing, My Own Private Idaho and the Matrix trilogy, and he has never confirmed any relationship.

He takes his mother or sister to public events, and that is the only thing the public knows for certain – that he is extremely close to the two – not surprising, as he has not seen his father, Sam, since he was a teenager.

His father, who abandoned the family when Reeves was a baby, served several years in prison for drug possession, and Reeves refuses to talk about him.

"I socialise a lot with my family, going to their houses for barbecues," he offers reluctantly when asked about his life outside work.

"I lead such a boring existence away from work. I don't have famous friends. All my friends are people I've known for many years, or people I've met outside the industry."

As for his love life, he says: "When I'm working, I think only about work. Women have got close very rarely."

Although he collected $30 million for the three Matrix films, he insists on maintaining a punishing work schedule.

"I began acting at 15 because it made me happy. It still does.

"I like my life when I'm working, and I don't like taking holidays. When I'm working, my life makes sense."

No wonder Reeves was happy filming the Matrix series over three years in Australia. Working on such a time-consuming, special effects-laden project, far from Hollywood, suited the press-shy star perfectly.

It also was the necessary escape from his personal tragedies at the time – his girlfriend, Jennifer Syme, gave birth to stillborn daughter Ava on Christmas Eve, 1999, and after she suffered from depression for a year, she was killed when her car crashed into parked vehicles in Hollywood.

And Reeves' sister, Kim, has battled leukemia for 10 years, and is not getting any better. He has been photographed taking her to specialists in Maui and Capri, Italy – to no avail.

"I enjoyed my time in Australia a lot," he says. "I loved making the pictures and when I wasn't working, I could play with my band and ride horses and motorbikes."

Although he recently bought a house in the Hollywood Hills, Reeves has always resisted movie-star trappings.

As his Matrix co-star, Carrie-Anne Moss puts it: "Keanu isn't about fame at all. His choices are always about what strikes his heart."

The actor picked the Matrix films after Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith and Brad Pitt all passed on the project.

This year's first sequel, Matrix Reloaded, was considered a disappointment by fans (not commercially; it grossed $280 million in the US) but the Wachowski Brothers' sci-fi story will end powerfully with Matrix Revolutions, according to Reeves.

"There's a battle between Zion and the machines," he promises of the second and last sequel, "and the relationship between Agent Smith and Neo (Reeves) is resolved. And some questions of the journey of Neo as The One are answered. And a lot of surprises."

The second film in a trilogy is always the most difficult to make successful, he points out, especially in the case of The Matrix with the sequels being one story cut in the middle. The two films were filmed over 18 months in Australia and California and cost an astonishing $310 million.

"I'm very excited about it," he offers.

"All my friends are excited and my folks are excited to see it. So it's great to be a part of something like that.

"It was a great experience acting in all three films and to spend time with the great people and artists that I got to go through this with.

"And I'm stoked that my folks are excited about going to the movies.

"In Matrix Revolutions, Neo is trying to find out, 'what's my life'? And it's kind of cool what happens.

"I don't want to give away the plot but the aspect of what Neo finds out about being The One, I love that.

"The platform of the piece itself lends itself to speaking about ideas," he continues. "Thank God that there is something to talk about because some other films don't have that ambition."

Reeves finds the love story between himself and Moss his favourite aspects of the piece "because I get to love someone and I get to be loved by someone and share that".

He hopes one day to have a family of his own, he says. "It would be great because it would be very important to me to have a home and a family, but this work is on the road a lot."

Asked whether his multicultural, multicountry background was crucial in playing an outsider hero like Neo, he concludes: "I'm sure it's influential, definitely. But, I mean, it's also my nature. Probably just my nature."

Fishburne brings humanity to 3rd 'Matrix'

By Angela Dawson, Entertainment News WireNovember 1, 2003

HOLLYWOOD - Laurence Fishburne acknowledges that he and his "Matrix" character, Morpheus, have a lot in common.

And that's no accident, according to the actor who reprises the role in the third and final installment of the sci-fi adventure series, "The Matrix Revolutions." Advertisement

"I've always had faith," he said, sitting on the Warner Bros. lot just weeks before next Wednesday's opening. "It's no coincidence that I wound up playing this role. There's a lot of me in him and a lot of him in me."

Asked to elaborate, Fishburne, 42, only smiles.

Having played the same character in three movies, Fishburne is certain of one thing: only he - and maybe filmmakers Larry and Andy Wachowski - fully understands what Morpheus represents, and he is both irritated and fascinated by those who make assumptions.

"I'm the custodian of this character," he said. "I decide what he feels and doesn't feel. Let me play my character alone and let me play him myself. If you want to play him, play the video game."

The veteran actor first plugged into the fantasy world of "The Matrix" seven years ago. He was cast to play the leather-clad rebel warrior who spurs young computer hacker Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) to join him and his beautiful cohort Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) in a battle against the machines that have laid waste to the real world.

An oracle's prediction has convinced Morpheus that Anderson - a.k.a. Neo - is "the One" destined to lead humans to overthrow the machines and reclaim the Earth. "Agents," computers who take on human form, pursue Anderson to stop him from fulfilling his destiny as the battle of humans and machines heats up.

"The Matrix" was the first Hollywood film to combine expensive special effects gadgetry with Hong Kong-style action in a futuristic setting, and the public was sold. The first two films have garnered nearly $1.2 billion worldwide at the box office. "The Matrix Reloaded," the sequel released in May, is already the highest-grossing film of 2003, taking in more than $735 million worldwide to date.

"The Matrix Revolutions" picks up the action where "Reloaded" left off and culminates with a big-action finale.

Throughout the series, Morpheus's belief in Neo never wavers, although Fishburne points to a distinctive arc in his character.

"In the first movie, (Morpheus) is all-knowing, all-powerful," he said. "He's the mentor-teacher guy. In the second movie, he's the spiritual leader, the general and rabble-rouser. He's the crazy man. And in the third, he's the human being who's at the core of those other guys."

Some fans may be upset that Morpheus's humanity comes through so strongly in the final act, he said, but they'll simply have to deal with it.

The Wachowskis made "Reloaded" and "Revolutions" as a single film presented in two parts and shot the films simultaneously on a 270-day production schedule.

Though playing Morpheus was physically and emotionally demanding, Fishburne says he is "eternally grateful" to have been part of the "The Matrix" franchise.

Even before "The Matrix" became a worldwide phenomenon, Fishburne enjoyed a long career on the big screen and the stage, often playing tough, macho characters. As a child he performed in off-Broadway productions.

By age 12, Fishburne was a regular on ABC's "One Life to Live." Two years later, he landed the role of an underage gunner on a Navy patrol boat in Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam epic "Apocalypse Now."

After "Apocalypse Now," Fishburne appeared in three other Coppola movies - "Rumble Fish," "The Cotton Club" and "Gardens of Stone" - as well as Steven Spielberg's "The Color Purple."

In 1986, on his first day of playing Cowboy Curtis on the TV series "Pee-wee's Playhouse," Fishburne befriended an ambitious young security guard who wanted to become a filmmaker. Four years later, John Singleton was finishing film school at USC and sent Fishburne a copy of his screenplay, "Boyz N the Hood."

The 22-year-old director wanted the actor to play the role of Furious Styles, a father figure based on Singleton's own father as well as on Fishburne himself. Fishburne obliged. His turn as a hard-driving father who teaches manhood to his son (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is considered one of his best performances.

Neo romantic

November 1, 2003

Sci-fi SNAG . . . Keanu Reeves with love interest Carrie-Anne Moss in Matrix Revolutions.

Flying calamari can't compete with falling in love, Keanu Reeves tells Phillip McCarthy.

Keanu Reeves doesn't own a computer and has no plans to acquire one.

"I don't use the internet.

I don't send email. I don't have a secret identity," the star of the Matrix trilogy says. "You don't have to be a computer geek to be interested in the subjects these movies raise," he says.

Still, he says, guys who love the movies and want to talk bytes find it odd - and there are many: after the first Matrix film grossed $US460 million ($652 million), the second instalment pulled in $US740 million.

What's even stranger, though, is the black-curtained room inside a Warner Bros soundstage in which we're sitting to discuss part three, Matrix Revolutions. Reeves, too, is dressed from head to toe in black and, despite the gloom, wearing dark glasses.

"Maybe I'm having a hard time letting go," he says of the Neo-esque attire. "I lived and breathed these films for three years. I've read a lot, I've thought differently about things and now I'm almost 40. So now I'm perfectly positioned for a midlife crisis, right?"

He's tired and punchy because he's in the middle of making his next film. It's called Constantine and in it he plays a supernatural detective. It's his day off. His all-black attire - and some unflattering overhead lighting - makes him look pasty. Coiling and uncoiling his fingers is about as animated as he gets.

The Matrix creators, brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski, are notoriously press shy so the burden of plugging their movie falls to the actors.

"They made it clear from the get-go that this isn't their thing," he says. "I'm not saying that it's mine. But this has been a pretty life-altering experience for me, these movies, so if I can back them up that's fine. I'm cool with it."

A few years back, before The Matrix, Reeves alternately coughed and chain smoked his way through an interview. The legacy of three Matrix movies, apart from a strapping bank balance (though Reeves denies that he has received $US100 million from salary and equity in the Matrix movies as has been rumoured), seems to be a certain zen-like calm. He has needed it both on screen and off.

His younger sister, Kim, has been battling leukemia for a decade and after a remission has become sick again. Two years ago a girlfriend, Jennifer Syme, was killed in a car crash and a year before that Syme had suffered a miscarriage. He doesn't allude to either tragedy today but when the subject of fate comes up, as it inevitably does with The Matrix, he reveals that he hasn't adopted Neo's zen-like philosophy: "People say everything happens for a reason. I don't buy that."

When he made Speed in 1994, Reeves was talked up as Hollywood's next action hero, but he would have none of it. He wanted variety, he said, and as if to prove the point he grew his hair and ditched the buff bod and hero stance for such unsympathetic characters as the ruthless young lawyer in The Devil's Advocate (1997) and murder suspect and wife beater in The Gift (2000).

The irony was that when the Wachowski brothers re-invented action films as thoughtful parables pumped up with kung fu moves, there was Reeves as the sensitive, cerebral can-do man who thinks first and acts later.

The Wachowskis love overblown "how-long-is-a-piece-of-string" type dialogue and Reeves's Neo (The One) gets the best of it. "Why do you continue to fight?" Hugo Weaving's Mr Smith asks in Revolutions. "Because I choose to," Neo replies.

Even his cadences come across a bit like a page out of a Wachowski script. When the possibility of yet another Matrix sequel is raised (the brothers seem to leave it open at the end of this third and "final" film), Reeves replies: "Well, I think my work is finished. My journey has ended."

Reeves is the metrosexual action hero for the new millennium. Ask him what he enjoyed most about the three movies and he cites the evolution of Neo's relationship with Carrie-Anne Moss's Trinity, rather than the groundbreaking martial-arts influenced fight scenes with Weaving.

"He gets a bad rap," Matrix producer Joel Silver says of Reeves's perceived lack of nous. "He is intensely private. But he played a couple of movies where he played kind of slow [witted] guys. And he got tarred with that brush. That's like assuming that there is a guy in Star Wars called Yoda who is a genius. But Yoda is made of rubber."

Not even Reeves could tell you what that analogy is supposed to mean, but the evidence is that he's not dumb. Colleagues say he's just painfully shy. And, like Tom Cruise, he had problems with dyslexia growing up which compounded the shyness.

I admit that I don't always get Matrix movies; that maybe they're just too deep for some people. Reeves nods sympathetically.

But when I mention that Laurence Fishburne says the third Matrix is his favourite, but add that "it is the film he's promoting today", Keanu gives me a bemused stare and says: "Well, that's a little cynical of you.

I, of course, like all three."

Revolutions does have a long, very watchable battle scene where the machines mount their long awaited attack on the human city of Zion deep inside the earth. Their secret weapon is a sort of flying calamari. No need to tell you who gets fried.

Matrix Revolutions opens on Thursday. Star spotters should descend on the Sydney Opera House, Sunday, 6.30pm, for the red-carpet premiere.

A decade without River Phoenix

The death of promising actor River Phoenix 10 years ago today, aged just 23, broke not only the hearts of teenage girls but also shocked the movie world. BBC News Online looks back at his life and early demise.
Phoenix managed to walk the fine line between respected actor and Hollywood heart-throb, ensuring the news of death was met with stunned disbelief by millions.

He died of a drugs overdose outside Johnny Depp's Los Angeles club the Viper Rooms, and the global headlines he hit ensured Phoenix's place in the pantheon of movie legends who died young.

The only indicator of how far his star could have shone comes from his contemporaries such as Keanu Reeves, Christian Slater and Depp, all still A-list movies stars commanding mega bucks.

But there was also a chance he could have packed in the fame game and gone and lived on a commune, going back to the hippie roots ingrained in him by his parents.

Child star

He was quoted as saying: "I would rather quit while I was ahead. There's no need in overstaying your welcome".

He also dedicated time to playing in the band Aleka's Attic with sister Rain, receiving plaudits for his musical ability.

Born to unconventional parents, with siblings Joaquin, Rainbow, Summer and Liberty, the family was brought up as members of the Children of God cult.

All of the Phoenix children were encouraged to go into acting from a young age, and from 10 onwards River was already acting in TV series including the short-lived Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Celebrity.

His first film role was in the largely forgotten Explorers before landing a lead role in Stand By Me, alongside child stars Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman and Jerry O'Connell.

Phoenix and his siblings were encouraged to go into acting
Next came the gritty Mosquito Coast with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, with the young actor winning praise for his performance.

He went on to work with Ford, landing a role as the young Indiana Jones in the Last Crusade.

Phoenix said: "I would just look at Harrison: he would do stuff and I would not mimic it, but interpret it younger."

Buzz

It was his role in Running on Empty, a drama about a boy having to make life-changing choices, that further boosted his credibility during his transition from child star to accomplished actor.

He was nominated for a best supporting Oscar in 1989, missing out to Kevin Kline's performance in a Fish Called Wanda.

Two years later came his career-defining role in Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho.

Playing a narcoleptic rent boy, Phoenix and co-star Keanu Reeves showed they had the ability to created a buzz not based around their obvious good looks.

The subject matter was a risky one for the pair, with Phoenix playing a gay hustler, risking their reputations as heart-throbs, but winning a legion of indie film fans.

Later films included A Thing Called Love, with girlfriend Samantha Mathis, and cyber-thriller Sneakers alongside Robert Redford.

Phoenix was lined up to star in a host of big name films, including Interview with a Vampire.

Phoenix began acting at a young age
At the time of his death he had been working on the film Dark Blood but because it could not be finished producers attempted to sue his mother for $6m (£3.5m) saying he did not declare his drug use. The case later collapsed.

But his early death on that notorious night at celeb hang-out the Viper Rooms in the early hours of 31 October 1993 put an end to a promising career.

Movie folklore

He was there with brother Joaquin and girlfriend Mathis when he took a cocktail of drugs, suffering seizures outside the club.

His death certificate put the cause down to multiple drug intoxication.

His body was cremated and the ashes scattered over the family ranch in Florida.

His young age and the circumstances of his death ensured River Phoenix's last moments went down in movie folklore, often overshadowing his talents and his already accomplished body of work.

REM's album Monster was dedicated to River by lead singer Michael Stipe, while the Red Hot Chili Peppers track One Hot Minute was also dedicated to him.

His drug problems or unwillingness to play the fame game may have seen River Phoenix exit the limelight at the height of his fame.

But in true Hollywood-style he remains as famous in death as he was in life.

The Matrix hits TV2

The Fight for the Future Begins: In anticipation for the third part of the critically acclaimed futuristic trilogy The Matrix: Revolutions, the original blockbuster The Matrix hits TV2! Sunday at 8.30pm.

In the near future, a computer hacker named Neo (Keanu Reeves) discovers that all life on Earth may be nothing more than an elaborate facade created by a malevolent cyber-intelligence, for the purpose of placating us while our life essence is "farmed" to fuel the Matrix's campaign of domination in the "real" world.

He joins like-minded Rebel warriors Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie Anne Moss) in their struggle to overthrow the Matrix. Made across the Tasman, this original adventure also features Kiwi actors Julian Arahanga and Anthony Ray Parker.

For lead female actress Carrie Anne Moss, who plays Trinity, being selected by directors Larry and Andy Wachowski for a role that has catapulted her to cult fame has meant a lot.

"I was very overwhelmed with it all at first. I can imagine the extent to which they must have had to fight to have me in this film. I imagine that the powers that be in Hollywood would have wanted someone more famous. Those two guys must have believed in me so much."

Having worked with such great directors and an equally amazing cast definitely adds to the success of this trilogy.

"They (the directors) are cool, they speak in a language that I understand, which is really unusual. Every once in a while I meet a director that I can get," Moss explains. "I would be really happy to work the rest of my life with them, with Keanu and Laurence and Hugo. I would be so happy to never work with anyone ever again but I would be out of a job. I feel so completely spoiled."

With the release of The Matrix:Reloaded on DVD, and The Matrix: Revolutions coming to theatres soon, we will soon discover that everything that has a beginning has an end. TV2 also has a special look at the making of this final part to the trilogy in Roadshow: Behind The Scenes: Matrix Revolutions at 11.40pm on Saturday November 1.

Head back to where it all began in The Matrix, Sunday at 8.30pm on TV2.

Keanu Blames 'Matrix' Difficulties on the Rain

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - It's the day of the final showdown between "The Matrix Revolution's" Neo and Agent Smith. There's only one problem in shooting the scene: actors Keanu Reeves and Hugo Weaving realize that they were both blind.

"On the first take where Smith and Neo fight, the rain came down and we realized that we couldn't see each other," explains Keanu Reeves. "But we had fought so much together that we actually didn't really have to see each other, which was kind of a cool thing."

The scene, shot entirely in the rain, was so wet that the actors had full wet suits underneath their costumes.