Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Laurence Fishburne talk to Tribute's Bonnie Laufer-Krebs about the final chapter in the Matrix trilogy in this exclusive Canadian interview.

Keanu Reeves

Is it bittersweet to be sitting here and talking about this final installment of The Matrix?

K.R.: Bittersweet? Where's the bitter part? I had a great time! Some of the best days of my life were making these films and I feel great to have been able to be a part of it. It's really exciting that Revolutions is coming out.

When you look back at it all, what surprised you about yourself and your capabilities to play this character?

K.R.: Oh God, I don't know if I could evaluate it like that.

How did Neo influence you? Here's a character that just pushes it to the brink and you do the same.

K.R.: It's lovely to play an honorable man. He's a man who is conflicted but also Neo is a pretty honorable guy. He's also loved, and to be in love with Trinity is one of the greatest things to play.

What is it like working with Carrie-Anne Moss?

K.R.: Oh, she's absolutely amazing. We kind of partnered up, especially in the first one and she's such a remarkable actress and person. What is so remarkable is the way she looks at life and tries to understand herself and others emotionally. How she lives her life and the joy that she wants to have and her bravery as a person is really inspiring. She's funny and beautiful and talented.

Why do you think the Matrix films are so popular?

K.R.: Because they rock! They totally rock man! There is so much movie on the screen. There's ideas, there's Kung Fu, there's interesting relationships. I think that they are ethical and moral and I enjoy and respect and feel that from the filmmakers. I think that they are fun, I think that they are provocative and I think, cinematically, they're unique. I think the acting and the relationships that you see in the films, the editing and the music, the style and the content is just really unique. They are great! Get some popcorn, sit down and watch The Matrix. You know what I mean? All of them. I think the care that Larry and Andy Wachowski, the writers/directors, what they have put in these movies is just, cool.

Is Revolutions going to satisfy die-hard Matrix fans?

K.R.: I don't know. I hope they dig it.

Carrie-Anne Moss

How bittersweet is it that we are sitting here talking about this final episode?

C-A.M.: I know. It is pretty bittersweet, that's a good word for it, and yet, I have had time to grieve it's passing, (laughs) because it has been a while, and now I am in a celebratory state. I really want to celebrate and talk about what a great film it is and being part of it.

How did this experience change you as a person?

C-A.M.: It changed me completely and I changed within it. In playing her (Trinity) it's a deep question and profound for me. It's my journey of my life. In order to play her, I was asked to do stuff that was really challenging for me and sometimes scary. For instance, riding a motorcycle or hanging on a wire after breaking my leg or just being on a wire in general and pushing myself physically when I didn't want to. In the beginning I went to work every day thinking that I was going to get fired because I was just scared and green. I was like, 'how did I get this job?' I became more confident and what the movie asked of me, created Trinity, and out of that, gave me a sense of myself.

What is so beautiful about this film is the relationship between Trinity and Neo. I am sure you could sit here for an hour and talk about Keanu Reeves and your friendship. Your relationship had to have spilled into your characters.

C-A.M.: I love him. I adore him and he is such a great guy and a great human being. He's special. It's hard to explain someone, especially someone like him because he is beyond words. He is such an interesting and lovely person. He is kind beyond kind, generous beyond generous.

How can you walk away from a friendship like that?

C-A.M.: You don't. You are friends forever. You are friends forever in a different capacity. You don't see each other every day anymore but you know you check in to make sure that the other person is doing well.

I don't think anything could have topped your freeway motorcycle scene in Matrix Reloaded, but in Revolutions you have some shining moments. The Club Hell scene for instance must have been fun to shoot.

C-A.M.: You know, it was interesting because it was the absolute opposite of the Zion scene where the dancing took place. Zion is supposed to be this pure beautiful place with naked bodies dancing and there was love everywhere. Then you go to this hell club and it was just freaky and dark and demented, scary and interesting and beautiful and terrifying at the same time. To come in and do that action sequence was great. It reminded me of the first Matrix and doing the government lobby scene with Keanu. My partners in crime this time were Morpheus and Seraph.

Do you think that die-hard Matrix fans are going to be satisfied with Revolutions?

C-A.M.: I think that it really makes you think even more and it explains so many things from the first one. In the first one I felt like my eyes were open and in this one I feel like my eyes are opened even further and my heart is open watching it.

Laurence Fishburne

Morpheus has really evolved from the first movie till now. Can you describe how he's changed?

L.F.: Well, Morpheus is human in this movie. He's dark, mysterious, all-powerful and all-knowing in the first. He's a superhero in thesecond one. In Revolutions, he's just human.

But he keeps the faith.

L.F.: That's what is at the core of his humanity. That is what is central to his humanity in all three movies. The central thing is that he is actually faith in action. He's faith without action in this movie. He doesn't do a lot, but his real thing is to bring us back to the notion of faith. What happens in this movie that is really interesting is that everyone else discovers their faith all around him.

How was it working with Keanu Reeves?

L.F.: Oh man, you know, it's been really quite a journey just working with him and getting to know him and coming to know each other and becoming friends. He is so dear to me and he's funny as hell. His sense of humor is great and it's one of the clearest signs of intelligence. He's one of the funniest people I know and one of the brightest people I know.

This film is a lot about making choices and I was wondering if working on these films has made you think about the choices that you now make?

L.F.: I've always been one to be very thoughtful about my choices. I try to be discerning, so my being involved with this movie is yet again another example of that. This was a choice for me.

The Matrix films are so popular. Everyone was phoning me this morning to find out what this third one was like.

L.F.: Yeah, I know. It's like, listen, you have to tell me! And then you have to make sure you don't tell me this! Yeah, yeah, I get it all the time!

Why do you think they are so popular?

L.F.: Because it's an old myth, or the old story told in a modern context. It transcends culture and class and religion because it goes all the way back to the first story and the first story appears in every culture around the world. So everybody can relate because everyone is familiar with the archetypes and familiar with the mask that is presented through these characters.

So how is this one going to satisfy die-hard Matrix fans?

L.F.: I think this satisfies them in a great way. It leaves it open because every beginning has an end, but nobody wants this to end. There's a world, we have created a world and the world isn't just simple black and white, beginning, middle, end. It is forever. It's eternal because the things that are presented inside the story deal with not just the temporal world but also that which exists outside of that and that which is forever.

So if you got that phone call saying, mmmmm, number four, what do you think?

L.F.: I'd go mmmmm, number four! (laughs)

KEANU: NOTHING MY FANS DO IS STRANGE

THE MATRIX superstar KEANU REEVES has been in the movie business so long, he doesn't find obsessive behaviour by his fans shocking anymore.

The hunky actor - who shot to fame in comedy caper BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE - is aware that big event films like The Matrix and its two sequels can turn into a way of life for some devotees, and finds their fascination amusing.

He says, "People do Matrix costume parties and get Matrix tattoos and that sort of thing.

"But there was a breakfast cereal called Bill and Ted's Excellent Cereal named after that movie, so nothing seems that strange anymore."

Matrix still top of UK box office

The Matrix Revolutions has held onto the top spot in the UK box office chart for a second week.

The film, the final part in the sci-fi trilogy starring Keanu Reeves, enjoyed a record opening weekend worldwide and has so far taken £13.44m in the UK.

Finding Nemo remained in second place, with takings of £1.2m over the weekend - while Seabiscuit rose one place to three.

Intolerable Cruelty was fourth while Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol 1 was fifth. There were no new releases in the top ten, although Jackie Chan's The Medallion was 11th.

Collin Chou: 'The one' for martial arts safety

By John Morgan, Spotlight Health, with medical adviser Stephen A. Shoop, M.D

As the Matrix trilogy comes to a close, a star is emerging – Collin Chou. In the digital world of The Matrix Revolutions, Chou's character protects the Oracle. But in the real world, Chou works to protect kids and novices from martial arts injuries.

Actor Collin Chou advocates planning martial arts moves carefully to avoid injury.

"The most important thing beginners need to remember is that the martial arts they see in movies is all make believe," says Chou, who plays Seraph in Reloaded and Revolutions. "It's not like training or sparring. Every move is carefully planned out beforehand to minimize risks and injuries."

Not only are the routines choreographed in detail, but the floors and sets aren't even real.

"The walls, columns and floors are all made of foam materials so that even if the actors hit them they will not be seriously injured," Chou notes. "In our fight, Keanu (Reeves) mainly got a lot of bruises. No one really got hurt when we were filming because we had a lot of time to prepare the fight sequences."

But that wasn't the case when Chou was filming in Hong Kong, where he began his stunt career at the tender age of 12.

"When you're rushing to complete a sequence, it is really common to suffer injuries like cuts, bruises, sprained joints, concussions and pulled muscle and tendons," Chou explains. "Major injuries include broken bones, internal injuries from falls and cuts that require stitches. Luckily, my wounds have never been serious enough to require surgery, but I have used Chinese herbal remedies and acupuncture to heal some of my internal injuries."

But Chou is quick to point out that martial arts are an excellent form of exercise and do not necessarily inflict injury on their participants.

"Martial arts are a good form of aerobic exercise," Chou reports. "It increases a person's flexibility and agility, and it also keeps the muscles toned."

Chiropractor and fitness author Edythe Heus generally agrees.

"Many forms of MAs are an effective way of training the nervous system resulting in improvements in athleticism," says Heus, who received her doctor of chiropractic medicine from New York Chiropractic College. "Balance, coordination, quickness and flexibility are some of the most positive benefits of martial arts."

Enter the dragon

But some experts are concerned that too many Americans are injured while training in martial arts. According to Safe USA, more than 1.5 million Americans practice martial arts, which include kung fu, tae kwon do, karate and judo.

A George Washington University study indicates that the injury rate for martial arts participants is comparable to rugby. The damage rate was estimated at about one injury for every 48 practice hours. The rate for injuries in rugby is one per every 50 hours. Tennis, by comparison, has only one injury every 1,400 hours.

Researchers also found that females experienced nearly twice as many injuries as males. Korean-style martial-arts — like tae kwon do — were the most unsafe for women, with an injury rate approximately double that of Chinese, Japanese and Southeast Asian martial arts forms.

"Not warming up completely is the most common mistake which may lead to sprained joints and even broken bones," Chou states.

Heus believes poor conditioning and improper stretching may also increase the injury rate for martial arts.

"Care should be taken when it comes to the stretching aspect of the training because this is where injuries may arise in the early stages of training," states Heus, who co-authored the fitness book ProBodX. "Muscles should never be stretched until they've been contracted first."

Heus says shoulder, low back, and knee problems are common but preventable if properly instructed. She outlines why these common martial arts injuries occur:

• Shoulder problems occur because of overuse of the deltoid and supraspinatous muscles that hold the arms up. A sustained posture holding the arm(s) as well as sudden arm snapping may result in shoulder and elbow problems.

• Low back problems can arise from holding a leg up sideways, repetitive kicks and developing one side more than the other as well as improper abdominal development.

• Knee problems can arise from improper stretching, sudden and repetitive kicking and stance problems where a knee is in a hyperextended position.

Eastern wisdom

As exercise programs like kickboxing and many forms of martial arts gain popularity, the 36-year-old Taiwanese actor says such injuries can be avoided by finding a good teacher, improving overall fitness, training properly and selecting the right martial arts style for your body – especially when it comes to kids.

"Finding the right style and a proper teacher is very important," says Chou, who recently became a father of twins. "But I'd wait until children are 7 or 8 years old before letting them start. I believe that if they start too young they will not be able to truly appreciate and absorb what they are learning. Also, I believe that their muscles and joints will be more developed by then to withstand the training."

If fact, the GWU study revealed that martial arts participants with less training – or novices – we more apt to sustain injury. This may be particularly important information for parents to know when selecting a program.

"Another mistake people make is to rush the learning process," Chou says. "In Chinese there is a saying that goes something like this: The faster you want something to happen, the longer it takes. Rushing your training can lead to poor form which may result in injuries."

Chou suggests the internet as a good place to research the different styles of martial arts. And he believes getting referrals for instructors is critical.

"Don't let the credentials, photos or even trophies impress you," Chou cautions. "Most programs welcome parents to observe the classes. Parents can then judge if they like the way the instructor teaches and how other kids behave during the classes."

Chou says kids also need to have fun.

"It is pointless to force your children to learn something when they are not interested, especially when martial arts involve discipline," Chou says. "It is best for your child to tell you if they like the program or not."

But if you prefer watching martial arts instead of kicking and sweating yourself, Chou has more sage advice.

"If you are learning martial arts under proper supervision then martial arts is pretty safe and lots of fun," Chou says. "But watching Matrix Revolutions gives you a similar adrenalin rush even if you are just sitting in the theater."

But maybe avoid the large buttered popcorn.

"The Matrix" mimics Sufi philosophy, speaker says

By NICK KEPPLER
Staff Writer
November 19, 2003

Many viewers believe they are hearing a Christian message when watching the "The Matrix" movies, thanks to the Messiah-like qualities of Neo, the protagonist.

But, according to Salih Adem, The Matrix films actually portray the philosophy of Sufi Muslims, even if it wasn't intentional.

The Matrix trilogy can teach us much about Sufism, a mystic-minded sect of Islam, said physicist and Islam scholar Adem in Monday night's lecture, sponsored by the Islamic Studies Group.

Adem compared the concept of a computer network that has entrapped humanity in an artificial reality - the basis for the plot of the popular sci-fi film trilogy - to the Sufi idea that the physical world is a veil for an ever-present God who is manifested in all things.

"If you ask a Sufi why there is a universe and human beings, he will say it is because God wants to see His Beauty and His Attributes," Adem explained.

Adem, a native of Turkey, is a two-time gold medalist at the International Physics Olympiad, an Olympic-style competition in which people younger than 18 solve physics problems.

He is also the author of several articles about science and religion, and a contributor to the book, "Islamic Perspectives on Science." Adem is now working as a graduate student at the University of Maryland.

Adem was a studying physics at a Turkish university when he began contemplating major philosophical questions, such as "What is life?" and "What is reality?"

Adem was impressed by the attempts made in "The Matrix" movies to investigate such matters. The movies' concept that the matrix could send electronic signals to the brains of its captives, creating a false reality, was an interesting analogy for the nature of consciousness, Adem said.

"Certain wavelengths produce red; certain wavelengths produce blue," Adem said. "How can a difference in the number [of wavelengths] lead to a difference in color?"

Questions like this, which target the nature of consciousness, make up "the greatest mystery in science and philosophy," he added.

"According to Sufis, consciousness is a function of the spirit," Adem said. "What we find in the Quran is that the spirit is the connection, which makes human beings a manifestation of the Divine Names."

"Divine Names are actually various aspects of The One," Adem said, referring to God, not Neo, the Keanu Reeves character known as "the one" for his savior-like role in the battle against the matrix.

All people, places, things and actions are actually mirrors through which God can view Himself, according to the Sufi explanation of existence, Adem said.

"All actions are actually acts of The One, of Allah," Adem explained. "We only perceive different agents."

Adem said that Sufis practice their faith by showing love and mercy - traits for which they believe God created existence.

"Love received from friends, brothers, sisters or lovers are manifestations of the Lover of Loved, who is actually Allah, or God," Adem said.

Adem added that Sufis believe evil separates reality from pure godliness.

"Someone who concentrates too much on his evil cannot feel love," Adem said. "He is trapped in the matrix."

Keanu Reeves Replaces Russell Crowe in Tripoli

Keanu Reeves has replaced Russell Crowe in director Ridley Scott's Tripoli. However, 20th Century Fox has put the film into turnaround, and now co-financing companies are kicking the tires. The movie could have been Reeves' first big role after the "Matrix" trilogy.

Reeves is now attached to the story of how U.S. soldier William Eaton joined forces with an exiled king to overthrow the corrupt ruler of what is now Libya.

Screenwriter William Monahan wrote the script.

Keanu Up For Bill + Ted 3?

November 16, 2003

Hollywood superstar Keanu Reeves wants to star in a third Bill & Ted movie - because he thinks the dumb rockers will be as hilarious as ever aged 40.

Keanu - who plays dimwitted Ted in the hit films - says his co-star Alex Winter is also keen to reprise his role as Bill.

EXCLUSIVE: Set reports from LITTLE BLACK BOOK, CONSTANTINE, and CELLULAR!

A recent extra/stand-in on some big budget Hollywood films, 'Burt' writes in to tell about his experiences on set!

Little Black Book: This Brittany Murphy seems pretty ho-hum. Not to much to report here, in fact you could probably get more information about the movie from the Lights Out site. Everyone was really nice and the days began at 6pm and ended at 6am. Brittany seems very genuine even though I haven't spoken to her. Other extra's have and they say she is "rad". She seems to be having the time of her life during this movie.

The director seems to be taking a very painstaking almost Kubrick-like approach to shooting this film. He has multiple camera's going all the time and shoots many different shots of many different angles repeatedly. While I used to admire this approach, I have come to wonder if this might mean the director is A) unprepared or B) is so unsure of himself he wants to shoot reams of footage and then "find the film" in the editing room. I guess we'll know when the movie opens, right?

I was only booked on this movie for one night but that soon became three. The night shoots were a bit exhausting and thankfully on the last night I was able to cop a lot of z's in my car. They told me to wait there and I would just sleep until a PA, AD or one of the other extra's woke me up for lunch. As the movie was shooting at Universal, I took the opportunity on my last night to drive around Universal when the film wrapped that morning. I saw sets from BACK TO THE FUTURE, THE BREAKFAST CLUB and the house from PSYCHO.

Constantine: Keanu Reeves is rad. Yeah, people say his a bad actor, POINT BREAK sucked, "I am an FBI agent..." blah, blah, blah ... and I am tired of it. Got booked to work this 5:30pm to 5:30am movie on a rush call and I had know idea I was stepping into Reeve's next MATRIX-like blockbuster. This film is about a guy who fights demon's or something, but I was mostly impressed by Keanu's work ethic. No entourage, no hullabaloo, no BS. He gets dropped off in an SUV, and he works. He doesn't have people bringing him his food, or smoking his cigarettes for him. He is there in every sense of the word. In fact, he was working in a scene THAT HE WASN'T EVEN IN. Rachel Weisz needed an eyeline, and rather then have someone else do it, Keanu stood BEHIND the camera so she could actually look at him for the shot. He didn't do this once or twice, he did it like fifteen times. And when one of the extra's was given a line, Keanu and Co. were very cordial to him. And best of all, I think the beautiful Rachel Weisz gave me the eye a few times but I can't be sure.

I spent a decent amount of time on this shoot in my car (I keep getting booked with it) talking on the phone to various people.

Cellular: Stood in on this project. Jason Statham of SNATCH and THE ITALIAN JOB fame is starring in this along with Kim Basinger. I don't know too much about this movie, except to say that the direcor, really knows how to make a movie. He doesn't waste time, he doesn't shoot forever and he knows exactly what is that he wants. I heard he shot all the 2nd Unit stuff for MATRIX 2.

They've been doing a bunch of scenes at various houses and from the times I have peeked at the monitors, the acting looks to be really top notch. Had an interesting moment where this guy was sitting behind me, one of the main actors goofing on another main actor, and when he walked away the other actor made call his performance "as the guy who shot Trinity" in the beginning and end of MATRIX 2. All the actors of very nice and they even eat with us background people.

Thanks again to 'Burt'!

Stay tuned for more on these projects...

The mind behind the Matrix

Nov 13 2003

So just how did Brighouse woman Janet Yale end up jetting all over the world with film stars such as Keanu Reeves? She explains her amazing career in special effects to JENNY PARKIN.

By Jenny Parkin, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

FIVE thousand Sentinels, battle machines, gunfire, smoke, fire , debris and catch-all, general chaos.

This was the special effects list for just one of the scenes in Matrix Revolutions.

And Brighouse woman Janet Yale was at the forefront of making them happen.

The third, eagerly-awaited Matrix film opened at Huddersfield's UCI Cinema last week.

But viewers will have no idea there's a local link to this world-away Hollywood bombast.

Janet, 45, is executive producer of ESC Entertainment, a company set up specifically to find creative and technical answers to the challenges of the script on the Matrix sequels.

What began two years ago with five people in an empty building, set to handle a few computer-generated effects, turned into a workforce of 300.

Something that flashes by on the cinema screen in just a few seconds can take months of hard work to perfect.

Janet, who lives in San Francisco, says: "The workload just kept growing. Originally, five of us got together to do the bullet time shots in the first film.

"For Reloaded, we were just set to handle one scene, called the burly brawl, where Neo (Keanu Reeeves) fights multiple Smiths.

"But we ended up doing the freeway chase and the opening and closing sequences, among others.

"For Revolutions, we put together a scene known as the super burly brawl fought between Smith and Neo, we also took on the main siege sequences where humans battle the Sentinels in Zion's dock."

To achieve this, Janet and her team created a computer-generated Keanu that had to look and move exactly like the actor, as well as whole cities and other sets.

Janet explains: "Most of our development work was spent finding a way to make our computer-generated faces match those of the actors as exactly as possible.

"For Revolutions, we also had to work out how to integrate pouring rain and lightning into everything.

"This sounds like it should be easy but it actually makes even the simplest shots a problem.

"It's always harder to make shots match reality than a fantasy world. The human brain is so used to seeking things like faces and rain that even if you can't figure out what's wrong with it, you know that something is."

Janet continues: "For the siege sequences the biggest problem was sheer volume.

Many of the shots have more than 5,000 Sentinels plus multiple battle machines, gunfire, smoke, fire, debris and general chaos, all to be achieved by computer.

"We shot a lot of pyrotechnic elements - it's always fun blowing things up - but there's really no way to do a swarm of flying Sentinels, other than in computer generated images."

Janet, who went to Whitcliffe Mount School in Cleckheaton then St Hugh's College at Oxford University, began her amazing career in 1980, working for a London company on film title sequences and optical effects.

She says: "This was before computer graphics and all film effects work was done with chemicals, rostrum cameras and optical printers.

"It was basically a craft skill, there was no formal training for it. I stumbled in with an English degree and no real idea of what I wanted to do."

Janet took a temping job, answering phones and somehow never got out of the industry. She has been involved since computer-generated images first took off.

In 1993, she was working for a London company called CFC, now called Framestore CFC - one of the biggest effects companies in London.

Janet says: "We decided to open an office in Los Angeles and I went out to help set the place up. I never came back."

Janet, whose partner is an animator and writer in the movie industry, returns to Brighouse to see her mother every Christmas.

Working on follow-up films to such a massive hit was daunting.

Janet says: "Everything is difficult, from living up to expectations, to the security issues.

"Most movies take between 12 and 20 weeks to shoot. The Matrix sequels shot for three months in California then 10 months in Australia."

Movies with a high quota of special effects are hard on actors - it means they do a lot of "acting against nothing" where computer creations are to be added.

"There's also a lot of extremely boring nonsense where we gather vast amounts of technical data," says Janet.

"For the Revolutions end sequence, where Neo and Smith fight in the sky, they had to be rigged in complicated flying harnesses that allowed them to twist and tumble as if it was a combined fairground ride and flight simulator!

"It was very, very painful for them, not to mention great fun for motion sickness.

"Plus the whole sequence involved constant torrential rain so it was a pretty wet and miserable experience."

Janet says her most enjoyable shoot was a freeway chase for Reloaded, on a one-mile section of road, especially built.

"It was great to watch. The stunt riders were amazing," she says.

Janet has been involved in almost 100 films including Mission: Impossible 2, Armageddon, The Nutty Professor, Mighty Joe Young and Con Air.

But the ones she's enjoyed most have included lower-key Coen brothers films The Hudsucker Proxy and The Big Lebowski, rather than the "special effects monsters".

Now she's working on The Ladykillers, the Coens' remake of the original Ealing comedy with Tom Hanks in the Alec Guinness role.

And that's not all. Janet will be back to work with Keanu again on the film Constantine, and also with Halle Berry in Catwoman.

She says: "I found my way into this business completely by accident.

"I was very lucky. It goes to reinforce what one of my college tutors told me - that there are a lot of jobs out there that school careers advisors know nothing about ..."

Revolutions Coming Home Sooner Than We Thought?

Lackluster box office & online piracy may mean more Neo for Christmas.

November 11, 2003 - When is a film that grosses $85 million in its opening weekend considered a disappointment? When you're Warner Brothers and the film is Matrix Revolutions, the third and final(?) installment in the popular Matrix trilogy.

While the film posted the third highest opening box office total for a Wednesday open, the studio expected the film to come in at number 1. The $85 million in box office receipts from Wednesday to Sunday fell well below expectations as did the $200 million internationally. Like most films in release today, copies of the movie appeared in various Internet groups just hours after the film opened, causing more concern for the studio.

Worried that the time to make money from the franchise may be running out faster than expected, representatives for Warner Home Video contacted some of the major video retailers and rental outlets on Monday to let them know that Revolutions may be coming home a lot sooner than expected. Early January was mentioned but if the box office continues to drop at its current pace, Matrix Revolutions could hit DVD before Christmas.

Adding insult to injury, a possibility was mentioned to one video dealer that the studio may try putting together a 3-movie boxed set for Christmas if Revolutions is released in time to show up in your holiday stocking. According to one video dealer that spoke to IGN FilmForce on condition of anonymity, "Warners is afraid that Revolutions won't sell very well because of the word of mouth on the movie. The only way to make the money on sell-through is to package it with the other two." The retailer went on to say that the number of requests for the film have dropped significantly since the film's opening day.

The big test for the film will be how it fares in its second weekend, when it will be up against the Russell Crowe starrer, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, a film that has been getting extremely positive reviews and advance word of mouth.

Representatives for Warner Home Video would neither confirm nor deny the information but a source at Warners did confirm that a meeting about the DVD release for Matrix Revolutions did occur on Monday. If the film is released early to DVD, we should be hearing an announcement within weeks. Stay tuned.

-- KJB

Keanu by the numbers

Keanu by the numbers

With the blockbuster The Matrix Revolutions once more fueling the mania for Keanu Reeves, here are the highlights from the actor’s career, with US box-office grosses:

* Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989), Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991): Lovable lame-brains Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Reeves) are talentless heavy-metal wannabes on a time-traveling romp to research a school history project. In the sequel, the pals are killed and sent to the underworld, where they engage Death in a battle of wits (and Twister) to return topside. Excellent Adventure, $40.5 million; Bogus Journey, $38 million.

*Point Break (1991): FBI guy Reeves goes undercover as a surfer dude to infiltrate a gang of beach-bum bank robbers led by Patrick Swayze. $40.7 million.

* My Own Private Idaho (1991): Rich kid Reeves goes slumming as a street hustler, befriending narcoleptic male prostitute River Phoenix in a gay modern take on Shakespeare’s Henry IV. $6.4 million.

* Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992): Francis Ford Coppola stakes his vampire claim, with Reeves as a young business agent victimized by the count (Gary Oldman) and his bloodsucking babes, then joining the hunt for the creature. $82.5 million.

* Much Ado About Nothing (1993): Kenneth Branagh’s bonny Shakespeare update casts Reeves as the meanie, who conspires to foil a romance overseen by his benevolent brother (Denzel Washington). $22.5 million.

* Speed (1994): SWAT cop Reeves and involuntary designated driver Sandra Bullock duel with a mad bomber (Dennis Hopper) who has rigged a Los Angeles bus to explode if its velocity drops below 50 mph. $121.2 million.

* A Walk in the Clouds (1995): World War II vet Reeves comes home and volunteers to help a pregnant woman by posing as her hubby to pacify her father. Needless to say, love ensues, along with disapproval from the in-laws. $50 million.

* The Devil’s Advocate (1997): Hotshot young lawyer Reeves is recruited by a powerhouse law firm where his boss (Al Pacino) turns out to be Satan. In other words, a true story. $60.9 million.

* The Matrix (1999): Reeves takes the world by storm as slacker hacker Thomas Anderson, who’s convinced by shady but chic Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss that he’s destined to defeat evil machines, which have created a virtual-reality sham to enslave humanity. $171.4 million.

* The Replacements (2000): Scab quarterback Reeves and substitute coach Gene Hackman whip a bunch of pro football misfits into shape during a player strike. $44.7 million.

* Hardball (2001): Loser gambler Reeves is bailed out by a pal who forces him to coach an inner-city boys baseball team, where he finds salvation and a girlfriend (Diane Lane). $40.2 million.

* The Matrix Reloaded (2003): Reeves is back as Neo, the savior formerly known as Thomas Anderson, during it out with more machines and scores of villainous Agent Smiths (Hugo Weaving) in the middle chapter of the Wachowski brothers’ sci-fi saga. $281.5 million. AP

Matrix a turning point for Carrie-Ann Moss

By Iain Blair

CARRIE-Anne Moss describes The Matrix Revolutions’ as, “an epic war story that’s full of heart.” She also notes that the third and final chapter in filmmakers Andy and Larry Wachowski’s cyberpunk trilogy has been a “life-changing event” for her. No wonder, as Moss’ life and career so far can be divided neatly into two areas: BM—Before Matrix and AM —After Matrix. In her BM mode, the Canadian beauty and ex-model struggled through a variety of straight-to-video roles and projects. Then The Matrix came a-calling in 1999 and Moss found her own true calling —as the tough-as-nails, leather-clad martial artist and rebel fighter Trinity who resurrected Keanu Reeves’ Neo with a kiss.

Moss is now back for the eagerly awaited final act, The Matrix Revolutions, in which she again teams with Neo to fight the machines and save Zion from the Sentinel invaders. But the situation, as the ending of The Matrix Reloaded spelled out, is “pretty desperate” at the start of the new film, explains Moss. “Neo is in a coma, I’m watching over him, and meanwhile the machines are getting closer and closer to Zion.”

To further complicate matters—and increase the stakes—the rogue program Smith (Hugo Weaving) has also managed to infiltrate the mind of Bane (Ian Bliss), a member of the hovercraft fleet, who is also in a coma next to Neo. When Bane and Neo finally regain consciousness, Bane goes on a murderous rampage while Neo once again seeks out The Oracle (Mary Alice) for guidance in his quest to save mankind.

The Matrix Revolutions—which features such familiar characters as Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), Persephone (Monica Bellucci) and her perverse Matrix power-broker husband Merovingian (Lambert Wilson)—also introduces some new characters, including The Trainman (Bruce Spence), who controls all travel between the Matrix and the Machine world.

So what does it all mean?

“I think it means different things for each person,” says Moss. “I think there are so many layers to it, and it’s so deep. It definitely makes you think, but ultimately for me, it’s all about heart and what it makes you feel. And I think that’ll be this film’s biggest surprise for audiences—that a movie with so much action and intensity can also have so much heart and emotion.”

It’s Trinity’s heart and love for Neo that causes her to be so proactive in the final chapter, notes Moss. “She’s not just going to sit around and see what happens to Neo—she takes matters into her own hands, which is something I could really relate to. There’s a lot of Trinity in me.”

The actress goes on to say that, from her perspective, casting Reeves as Neo was, “a perfect fit. He’s so perfect for the role that I can’t imagine anyone else playing the part, and I’m so moved by his journey in this film. People seem to have this image of Keanu as a somewhat mysterious person, but I don’t think of him like that at all. To me, he’s this very open, warm, complicated man, and working with him on all these films was just a joy.”

The Matrix trilogy has been described as “the thinking man’s action film.” What does Moss think? “I’d say it’s the thinking-and-feeling man’s action film,” she says. “I’m not an intellectual, so I really responded to everything on a gut level. Yes, it’s incredibly exciting visually and the special effects will blow people away, but in the end it was the story and the emotions that got me and stayed with me.”

The actress, who is married to writer-producer Steven Roy, recently gave birth to their first child, another “life-changing event,” she says. “And when I look back on The Matrix now, it’s undoubtedly the biggest thing in my career and a great time in my life. It was hard and beautiful, but I wouldn’t do it again.”

Her next film is Suspect Zero, a thriller with Ben Kingsley and Aaron Eckhart. “It’s all about a serial killer and I play an FBI agent,” she reports. “The great thing is that I didn’t have to train for it. But my real big project is the baby. That’s my future.”
--ENS

Keanu Reeves Wants To Fix Family

The Matrix star Keanu Reeves is desperately trying to reconcile his ill sister and estranged mother.

The Hollywood actor is reportedly worried his leukaemia-stricken sister Kim and mom Patric Taylor won't speak again before his sibling loses her battle with the deadly disease, according to the National Enquirer.

Donner Talks Constantine

Lauren Shuler Donner, who is producing the upcoming comic-book film adaptation Constantine, told SCI FI Wire that the movie is based on the DC Comics Hellblazer series, but won't be an origin story. "It's not an origin story of the character," played by Keanu Reeves, Donner said in an interview while promoting her next movie, Timeline. "It's 'Dangerous Habits,' if you know the Hellblazer [series]."

"Dangerous Habits," the 1994 graphic novel by Irish writer Garth Ennis, focuses on John Constantine, a magician faced with death from lung cancer, who finds himself straddling the line between life and death, heaven and hell. "We're filming," Donner said. "We're about a third into it. It's come along great. And it'll be out next year, probably, well, at the moment, September."

Donner added, "We're shooting in L.A. A lot at Warner Brothers. A lot downtown. Two weeks we're in Long Beach. And we're trying to stay as true to the comic as we can, though it's an obscure comic. Not many people know Hellblazer. And it's coming along well. We have a new director named Francis Lawrence, who's just doing a great job. We're very lucky, because he understands actors and understands the importance of telling a story, and not just the visuals. And yet it's going to be very stylish."

'Matrix Revolutions' tops box office

Monday, November 10, 2003 Posted: 7:59 AM EST (1259 GMT)

"The Matrix Revolutions" made 45 percent less in its opening weekend than its predecessor, "The Matrrix Reloaded."

BOX OFFICE TOP 10

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. 'The Matrix Revolutions,' $50.16 million

2. 'Elf,' $32.1 million

3. 'Brother Bear,' $18.6 million

4. 'Scary Movie 3,' $11.1 million

5. 'Radio,' $7.4 million

6. 'Love Actually,' $6.6 million

7. "Mystic River," $4.83 million

8. (tie) 'Runaway Jury,' $4.8 million

8. (tie) 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,' $4.8 million

10. 'The School of Rock,' $3.15 million

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- The sci-fi Matrix saga lost some of its spin at the U.S. box office, with "The Matrix Revolutions" pulling in $50.16 million in its opening weekend -- off 45 percent from the previous chapter's weekend debut.

"Revolutions," pummeled by critics as harshly as "The Matrix Reloaded" was last May, has grossed $85.5 million domestically since debuting Wednesday, according to studio estimates Sunday. While the numbers are high, they are still down from "Reloaded," which had a $91.8 million weekend debut and took in $134.2 million over its first four days.

Distributor Warner Bros. preferred to focus on the worldwide results for "Revolutions." Warner opened the movie simultaneously in a record 109 countries, where it racked up a worldwide total of $204.1 million in five days, beating the previous global high of about $200 million for "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers."

Will Ferrell's Christmas comedy "Elf," about a human raised among the little people at the North Pole, opened strongly in second place with $32.1 million domestically. In narrower release, the romantic comedy "Love Actually" had a healthy debut with $6.6 million, coming in at No. 6.

Despite the domestic debut for the final "Matrix" chapter, the "Matrix" franchise this year already is pushing the $1 billion mark.

"Anytime you have a billion dollars in box office, that's pretty impressive," Joel Silver, producer of "The Matrix" franchise, said Sunday. "I don't know how you point a finger and say there's anything wrong there."

Still, interest clearly has waned in the franchise, which began in 1999 with the Wachowski brothers' "The Matrix," starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss. The movie's sleek black fashion sense and slow-motion visual effects have become one of the most copied looks in movie history.

Many fans of the original were disappointed by "Matrix Reloaded," finding it a lackluster followup that emphasized style over substance.

"Reloaded's" opening weekend -- the second-best ever after "Spider-Man's" $114.8 million -- was greatly due to pent-up demand since the original movie. "Revolutions" lacked that buildup.

"I don't know what film could do $90 million and then repeat that with its next sequel just six months later," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

Playing in 3,502 theaters domestically, "Matrix Revolutions" averaged $14,322 a cinema from Friday to Sunday, down from a $25,472 average for "Matrix Reloaded." "Love Actually," with an ensemble cast including Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson and Laura Linney, averaged $11,458 in 576 cinemas, while "Elf" averaged $9,619 in 3,337 theaters.

Dan Fellman, head of domestic distribution for Warner, said "Matrix Revolutions" may hold up better in subsequent weeks than did "Matrix Reloaded," whose grosses nose-dived in its second weekend. Films tend to have longer shelf life over the holidays than they do in summer-blockbuster season, he said.

"The story really isn't over yet," Fellman said. "We might not have had the same impact in the opening weekend, but you need to play this out for the next few weeks and see if we play a little catchup."

"Elf" and "Love Actually" were scheduled against "Matrix Revolutions" as alternatives to the sci-fi franchise, whose core audience is younger males. Families and children accounted for most of the crowds at "Elf," while "Love Actually" played mainly to women and older adults.

"We assumed we would be swamped, and essentially, we did get swamped" by "Matrix Revolutions," said Russell Schwartz, head of domestic marketing for "Elf" distributor New Line. "We were not trying to be No. 1."

Matrix has 'world record opening'

The final part of The Matrix trilogy has taken $204m (£120m) at cinemas around the world in a record-breaking opening weekend.

The Matrix Revolutions was released on Wednesday at exactly the same time on 18,000 screens in about 100 countries.

Studio Warner Bros said it became the biggest global film opening of all time, beating the $188m (£110m) taken by 2002's Lord of the Rings sequel.

Romantic comedy Love Actually took $6.6 m (£3.89m) at US cinemas.

The film, which features a mainly British cast including Hugh Grant and Martine McCutcheon, came in at number six in the North American box office chart.

Ticket sales

The Matrix Revolution's healthy start ensures its place as one of the biggest franchises in cinematic history.

The first two films - The Matrix from 1999 and this year's The Matrix Reloaded - have already made almost $1.2bn (£710m) combined in worldwide ticket sales.

The franchise has made hundreds of millions more in video and DVD distribution and video game sales.

The latest film took $50.2m (£29.58m) in US and Canadian cinemas between Friday and Sunday, bringing the total since Wednesday to $85.5m (£50.3m).

Family comedy Elf, starring Will Ferrell and James Caan, opened at no 2 in the US, taking $32.1m (£18.92m) over the weekend. Walt Disney 's Brother Bear slipped to third, and horror spoof Scary Movie 3 fell to fourth.

New ‘Matrix’ film has modest debut

Latest in sci-fi saga still gets $85.5 million in opening weekend

ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 9 — The sci-fi Matrix saga lost some of its spin at the U.S. box office, with 典he Matrix Revolutions・pulling in $50.16 million in its opening weekend - off 45 percent from the previous chapter痴 weekend debut.

They don't know what film could do $90 million and then repeat that with its next sequel just six months later.・ — PAUL DERGARABEDIAN

“Anytime you have a billion dollars in box office, that’s pretty impressive,” Joel Silver, producer of “The Matrix” franchise, said Sunday. “I don’t know how you point a finger and say there’s anything wrong there.” Still, interest clearly has waned in the franchise, which began in 1999 with the Wachowski brothers’ “The Matrix,” starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss. The movie’s sleek black fashion sense and slow-motion visual effects have become one of the most copied looks in movie history. Many fans of the original were disappointed by “Matrix Reloaded,” finding it a lackluster followup that emphasized style over substance. “Reloaded’s” opening weekend — the second-best ever after “Spider-Man’s” $114.8 million — was greatly due to pent-up demand since the original movie. “Revolutions” lacked that buildup.

“I don’t know what film could do $90 million and then repeat that with its next sequel just six months later,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. Playing in 3,502 theaters domestically, “Matrix Revolutions” averaged $14,322 a cinema from Friday to Sunday, down from a $25,472 average for “Matrix Reloaded.” “Love Actually,” with an ensemble cast including Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson and Laura Linney, averaged $11,458 in 576 cinemas, while “Elf” averaged $9,619 in 3,337 theaters. Dan Fellman, head of domestic distribution for Warner, said “Matrix Revolutions” may hold up better in subsequent weeks than did “Matrix Reloaded,” whose grosses nose-dived in its second weekend. Films tend to have longer shelf life over the holidays than they do in summer-blockbuster season, he said. “The story really isn’t over yet,” Fellman said. “We might not have had the same impact in the opening weekend, but you need to play this out for the next few weeks and see if we play a little catchup.”

WE DID GET SWAMPED’

“Elf” and “Love Actually” were scheduled against “Matrix Revolutions” as alternatives to the sci-fi franchise, whose core audience is younger males. Families and children accounted for most of the crowds at “Elf,” while “Love Actually” played mainly to women and older adults. “We assumed we would be swamped, and essentially, we did get swamped” by “Matrix Revolutions,” said Russell Schwartz, head of domestic marketing for “Elf” distributor New Line. “We were not trying to be No. 1.” Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. “The Matrix Revolutions,” $50.16 million.

2. “Elf,” $32.1 million.

3. “Brother Bear,” $18.6 million.

4. “Scary Movie 3,” $11.1 million.

5. “Radio,” $7.4 million.

6. “Love Actually,” $6.6 million.

7. “Mystic River,” $4.83 million.

8 (tie). “Runaway Jury,” $4.8 million.

8 (tie). “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” $4.8 million.

10. “The School of Rock,” $3.15 million.

'Matrix Revolutions' Programs $43.1M Worldwide

by Brandon Gray
November 6, 2003

HOLLYWOOD (Box Office Mojo) - The Matrix Revolutions entered 18,000 screens at 10,013 theaters in 109 markets on Wednesday in a massive, simultaneous global assault and emerged with a $43.1 million opening day worldwide, according to distributor Warner Bros.

Most of that sum was made on the domestic front. The conclusion of the Wachowski Bros.' cyber-epic trilogy yielded $24,311,365 at 3,502 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking as the third biggest Wednesday bow of all time behind Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace's $28,542,349 and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers' $26,159,972. Among all opening days, Revolutions landed at No. 11.

By comparison, the last installment The Matrix Reloaded took in $37,508,303 at 3,603 theaters (not including $5 million in previews from the previous night) on its opening day six months ago - Thursday, May 15. Like Reloaded, though, Revolutions's bow summarily trounced the original Matrix, which started with $4,803,310 at 2,704 sites on Wednesday, March 31, 1999.

Revolutions can also boast a first day roughly twice the debut of the third installment of that other Warner Bros.-distributed "man vs. machine" franchise -- Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines grabbed $12,435,320 out of the gate at 3,504 locations last July. It went on to have a $44,041,440 opening weekend and $150,371,112 final gross.

For further perspective, Revolutions has grossed more in one day than Brother Bear has after five days at over 3,000 theaters. The Disney animated feature has dug up $24,035,281 so far, and, like other movies in the marketplace, took a hit with the advent of the latest Matrix.

Reloaded scored the second biggest opening weekend ever -- $91,774,413 - and has pulled in $281,553,689 so far. The first Matrix posted a $27,788,331 debut weekend and enjoyed a leggy run to $171,479,930.

Should Revolutions follow a similar trend as other recent uber-mid-week openers, it may come in at close to $60 million this weekend for a five-day haul of around $95 million. Reloaded had $144,391,066 after five days.

Revolutions' drop-off in opening weekend potency relative to Reloaded is similar to what Back to the Future Part III suffered compared to Part II nearly 14 years ago. Part III pulled in $19,089,645 out of the gate, compared to Part II's $27,835,125. Like Reloaded and Revolutions, both Back to the Future sequels were made simultaneously, debuted four years after the original and were released six months apart. Like Reloaded, Part II was met with a mixed reaction from moviegoers, contributing to the third installment's lower gross.

Keanu Looks to a Career Beyond Neo

Friday, November 07, 2003
By David Germain

BURBANK, Calif. — From featherhead to virtual-reality savior of humanity. What an odd set of bookends to the career of Keanu Reeves (search).

For more than a decade, no matter the far-ranging roles and genres he tried, Reeves was inescapably identified as the most-excellent but nitwitted dude Ted of 1989's "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" and its sequel, "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey."

Now Reeves, 39, faces life after Neo, the most-solemn messiah of "The Matrix" (search) trilogy. What does he do for an encore?

The same thing he's done all along: Mix things up.

"I love doing supporting roles, different genres, different scales of moviemaking," Reeves told The Associated Press during an interview at a soundstage at Warner Bros. (search), the studio behind "The Matrix" franchise. "It's important, it's a wish of mine to be able to do that."

In December, Reeves plays second fiddle to Jack Nicholson (search) in the romantic comedy "Something's Gotta Give," as an emergency-room doctor wooing an older woman (Diane Keaton). Already completed is a role as an orthodontist in the low-budget comedy "Thumbsucker," and Reeves is shooting the occult comic-book adaptation "Constantine."

Reeves' approach -- follow an action flick with a moody independent feature, move from a star turn to an ensemble film -- has fueled Keanu-bashing among critics. Despite serious turns in "Dangerous Liaisons" and "My Own Private Idaho" early in his career, Reeves was pigeonholed by "Bill & Ted" as a screen simpleton and castigated when he strayed from lunkhead parts.

Some of his performances have been called stiff and taciturn. Critics have scorned his attempts at villainous roles in such films as Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare comedy "Much Ado About Nothing."

For all Reeves' aloof exterior, the criticism stings.

"Yeah, I mean bad reviews suck, man," Reeves says. "It's terrible. It's a drag. But it's still just a review. It sucks to have a bad review, but it's not like after I get a bad review, I run outside and start drinking and have a kind of catastrophic depression."

Before he turned brooding into an art form with "The Matrix" movies, Reeves excelled mainly at playing the lovable cretin ("Bill & Ted," Ron Howard's "Parenthood" and Lawrence Kasdan's "I Love You to Death") or the cookie-cutter action hero ("Speed," "Point Break"). He handled those roles so well that critics and audiences sometimes assumed Reeves was a meathead himself.

"Sometimes a lot of journalists feel that Keanu is the people that he plays. It's really not fair to say that," says Joel Silver, producer of "The Matrix" films. "I don't think ("The Sopranos" star) James Gandolfini is in the Mafia. But people think that Keanu is not bright. He is very bright. He's a very good actor. Keanu's very well read, he's very conscious of the world, politics, the economy."

In conversation, Reeves is highly articulate, though he peppers his speech with dude-like "yeah, mans" and the occasional "most certainly." His demeanor is a mix of California casual and fidgety furtiveness.

His co-stars say Reeves is gracious and easygoing, but closer in spirit to the guarded Neo than the goofball Ted.

"I would never say he has the carefree Ted in him," said Carrie-Anne Moss (search), who plays Neo's soul mate, Trinity. "I would say he's so funny and has a great sense of humor. He's a very kind person."

Politely reticent, Reeves gushes about "Matrix" creators Andy and Larry Wachowski and the film work itself, but clams up when things stray to his private life, especially to hard times he has borne.

His sister has been battling leukemia. Three years ago, Reeves and then-girlfriend Jennifer Syme had a stillborn baby. A year later, after the couple had split, Syme died in a car crash. And there was the 1993 drug-overdose death of Reeves' friend and "My Own Private Idaho" co-star River Phoenix.

Asked how he copes, Reeves turns stone-faced and glances away, muttering something about "work and friends and just trying to, uh, oh ...," before his voice trails off.

When he looks back, Reeves has a pained look in his eye as he gives a slight nod for the next question. With wordless courtesy, he has managed to change the subject and make it tacitly clear that such matters are off limits.

"He's very funny when he decides not to talk," says Laurence Fishburne (search), who co-stars as Morpheus in "The Matrix" movies. "I wish I knew how to do it. I've watched him and Clint Eastwood do it. It's amazing. They can just not talk, and that's that."

Born in Lebanon, Reeves is the son of an English showgirl and a Chinese-Hawaiian father. After his parents divorced, Reeves moved with his mother and sister to New York City and later Toronto, where he excelled at hockey and took up acting in his teens.

Reeves appeared in such acclaimed teen dramas as "River's Edge" and "Permanent Record" before "Dangerous Liaisons," "Bill & Ted" and "Parenthood" put him on Hollywood's rising-star list and "Speed" made him a box-office heavyweight.

He looks forward to showcasing a cheerier side in "Something's Gotta Give" and "Thumbsucker," which should help break the perception that he gravitates toward dark, somber characters.

Reeves notes that his pre-Neo Thomas Anderson character in "The Matrix" had a lighter, rogue-ish quality, while his title role in the action-thriller "Constantine" calls for a good dose of irreverence.

So Reeves is lightening up on screen. Has he lightened up in real life?

"I'm older. I'm an older guy," Reeves says, again copping his no-personal-questions-please game face. "So to answer your question, I'll just say yes."

Making sense of The Matrix

Keanu Reeves has a Zen-like calm, writes 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."

Still, he says, fans who love the movies and want to talk bytes find it odd - and there are many fans: after the first Matrix film grossed $US171 million, the second instalment, Matrix Reloaded, pulled in $US735 million.

What's even stranger, though, is the black-curtained room inside a Warner Bros sound stage in which we're sitting to discuss part 3, Matrix Revolutions. Reeves, too, is dressed 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 because he's in the middle of making his next film, called Constantine, in which he plays a supernatural detective.

His all-black attire and some unflattering overhead lighting make 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," Reeves 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 interviews.

The legacy of three Matrix movies, apart from a strapping bank balance - though Reeves denies 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 suffered a miscarriage.

He doesn't allude to either tragedy in the interview, but when the subject of fate comes up, as it inevitably does with The Matrix, he says he has not adopted Neo's 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, and as if to prove the point grew his hair and ditched the buff body and hero stance for unsympathetic characters such 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 reinvented 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 "how long is a piece of string"-type dialogue and Reeves's Neo (The One) gets the best of the lines. "Why do you continue to fight?" Hugo Weaving's Mr Smith asks in Revolutions. "Because I choose to," says Neo.

Even his cadences come across a bit like a page out of 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 says: "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, which one of Reeves's earlier characters would almost certainly have described as "awesome, dude".

"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. Like Tom Cruise, he had problems with dyslexia growing up, which compounded the shyness. But, for example, when I mention that Laurence Fishburne says the third Matrix is his favourite, but adds 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."

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

But 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.

'The Matrix defines me': Campus ready for 3rd film

Zachary A. Goldfarb
Princetonian Senior Writer

After philosophy major J.W. Victor '05 practices his routine for Disiac, he sends a slew of online instant messages to friends at night. Every one includes a little picture of Morpheus.

Morpheus — played by Lawrence Fishburne in the third and final installment of "The Matrix" films, "The Matrix Revolutions," which comes out today — is Victor's favorite character and his IM icon.

"He is strong and confident," Victor, with a shaven head, said. "And he's bald."

Victor is one of scores of Princeton students, intoxicated with the films' philosophy and by its special effects, who are going to see "Revolutions" tonight, six months after the cliffhanger "The Matrix Reloaded" and four years since the original film.

"The Matrix defines me in a way. It's about philosophy and rage," said Victor, who saw the original film 20 times and the second 10 times. "It's wonderful that the film can teach people about philosophical questions, like purpose, meaning and essence."

Eating club TV rooms were packed this week with students watching the first two films, which tell how a small group of humans, led by a messiah-like Neo (Keanu Reeves), tries to destroy machines enslaving humanity in a computer-generated reality.

The clubs have also subsidized and distributed tickets to see the film tonight.

But Princetonians are not only fans of the films. One also partly inspired — and acted in — them.

Andy and Larry Wachowski, brothers who wrote and directed the films, found some themes in the work of religion professor Cornel West GS '80.

West appears in the second and third installments as Counselor West, who serves on the governing council of Zion, the last remaining human city under assault by machines.

At a party after the premiere of "Revolutions" a week ago, West stayed up until 4 a.m. philosophizing with Larry Wachowski.

"Larry is so deep," said West, who spent about three weeks in Australia for the film. "We talked about the differences between resignation, obedience and surrender" — themes he said underpinned the film.

When the Wachowskis asked him to have a part in the movies, West wanted to know if his character would have "dignity."

"Of course he has dignity," West recalled the Wachowskis saying.

Already a famous professor, West said his film exposure "brought it to a whole new level."

He added, "All sorts of fans come with hugs now."

West didn't want to give too many clues about the answers "Revolutions" might provide to the many questions left open in the last film.

But Victor made clear what he would do if someone spoiled those answers before he sees the film tonight.

"Then I wouldn't have the philosophy anymore, and I would have the rage," he said. "And I'd have to take that rage out."

Hollywood High On Installment Plan

(AP) A year has passed since Frodo and Sam continued their ominous trek to Mordor. It's been six months since Neo lay comatose alongside his nemesis. And three more months will pass before the vengeful Bride gets a chance to kill Bill.

Hollywood is in tease mode these days, breaking with the convention that each movie must have a clear beginning, middle and end. Film franchises like "Lord of the Rings," "The Matrix" and "Kill Bill" are dabbling in installment plans, taking their cue from a serial format that dates back to the ancient Greeks.

"Certainly, serialization of entertainment started with literature," said Keanu Reeves, who stars as Neo in "The Matrix" trilogy, which concludes with "The Matrix Revolutions," debuting Wednesday. "The continuation of stories like Oedipus (Sophocles' three-part theater trilogy). It's in the tradition, cycles and trilogies."

The Wachowski brothers shot parts two and three of "The Matrix" simultaneously, a moneysaving method that also allowed them to rush the movies into theaters just a few months apart rather than the typical two or three years.

Likewise, Peter Jackson filmed "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy at the same time, with the films hitting theaters just before Christmas three years running, the final part now six weeks away.

Quentin Tarantino shot "Kill Bill" as one long action tale, then broke it into two parts after he and distributor Miramax decided three hours was too long for a single martial-arts film. Part two debuts in February.

It's more coincidence than trend that these three projects surfaced around the same time. The stories are epics that needed more than a single movie's running time to do them justice, and the unresolved endings required the expediency of simultaneous shooting to get them in theaters quickly, before audiences lost interest.

If Hollywood takes away any lessons, it will be on the bottom line, not the lure of cliffhanger storytelling. Whether a franchise is intended as a serialized story or several self-contained films, studios may be enticed by the cost efficiency of shooting two or more movies in one swoop.

While studios can be stuck with money-losing sequels if the first chapter bombs, the strategy can pay off nicely when part one clicks. If "Kill Bill - Vol. 2" matches the performance of "Vol. 1," Miramax should wind up with a total domestic gross of about $150 million for the two films, a solid return on "Kill Bill's" $65 million budget.

"It depends on the project," said "Matrix" producer Joel Silver, who is developing a big-screen take on the "Wonder Woman" comic books. "Who knows? Maybe if I do `Wonder Woman,' maybe I'll do two at the same time. It all depends on the material."

In the 19th century, novels often were published in installments, and modern authors - notably Stephen King - have had occasional success with serialized fiction.

Television soap operas long have continued that tradition, and TV audiences have become accustomed to season-ending cliffhangers in many sitcoms and dramas.

Cliffhangers were old-hat in Hollywood's early days with such serialized short films as "The Perils of Pauline." It's been rare to apply that approach to full-length movie franchises, whose installments generally stand on their own, such as the "Indiana Jones" or "Jurassic Park" flicks.

The "Star Wars" sequel "The Empire Strikes Back" left loose ends hanging for "The Return of the Jedi" to resolve. The prequels "The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones," while fairly self-contained in themselves, clearly are part of a broader trilogy that will conclude with George Lucas' final "Star Wars" movie in 2005.

Robert Zemeckis' two "Back to the Future" sequels were shot simultaneously and released a year apart, the second one ending with a "to be continued" cliffhanger.

Richard Lester filmed his adaptation of "The Three Musketeers" as one shoot, but the story was broken into two parts, 1974's "The Three Musketeers" and 1975's "The Four Musketeers."

"Which is exactly our situation," "Kill Bill's" Tarantino said. "It was one big Russian epic. And then they sliced it in half."

While rare in America, the practice of shooting movies simultaneously for release in multiple parts has been more common overseas, dating back to silent-film days.

In the 1920s, Fritz Lang filmed both his "Dr. Mabuse" chronicle and "Die Nibelungen," his adaptation of the epic German myth of Siegfried, in two parts.

Asian action sagas frequently have been told in two chapters released a few months or a year apart, including Toshiro Mifune's 1950s "Samurai" trilogy or such Hong Kong two-parters as Chow Yun-Fat's "Rich and Famous" and "Tragic Hero."

Like "Samurai," "The Lord of the Rings" had its roots in a grand literary epic. Early on, there had been discussion about compacting Tolkien's behemoth adventure into one or two movies.

To satisfy fans and do honor to the sprawling story, director Jackson got the go-ahead to divide it into a trilogy, the parts roughly coinciding to Tolkien's three installments, "The Fellowship of the Ring," "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King." Each movie runs three hours, with extended video versions adding half an hour or more to each.

"You couldn't have a 10-hour movie," said Viggo Mortensen, who stars as the human warrior Aragorn in "The Lord of the Rings" films. "I always looked at it as one story, three movies. I never understood the talk of this whole cliffhanger thing. I would say, people who knew the books wouldn't have said anything about that. They would view it as one story broken up into three pieces."

Trinity's end game

As the final "Matrix" flick debuts, Carrie-Anne Moss is determined not to be pegged as a cult-movie heroine.

By Frappa Stout

Just after filming her final turn as leather-clad Trinity, Moss discovered she was pregnant.
Her baby's sex remains a secret to the public.

It's true Carrie-Anne Moss may be better known as her physically perfect alter ego, Trinity, in the blockbuster "Matrix" films than for her body of work. "The Matrix Revolutions", the much-awaited third and final installment of the techno-thriller trilogy, hits theaters Wednesday. In it, Moss returns as Trinity, the kick-butt heroine in black leather who's become a pop-culture icon, a sort of alabaster-skinned Foxy Brown for a new millennium.

Transforming into the cyber-buff character for the second and third movies, which were filmed back to back, took more than a year of hard training. Still, Moss has taken pains not to let it be her defining role.

Not that it's been easy. The media frenzy that has surrounded the hit franchise has made it difficult for the notoriously press-shy Moss, 36, to maintain her privacy, let alone keep Trinity from eclipsing her future. Since 1999's "The Matrix" raised her Hollywood currency a million-fold, roles in the comedy "Chocolat", the suspense drama "Memento" and the sci-fi flick "Red Planet" have allowed her to play a wider range of characters, from a petulant daughter to a scheming ally.

She's relishing her latest role -- motherhood -- with the same level of intensity she's brought to her film work. And it comes as no surprise that when she and actor hubby Steve Roy welcomed the baby this summer, Mama Moss remained mum on the details, down to refusing to reveal the baby's sex. At press time, it was still a mystery.

Training for the trilogy's second and third films left her so sore, "walking to the bathroom in the middle of the night was hard."

But part of the Los Angeles-based actress' reticence, it seems, comes from her desire not to become a poster child for motherhood or a cult-movie heroine -- or anything else, for that matter.

Filming the final two episodes in the trilogy was the most demanding 17 months of her life. Four- to six-hour training days left her consistently sore, "to the point where walking to the bathroom in the middle of the night was hard," she says. Some days, she needed a phone call from co-star Keanu Reeves just to get out of bed. Six months into training, which began in March 2001, Moss broke her left leg during a high-wire routine and needed six weeks on crutches to heal.

When it all ended, Moss looked forward to a lull -- only to find she was pregnant a few months later. "I was in great shape after the movies, but being pregnant definitely changed my feelings about my body," she says. For one thing, she gained "a lot of weight," an issue not many in size-2-minded Hollywood would even discuss. For Moss, it was "a big sigh of relief... I'm creating another human being, so it's OK."

That kind of honesty doesn't surprise old friends like ex-"Ally McBeal" star Gil Bellows, who's known Moss since the 10th grade, when both attended a privileged high school in Vancouver, British Columbia. Moss and her older brother lived with their single mom, who worked hard to provide a good life for her family. "We were unspoiled kids in a spoiled school," Bellows recalls. "She never seemed intimidated and just did her own thing," such as sneaking cigarettes between classes and dressing like her idol, Madonna. Moss still follows her instincts, which means not worrying about a few extra pounds or lying about her age or wondering how long she can hold on to celebrity.

And, happily, not dressing like Trinity.

"It was a tough outfit to get into every day," she says. "I really had enough."

INTERVIEW: LORD JOEL SILVER

INTERVIEW: LORD JOEL SILVER
11.2.03
By Worshippin' Jack Ruby
Contributing sources:

In a letter to Edward R. Murrow in 1955, Groucho Marx wrote in closing, "Regards, affection, admiration and, if you want to toss in a few superlatives of your own, I have no objection. Yours, Groucho." In writing up my umpteenth interview with Hollywood action super-producer Joel Silver (who I've been lucky enough to speak to three times in the past 8 days - this interview, the press conference for Revolutions at the Disney Concert Hall and the Gothika junket), I find that I am running low on superlatives that I haven't used in the past (one can only refer to a producer so many times as a "god" on one website before religious Google searching starts freaking the Christians). It's taken me about half an hour to write this one paragraph because, like a moron, I popped in The Matrix to watch in the background as I wrote it up and, of course, got completely sucked into the thing.

That's a Joel Silver film for you.

This interview is a little bittersweet, at least for me, and it's hard to hide that. There's no franchise I've covered with more verve than The Matrix (I have to admit, I have never taken a locations walking-tour of a city to take pictures of a movie's previous exterior sets as I did with The Matrix in Sydney and as with never hearing the number "42" without thinking of Douglas Adams, no one can say "deja vu" without me thinking, "there's a glitch in the Matrix") and no filmmaker I've seen run with a project more than Silver. The first time I met Silver - for the Swordfish junket - he enthusiastically spoke of the Matrix sequels that were about to start shooting. Beyond a couple of, 'So, are you going to make Matrix prequels/sequels?'-type questions that will inevitably pop up at future junkets, this is the last time, really, that I'll be talking Matrix with Silver as future junkets will be about "what's now and next?" and not, "Hey, remember when you made your Star Wars/Lord of the Rings trilogy?"

But that's Hollywood, so whatever. Onwards and upwards. Without further ado, here's the legendary Lord Joel Silver, the greatest action producer of all time and the man whose The Matrix Revolutions, every last damn one of you will be seeing this week as we sat down for an interview on Stage 22 of the Warners lot two Sundays ago chatting about his latest film.

We started chatting about this or that beforehand and I mentioned my love of Demon Knight ...

Lord Joel: That was a good one. Jada [Pinkett-Smith] was in that.

S.J.R.: True. Like with Jada and people like Halle Berry who you're on number four with, you work with a number of talented folks time and time again. Have you discussed working with the Wachowski Brothers again post-Matrix?

Lord Joel: Well, they wrote a script for me for V for Vendetta, which is this great Alan Moore comic book - years ago - and they've talked about producing it with me and bringing somebody in to direct it that they like. I mean, they're fantastic guys. They're going to take some time off now. I lived with the movie for seven years - they lived with it for ten, so they beat me by three. But, they're pretty burned out from the whole process, but whatever they want to do it'll be great. They're passionate about their art, but their art is commercial, so it's a miracle that you have two people there that have a chance to make something so special for themselves that is in touch with so many people. I'd love to work with them forever, whatever they want to do.

S.J.R.: How do you feel Reloaded and Revolutions will change the way films are made? Kill Bill was cut in half, Lord of the Rings was made all at once - do you think we're going to see more of a serial type of filmmaking and release where franchises are made this way?

Lord Joel: Well, it's always been that way. I remember when I was a kid, Richard Lester made those two Three Musketeer movies together and then Donner actually did shoot Superman I and II together - he didn't finish the second one and they put in Lester. Bob Zemeckis did those two Back to the Future's back to back. I tried to do Lethal Weapon 3 and 4 together, but I couldn't pull it together in time. I really think that New Line was ballsier than we were because they actually went out and made all three movies. But they did have a piece of material that people knew about. If you look at what we did, the guys had the story, but it was a miracle enough getting the first one made - forget trying to make three at the same time. But making two at the same time just makes sense. I mean, financially there was just no way. It would've cost too much to make one and then another one after that.

S.J.R.: I re-watched the first two movies just before going in to see the third and as much talk as there was of Reloaded and Revolutions going together, the way it's cut, they are three radically different movies that tackle very different things. What was the tone you were going for here on the third one?

Lord Joel: [The Wachowski Brothers] were very clear from the beginning that they were going to be three very different movies. The first movie is about discovery, it's about his introduction to a new idea, a new world, a new way of seeing things. The second picture was very philosophical. It had a great discussion inside it about the paths that one can take to follow the journey that one must pursue to reach a final event of some sort, but it's left completely open. Also, they made a big point in the second one of debunking the first movie. In the second movie, they pretty much negate the prophecy, they negate the Oracle and they end up negating everything that you've seen up until then, so you're starting almost with a clean slate. And then the third movie is resolution. It's a war movie. It's a giant comic book. The fight between Smith and Neo is the classic comic book fight we've seen or read about our whole lives. So, they wanted a much cleaner path in the last picture. I've always felt, even at the beginning when we started the process of making two movies, I always thought that the first one could come out with tremendous hype because it was the first Matrix movie that had come out in four years. But I always felt that Revolutions was a much more satisfying movie because it really resolved the story.

S.J.R.: Do you have a favorite of the three or can you even so close after finishing the trilogy?

Lord Joel: We just finished Revolutions last Thursday. I mean, the last shots for Reel 4 went in last Thursday, so it's literally been ten days. I've only seen it once since it's been finished. But when you analyze the three movies, I love the war movie aesthetic of Revolutions. I love the siege sequence. I just love how they did that. Throughout the publicity of the first picture, I talked about raising the bar on the visual effects and I was really talking about both movies. People, of course, localized and said, 'What are you talking about?' While there are some phenomenal things in Reloaded, the things we did in Revolutions, I mean that siege sequence is amazing.

S.J.R.: I was talking to some of the guys who have seen it and we agreed - it's the best science fiction war sequence since the Hoth assault in Empire.

Lord Joel: It's really funny how things come together. When we hired Square to do The Final Flight of the Osiris and they did their first sketches for it, they had this idea that when the Osiris comes up on the crater and it sees the Sentinels, what they did is they had them swarm in this rope-type movements. I remember Larry said, 'That's a really cool idea!' Again, these guys are very collaborative. They're very clear about their ideas, but they're very collaborative. They take ideas from a lot of people and put it together. They said, 'That's a really cool idea!' I just love the image they call the 'Hand of God' shot where all the hundreds of thousands of sentinels form these tentacles. It's a pretty spectacular image. I love that. But when you look back and see the three movies, I hope that we get a chance - we're going to put a DVD out of Revolutions in the spring - and I hope that next fall, our intention is to put out a really monumental three-disc set.

S.J.R.: Was that what happened with the first Matrix? There was a big special edition of that coming out that then got pulled.

Lord Joel: Yeah, we decided to do it now. The boys always wanted to re-transfer the first film. They weren't really happy with it. They always thought it was too light. They didn't really have the time then. They want to re-transfer 1 and they want to connect all of the scenes that they shot for the videogame with the DVD. There'll be some kind of an icon that you'll go to that go right to the scenes from the videogame that will continue and then you can go back to the movie. You'll be able to follow all of that and then do a lot of stuff that they want to do, so there'll be a big three-part next fall. That's our intention. But the thing is, when you watch all three of them together, I really feel...after I saw Two Towers, I went out right away and got a print of Fellowship of the Ring and I watched it again. I wanted to see how it tracked and it was very effective. It worked very well. But I really believe, not having seen all three of these together yet, that when you watch all three of them it will be a really excellent experience.

S.J.R.: With the final fight between Smith and Neo, it's been talked about for some time that Warner Brothers is coming out with a new Superman movie. How are they intending to one-up that?

Lord Joel: I don't know!

S.J.R.: I don't mean that just as a superlative, it's pretty incredible.

Lord Joel: I agree. I mean, I'm doing Wonder Woman now and I have been tortured on how to do it in a fresh, unique way. I knew what was there in Revolutions, I knew what we had done - and yes, she flies on air currents, but how do you deal with that? Some of those moments when those two forces come together, it's pretty spectacular?

S.J.R.: How much of that was boarded out before and how much was about "finding something" on set or in post-?

Lord Joel: All boarded out. This was exactly in the script. They're very precise in their writing. They write their scripts not so much for presentation, but for the cast and crew people who are going to work on the movie so they can see what they need. They're very clear and then with Geoff Darrow and Steve Skroce, they really can show what they mean. So, it's a combination of writing it and storyboarding it. It's right there.

We talked a little about the various franchises that compete with The Matrix, but then went back into on-the-record fun.

Lord Joel: I think spontaneity doesn't just come from being spontaneous. It comes from the spark of invention and the Wachowski Brothers are very passionate about what they're doing, but they're very original. I remember the first day they showed me the APU. When I read it, I thought it would be like the loader. We're in the same boat, we know the same movies and I said, 'Is this like the loader from Aliens?' They said, 'Well, not really.' And I said, 'Well, what's different?' They said, 'When we have a drawing of it, we'll show you.' And then they called and said, 'I'm going to fax you something we want you to see' and when I saw Geoff Darrow's drawing of the APU, it wasn't the loader. It was a very different thing. They described it in the script as it was, but in my mind's eye, I saw it as the thing I'd seen before with Ripley sitting in it. But they really crafted this thing that has muscles and gets up and does all that. They did all that and when you see it standing there moving and firing, it's really a very unique thing.

S.J.R.: The way the APU's cock and load, it feels like you're inside a gun instead of a clunky, dual purpose device.

Lord Joel: Exactly. And there are things you don't even see. For example, they made one for my office and you don't really see it, but some of the ones had another gun module in their backs so that if the gun jammed, they could eject it and [mimes putting his hand behind his back] pull another gun module from behind their back. The one that they made me actually has the gun module in the back. That didn't get into the movie, but that was one of the ideas the boys had.

S.J.R.: Is that a new addition to your lobby menagerie? [S.J.R. Note: The lobby of Silver Pictures is the greatest in Hollywood - framed posters of dozens of films, the Predator in a glass case, a rail gun, a pinball machine, you name it]

Lord Joel: Oh, no, it's too big. But the whole idea of how that thing fires - 'knuckle up,' that was the phrase that they said when pulling the new gun.

S.J.R.: You said you've been working on this for seven years - is it a little bittersweet to know that after the next couple of weeks when Revolutions comes out, you'll be moving away from the franchise and won't be working on it, living with it or getting to talk about it anymore?

Lord Joel: I really felt tortured during the whole period of reading the bad press about Reloaded because I told everybody that would listen to me that it was half a movie. I said that at every screening - 'This is half a movie,' 'You're seeing only the first half,' 'It's half a movie.' But it didn't matter. Everybody - they write what they want to write. They said, 'Well, it's not even a whole movie!' Yeah, well, we said that. I got beaten up personally. I was like, 'Let them see the sequel.' When they see Revolutions, I hope it will all make sense. The visual effects are there and the story ends. I was anxious for people to see it, but I don't really want to talk about it. I didn't do the kind of press for Revolutions that we did for Reloaded. I knew that Reloaded could have all this hype and this excitement, but I wanted Revolutions to just come out. I wanted people to see it. I didn't really want to have to talk and explain it, though the talented executives at the studio may disagree with me in some ways. They said, 'People want to ask questions and they want to do this,' so I said, 'Okay, then we'll do a much smaller version of what we did last time.' It was really a global, worldwide thing. But I really felt that once this movie came out, it would quiet the naysayers, it would quiet the people that were disgruntled. They would say, 'Oh, now we see!' They now understand what it is. But it is going to be sad. I'm going to be sad. I feel proud of the achievement that they did and that I was able to help them do it. Lord of the Rings was a book! Batman was a comic book. Like Star Wars, these guys came up with by themselves and crafted it themselves - all the ideas, all the images came from them. It's really an original creation. Of course, I'm sad. We lived through this experience and now it's done. It's going to have other lives. I mean, there's discussion about an online game that they're talking about that will hit, but this story is over. They're talking about doing another videogame that the boys might do with Atari and that would focus more on a prequel story.

S.J.R.: Gothika is hitting next month, you already mentioned Wonder Woman and there are others that come up, but what really are you looking to do next? Another giant, epic trilogy or something in a different direction?

Lord Joel: I'm really happy with Gothika. It is the best of these Dark Castle movies. It is a little more sophisticated...I mean, I like Ghost Ship, I like Thirteen Ghosts...

S.J.R.: I love House on Haunted Hill.

Lord Joel: Yeah, I like that one, too. I like them all, but this is a little different than those and I'm really happy with it. I just realized how good these movies did this weekend with Texas Chainsaw Massacre and next with Scary Movie 3 and I'm glad we moved it because it needed more work and it really came out great. I don't know what I'm going to do next. I have a lot of things that are percolating.

And that's His Holiness, Lord Joel Silver, the producer of the Matrix franchise. We'll have more from Silver in a write-up of the press conference he and the Matrix Revolutions cast participated in on the day of the film's premiere at the brand new Frank Gehry-designed Disney Concert Hall in downtown L.A. On top of that, we'll also have Silver a little later in the month talking all about Gothika.

Tune in tomorrow for our one-on-one with Trinity herself, Carrie-Anne Moss. The Matrix Revolutions opens on Wednesday, November 5th, in theaters pretty much everywhere around the globe.

Oh, and an open note to Entertainment Weekly. Any so-called "power list" that places Jerry Bruckheimer at #1 over Silver at #29 is a fucking joke. Remember Kangaroo Jack? Remember Bad Company? Remember Pearl Harbor? Remember that the Skin premiere came in at #5 in the Nielsen's? I'll take any five Joel Silver movies over a Bruckheimer flick any day of the week. But hell, the same list suggested Reese Witherspoon, Eminem and J.K. Rowling were more "powerful" than Silver, so they can go...um...fuck a squirrel to death or something. And then not remember.

Wish your cloud had a Silver lining on our message boards!

KEANU EXPLAINS HIS SOLO BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

KEANU EXPLAINS HIS SOLO BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

THE MATRIX star KEANU REEVES is amazed so many people were shocked at his decision to dine alone on his birthday this year (03).

The Lebanon-born actor marked his 39th birthday with a solitary meal at West Hollywood eatery DAN TANA'S on 2 September (03), even ignoring advances from a bevy of beauties dining at the restaurant.

And while Reeve's lack of dining partner made headlines, the screen hunk fails to understand what all the fuss is about.

He says, "I needed some time alone, and it just happened to fall on my birthday."

And while Reeves agrees that money can't buy happiness, he adds, "But you can get a good bottle of wine and a steak at Dan Tana's, and I was very grateful for that! So it helps. But no, obviously...

"It was a good day. It wasn't as terrible as they made it sound."

Matrix mania returns to Australia

Stars of The Matrix trilogy returned to Sydney, Australia - where the films were shot - for a glittering première at the city's Opera House.

The Matrix Revolutions, the final instalment, gets a simultaneous global release at 1400 GMT on Wednesday.

Actor Keanu Reeves said it felt "right" to be back where filming began in 1997.

One of the first reviews said the film was better than The Matrix Reloaded but failed to capture the first movie's "jaw-dropping exhilaration".

The famous opera house, more used to hosting classical concerts and operas, was lit up with green lasers to match the science fiction film's style.

Sad end

Reeves was accompanied by Hugo Weaving, who plays Agent Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, who plays Niobe, and producer Joel Silver.

"It couldn't have been made anywhere else," Silver said. "And it's wonderful to work in a place where you're wanted."

He said fans would "love it" despite some poor reviews for the second instalment when that was released in May.

"I think they'll be sad because it's the end of the story," he said, adding that there would definitely be no more Matrix films.

'Unsatisfying'

Weaving added: "It will be sad to say goodbye."

The Hollywood Reporter's reviewer, Michael Rechtshaffen, wrote that the saga did not end with a bang or a whimper but "falls somewhere in between".

Film-makers "cooked up some dazzling new set-pieces, [but] the disjointed story elements prevent them from forming any kind of satisfying, cohesive whole", he wrote.

Matrix Revolutions concludes the epic war between man and machine, and forces the ultimate confrontation between Keanu Reeves' character Neo and the rogue Agent Smith.

Matrix makes history but gets panned

AFP - The Matrix: Revolutions, the third and final film in the sci-fi series starring Keanu Reeves, made history with a simultaneous debut in 80 countries around the world.

US critics panned the $US200 million ($A285 million) epic, but fans ignored them and lined up outside cinemas from Moscow to Beijing to Los Angeles, often crawling out of bed early or staying up late at night.

Under an unprecedented distribution system, the film was launched at 1400 GMT (0100 AEDT) around the world, so Los Angeles fans of the saga had to be at the movie theatre at 6am, while those in Tokyo saw it at 11pm and those in the Peruvian capital were served breakfast for a 9am showing.

The film -- in which Reeves plays Neo, a hero on a mission to save mankind and fight against machines dominating a world of virtual reality -- was shown in 3,500 cinemas across the United States alone, according to the industry review Variety.

Reeves and co-star Jada Pinkett Smith were in Tokyo, where they watched a countdown event at the Shinjuku Milano-za movie theatre, illuminated by green flood lights -- the movie's theme colour.

Yoshihisa Fujieda, 27, came to the theatre with three dozen fans dressed as characters from the movie. They met through an Internet site for Japanese Matrix fans.

"I like the movie's extraordinary action scenes. I am dying to know how it will end," said Fujieda, a farmer who travelled more than two hours on trains from his home town of Narita.

He wore the costume of characters The Twins, with his face painted white, wearing white dreadlocks, in a white suit. Other fans dressed as the villain Agent Smith in dark suits and tie.

In Moscow, Russian Communists staged a "flash mob" at the movie screening, seizing the opportunity to heighten their appeal to young people ahead of a December poll.

Two rows of young militants lined the staircase descending from Moscow's largest cinema into Pushkin square, each wearing a red T-shirt with a florescent letter to read out "We are the NEO-Communists" and "Destroy the Matrix."

The young people wore Matrix-style dark glasses and the pointed "Budyenny" helmets worn by Red Army forces during the Russian civil war of 1918-20.

In Beijing, some 600 filmgoers watched the film at the Oriental Plaza moviehouse, one of the city's newest and most modern cinemas.

"It's being shown all over the world at the same time so we thought it would be fun to be a part of this," said one woman clinging to her boyfriend's arm.

Most Chinese film buffs are used to seeing pirated DVD or video CD versions, bought for as little as one dollar, of films that come out only days after they premier.

With tickets for Wednesday's premier selling for between 50 and 80 yuan ($A7.00-$13.00), many people said they would just wait until the pirated version came out.

Time Warner chairman Richard Parsons was at a special preview in New York where the specially invited audience was scrupulously searched before being allowed in.

Warner Bros film studio has taken a major gamble on the film, which at an estimated $US200 million is one of the most expensive in history.

The first Matrix which came out in 1999 earned $US475 million ($A677.75 million) and the follow up Matrix Reloaded this year made $US734 million ($A1.05 billion). The second movie made $US158 million ($A225.73) millions dollars in the first week of its release.

But Revolutions has been ripped by US critics.

"There is very little that is tantalising or suspenseful," according to the New York Times. "The feeling of revelation is gone, and many of the teasing implications of Reloaded have been abandoned."

The Washington Post lambasted the flick as "a soggy mess, essentially a loud, wild 100-minute battle movie bookended by an incomprehensible beginning and a laughable ending."

The Saint Paul Pioneer Press said it is "so tedious and unoriginal that it's more like The Matrix Repetitions."

Fans hope 'Revolutions' wraps up loose ends.

Published November 2, 2003

Keanu Reeves stars as The One, or Neo, in "The Matrix Revolutions," which features the Machine City, from which machines wage a battle upon the free residents of Zion, a city of rebels who escaped from the false world created by the machines.Warner Bros.

Enter the Matrix

• At Campbell 16 Cine, 4005 South Ave: "Revolutions" opens at 8 a.m. Wednesday. Advance tickets available at the box office or by calling 890-8454.

• At Springfield 8, Battlefield Road and U.S. 65: Opens at 8 a.m. Wednesday, no advance ticket sales. Call 882-7469.

• At Branson I-MAX Theater, 3562 Shepherd of the Hills Expressway. Opens at 9 p.m. Wednesday. Advance tickets available at the box office or by calling 335-4832.

'The Matrix' theories

"The Matrix Revolutions" has movie goers speculating about the plot lines, outcomes and characters. Here are few theories bouncing around water coolers, chat rooms and home theaters:

MATRIX WITHIN A MATRIX

This theory assumes the Wachowski brothers will use a "Russian doll" plot device whereby the "real" world of freed humans is actually another Matrix and another form of control. Some say this explains why Neo is able to use his powers outside the Matrix at the end of "Reloaded."

THE DEATH OF NEO

Because of the Christ-like symbolism associated with the character, some believe Neo will sacrifice his own life to bring an

end to the Matrix and free the human race.

MEROVINGIAN AS A PAST 'ONE'

In his quest, Neo must free the Keymaker from imprisonment by a man named the Merovingian. When he refuses to give up the Keymaker, the Merovingian's girlfriend Persephone does it behind his back. Persephone says the Merovingian was once "like him," referring to Neo. Some say this indicates the Merovingian is a past "One" left over from an older version of the Matrix.

PERSEPHONE AS THE 'MOTHER'

In his conversation with Neo, the Architect says he needed a partner to help create the Matrix. If he is the father of the system, the other entity would be its mother. When Neo replies, "The Oracle," the Architect scoffs. This had led some to believe he was actually speaking of Persephone, not The Oracle.

WINNING THE WAR

The Oracle's prophecy says the coming of The One will signal the end of the war between man and the machines. Although it's assumed the humans will win — and destroy the Matrix — some believe man and machines will learn to co-exist in the end.

By Michael A. Brothers
News-Leader

What is the Matrix?

The question has plagued moviegoers ever since sci-fi thriller and philosophical mind-bender "The Matrix" hit theaters in 1999.

The question marks multiplied like Agent Smiths when "The Matrix Reloaded" was released in May. The second part of a trilogy, "Reloaded" ended with an abrupt cliffhanger.

Now come the answers.

On Wednesday, the fates of Neo, Trinity, Morpheus and the rest of the human race will finally be revealed with the release of the saga's concluding chapter, "The Matrix Revolutions."

For "Matrix" fans, "Revolutions" is a chance to confirm or deny their myriad plot theories.

For some, it's a chance for the trilogy's creators, Andy and Larry Wachowski, to redeem the franchise after a somewhat disappointing showing with "Reloaded," which many perceived to be more style than substance.

"It really had mixed reviews and it seemed kind of hit-and-miss in terms of how it was received," says Scott Adams, 32, of Springfield. "It just seemed like there wasn't a whole lot of depth to it. It was a lot of effects, a lot of flash, but not a whole lot of substance."

"Reloaded" featured two much-hyped action scenes: the "burly brawl" in which Neo battles 100 replicas of his nemesis Agent Smith, and a high-speed car chase on a crowded freeway.

Although a cool concept, some fans thought the brawl with Agent Smith looked fake — more Xbox game than special effects. Much of the fighting in the rest of the film felt gratuitous at times. And there's the ending, or lack thereof.

Despite some flaws, audiences plugged into

"Reloaded" in a big way. The film has earned $734 million at box offices worldwide, according to Warner Bros. Studios.

Fan Zoey Engel, 22, says he truly enjoyed the flick. He didn't expect it to be quite as satisfying as the original movie because it is the middle portion of a three-part tale.

"I knew it was going to have a cliffhanger," he says. "In a sense, 'Reloaded' is like 'The Empire Strikes Back.' It ends on a bummer, on a down note. But (the characters) come back in the third movie. That's what you hope, anyway."

Of course, the original "Matrix" was a hard act to follow. Its innovative "bullet time" freeze-frame camera work revolutionized action flicks and has been imitated and parodied over and over since its release.

The film's plot struck a chord with an increasingly homogenized American public. It was an action flick for the brain.

Is there such a thing as choice? How do you define reality?

"The amazing thing about 'The Matrix' is when you walk out of that film, you ask a question that Plato wanted us to ask, Descartes wanted us to ask — Is the reality as we perceive it the true reality?" says Glenn Yeffeth, author of "Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in The Matrix" (BenBella Books; $17.95).

"I think almost everyone who walks out of 'The Matrix' at least for a split second thinks, 'Boy, I wonder if we are in the Matrix?' "

For the uninitiated, "The Matrix" story arc breaks down like this:

The human race has been enslaved by machines.

In the first film Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, learns the world as he knows it isn't real. Super-intelligent machines use humans as an energy source, placating them by hooking their minds into an artificial reality program — the Matrix.

After being "unplugged" and introduced to a post-Armageddon world ruled by machines, Neo joins a band of rebels led by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and begins to fall in love with Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss).

Morpheus believes Neo is The One, the messiah who will save the human race, as prophesied by a psychic known as The Oracle. At the end of the film, Neo fully realizes his power to manipulate Matrix programming.

The result is a slew of eye-candy fight scenes and explosive action.

In the second film we see Zion, the city of freed humans, and meet a larger cast of fighters staving off a machine invasion of Zion. Through his exploration of the Matrix, Neo meets The Architect — the original programmer.

Then, the bombshell: The Architect tells Neo that Zion and the Matrix have been created and destroyed five times. He is the sixth One. The power of The One to manipulate the Matrix is a glitch the Architect cannot control. In order to contain The One, a system was created to return him to The Source code, thereby rebooting the Matrix and allowing the human race to continue — albeit under enslavement.

Instead of saving Zion by returning to The Source, Neo chooses to return to the Matrix and save Trinity, whose life is in danger. The film ends abruptly, just as Neo discovers that he can use his powers in the "real" world outside the Matrix.

Is that world real? Is the Oracle helping Neo fight the system or is she a part of it? How can Neo end the Matrix cycle? Will Zion be saved or destroyed?

Can the Wachowskis wrap up all the loose ends without resorting to cheesy plot devices?

Fans' burning desire to know how it all turns out — and their hope that "Revolutions" will leave them more satisfied than "Reloaded" — will likely add up to a huge opening week for the film at the box office.

Consider this: "Reloaded" set the record for the largest single week ever with $158.2 million and reached the $150 million mark in a record-breaking six days domestically, according to Warner Bros. That's without a cliffhanger at the end of the original movie.

And Warner Bros. has announced it will debut the film at the exact same hour — the zero hour — all over the globe. "Revolutions" will light up screens 8 a.m. Wednesday in Springfield, 2 p.m. in London, and 11 p.m. in Tokyo. On the franchise's official Web site, www.thematrix .com, a clock counts the days, hours and minutes to the zero hour.

It's the first movie to be released at the exact same time worldwide.

Kendra Sparrow, general manager at Campbell 16 Cine, says advance ticket sales for "Revolutions" are on par with "Reloaded." The film will play on three screens at the theater.

Springfield 8 isn't selling advance tickets, and manager James Jackson says he expects people will be lined up Tuesday night to re-enter the Matrix on Wednesday. "Revolutions" will play on two screens there.

The zero hour is something completely new for both theaters, where employees are used to working afternoons and late night shifts.

"People usually look for a midnight show the night before, so this is very different," Sparrow says.

Dave Rumley, a "Matrix" fan and young adults pastor at Central Assembly of God, says the zero hour concept is cool, but nothing more than a gimmick.

"They're trying to keep thinking outside the box and continue that vibe," he says. "But I don't care if I'm watching it at the exact same time as everyone else. I just want to watch it."

Rumley, who has a master's degree in theology, is deeply interested in the philosophical and religious references within "The Matrix." He sometimes uses the movie as way to relate his sermons to the young adults group at Central Assembly.

"(The Wachowski brothers) are coming from a post-modern perspective because they've got different religions blended together," he says. "They've really thought about the philosophical backdrop of the movie."

In the first film, Neo is betrayed by a member of his group, much like Judas betrayed Jesus in the New Testament. Neo's Christ-like role makes many wonder if he will sacrifice his own life to save the rest of humanity at the end of the trilogy.

Zion is a biblical reference, and the concept of reality not being real is a principle tenet of Buddhism, Rumley says. Agent Smith and Neo have become intertwined in a ying-yang, good-evil relationship, the consequences of which will be fully revealed in "Revolutions."

Rumley is hoping for a juicy plot line payoff from the Wachowskis.

"To me it seems like they are going for making some kind of a statement," he says. "They've gone through some kind of philosophical journey in life."

In addition to religion, the Wachowskis borrowed heavily from established science fiction themes.

Science fiction writer Paul Di Filippo, author of "Ribofunk" (Four Walls Eight Windows; $20) identifies numerous literary precedents, notably the work of Philip K. Dick, whose 1981 novel "Valis" features a central character who's awakened by a pink light beam (much like the red pill taken by Neo) to realize that his world is actually an illusion that obscures the real age, a Roman era known as the "Black Iron Prison."

Di Filippo says it's not unusual for Hollywood to ride behind the curve when adopting the ideas of science-fiction writers. "Star Wars," he says, sprang from the science fiction of the 1940s, as well as such authors as Frank Herbert ("Dune") and Isaac Asimov ("The Foundation" trilogy).

Much of "The Matrix" takes its cues from science fiction's so-called cyberpunk movement, perhaps best represented by William Gibson's novel "Neuromancer," which coined the term "cyberspace" in 1984. In the book, hacker "cowboys" enter virtual reality to unravel a Dashiell Hammett-style mystery.

But "The Matrix" has garnered a much larger audience than those novels and may even be altering the way people think and act.

Di Filippo says recent protests against globalization, including the Seattle riots during the 1999 world trade conference, exhibit a Matrix-type attitude.

"I'm wondering if maybe the most lasting impact of 'The Matrix' may not be this kind of 'fight the power' anti-authoritarian take on things," he says. "Nobody's saying necessarily that (President) Bush is an android or it's all an illusion or something, and yet there's this sense there's this structure that's bigger than us. It's come to overwhelm us and render the life of the individual rather insignificant. So somehow, I think 'The Matrix' films may be simultaneously tapping into that and fostering it."

Local fans agree that "The Matrix" has already made a lasting impact on movie-making, especially on sci-fi and action films.

But will the films be regarded as the greatest movie trilogy of all time, right up there with the original "Star Wars" films?

That's just another question mark to add to the list.

"It depends on how the third one ends," says Brian Bounds, a 27-year-old fan. "If a lot of questions don't get answered, a lot of people might be mad and won't like it as much as they would have otherwise. But I think it will leave a legacy, definitely. It's already created a kind of subculture with all the chat rooms, Web sites, video games and comics they've created."

Gannett News Service contributed to this report.

Black carpet rolls out for Matrix premiere

Monday, 3 November 2003

SYDNEY: Stars in slit dresses and slick suits shivered their way up a black, rubber carpet at the wintry Sydney premiere of Matrix Revolutions last night.

International and home-bred actors, singers, socialites and politicians attended the green-lit Opera House event for the second of three world premieres of the third instalment of the Matrix trilogy.

Matrix star Keanu Reeves signed T-shirts and tickets and posed for photographs with fans as he climbed the steps of the Opera House.

Jada Pinkett Smith, whose character Niobe is an ace hovercraft pilot, navigated her way down the non-slip carpet in high stilettos.

"I just flew in today, it's a little bit surreal," Pinkett Smith said.

"I'm a bit dazed and I'm very cold but I'm here and I'm standing tall."

She followed Australian actor and Matrix bad guy Hugo Weaving.

Although he was flattered that hundreds of fans had lined the Opera House steps to catch a glimpse of him and his co-stars, he hoped they would focus more on the movie itself.

"I guess this carpet walk is OK, it's becoming more and more part of the job," Weaving said.

Joel Silver, producer of all three Matrix movies as well as their spin-off games and animation DVDs, said it was great to be back in Sydney.

"This is where it all started and where we all worked so hard, so it's great to be able to have tonight with the fans in Sydney," Silver said.

"I'm very proud."

Matrix 3 'awesome fun'

By Sophie Tedmanson
03nov03

HE may have shaken off his stoner image by playing a kung-fu fighting, sunglasses-wearing saviour of the world, but the dude in Keanu Reeves remains the same.

When asked how he felt about playing Neo, the champion of humanity in The Matrix Revolutions, the 39-year-old - who is best known for his surfer dude role in Point Break and stoner dude role in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure - had three words: "It was awesome."

Reeves was in Sydney yesterday for the Australian premiere of Revolutions, the final in the blockbuster sci-fi trilogy, which was also attended by co-stars Jada Pinkett-Smith and Hugo Weaving, the Sydney-based actor who plays Neo's arch nemesis, Agent Smith.

It was a fittingly dark and rainy day for the reunion of the cast and crew of the film, which was mostly made in Sydney (along with its two prequels) and features many scenes shot around the city which are, well, dark and rainy.

But that didn't taint Reeves's jovial mood after returning to the city he has called home on and off since the first Matrix was made in 1997.

"It's really great to be here, I love this place, and it's exciting that the movie is coming out," he said.

Asked what he thought of the film, Reeves started talking about "epic cinema" and "revolutions of peace".

"It's a beautiful role - it was really lovely to play," he said.

"I think Revolutions is a really remarkable film in terms of the action ... and at the same time the emotions. I really responded to the love (Neo) had for Trinity (played by Carrie-Anne Moss), I found it very moving what happens in the film between them."

At a press conference, Reeves recounted on-set stories and joked with Weaving, who saw the film for the first time last night.

Pinkett-Smith, meanwhile, didn't say much but when asked if she drives a car like her character, Niobe, who shows some impressive skills navigating a battleship in Revolutions, the US actor and wife of Will Smith finally cracked a smile and said: "Only when I'm upset."

More than 1200 people, including Premier Bob Carr, visiting US party girls Paris and Nicky Hilton and US singer Jack Johnson attended the gala premiere at the Opera House and partied as fireworks were let off from the Harbour Bridge. Guests were also entertained by singer Christine Anu, who had a brief role in the first Matrix.

The notoriously private Matrix creators, Andy and Larry Wachowski, also snuck into Sydney unnoticed for the premiere. The film opens simultaneously in almost 20,000 cinemas around the world on Thursday (1am AEST).

Neo's pay-off: The final instalment

By Garry Maddox, Film Reporter
November 3, 2003all started up the hill at Fox Studios when two little-known brothers, Larry and Andy Wachowski, shot a sci-fi film away from the Hollywood spotlight.

film tv & radio music arts books fashion good living Home > Entertainment > Film > Article Neo's pay-off: The final instalment
By Garry Maddox, Film Reporter
November 3, 2003

It all started up the hill at Fox Studios when two little-known brothers, Larry and Andy Wachowski, shot a sci-fi film away from the Hollywood spotligh

Almost six years later, the final chapter arrived when The Matrix Revolutions premiered at the Opera House last night.

The first instalment, costing less than $100 million, became an international blockbuster and spawned two sequels costing $424 million. And before Revolutions reaches cinemas around the world this week, the series has already grossed almost $1.7 billion.

Three of the stars, Keanu Reeves, Hugo Weaving and Jada Pinkett-Smith, joined producer Joel Silver on the black rubber carpet. Other guests included the Premier, Bob Carr, singer Jimmy Barnes and swimmer Kieren Perkins.

They arrived by road or boat and made their way up the Opera House stairs via a black carpet to mingle with 1200 guests and be watched by as many fans.

Before the screening, Reeves admitted he was far from the first choice as computer hacker turned saviour Neo.

It was a role that redefined the action hero and made Reeves one of Hollywood's highest-paid actors.

"I think I was number 33 in a line of people they met," he said.

But Reeves connected with the Wachowski brothers through a shared interest in sci-fi novelists and graphic art.

While filming in Sydney, Reeves said he had few problems with star-struck fans. "People here will come up and say 'hi'. But after that, there's a real kind of respect."

Weaving, who returns in Revolutions as Agent Smith, said it was bizarre seeing a hundred versions of himself on screen.

"It was pretty odd seeing hundreds of dummies of me lying around," he said.

Things took a surreal turn when he saw a bucket containing his head on set one day.

"They offered me a dummy but I thought, what would I do with it - put it in a cupboard and scare my children?"

Silver said Revolutions was definitely the last Matrix movie.

"I look at Reloaded as set-up and Revolutions as pay-off," he said.

"It's a whole movie of pay-off."

Why did the sequels cost so much? Silver said it took about $140 million in production costs to make the latest film, $140 million in salaries and above-the-line costs, and $140 million in visual effects.

Keanu's hard drive

By Bob Strauss
Film Writer

The person or the program?

This "Matrix"-sounding question often arises during a conversation with Keanu Reeves.

The actor plays the central figure, Neo, in Larry and Andy Wachowski's "Matrix" movies, the third and final installment of which, "The Matrix Revolutions," opens worldwide at 6 a.m. Pacific Time on Wednesday. He's an average hacker who's evolved through the trilogy into the superheroic savior of a mankind delusionally enslaved by mechanical masters, via a computer program that makes most humans believe they're actually living in the utterly virtual title world.

And he is perfect casting for the role. Not just because Reeves looks like a superhero - at 39, he presents a remarkably sleek and chiseled picture in a black tailored suit. But also due to his rather unique personality trait of sometimes coming off as computerized. Reeves can articulate highly complicated (for Hollywood action movies, anyway) concepts eloquently, but appears to glitch out at unexpected intervals as well.

As last spring's "Reloaded" suggested, Neo may be no more than a program himself. Yet "Revolutions" plays out the story's themes of individualism, free choice and spiritual transcendence, human traits too naturally peculiar to ever command with code.

In a similar way, Reeves constantly surprises with spurts of humor and a careful balance of guarded privacy and emotional revelation.

And for a guy whose earliest stardom resulted from playing a sweet airhead in the "Bill and Ted" teen comedies, his regular brainiac flourishes can be startling.

"I cannot speak for the whole films because I don't think there is an ultimate totality to them," Reeves begins, judiciously, when asked to expound on the core philosophical query that all "Matrix" fans hope "Revolutions" will answer satisfactorily: What does the whole mind- frazzling thing mean? "They're like launch points, you can speak about different elements of them.

"But for my character: In the first film he's launched with this question, what is truth or what is the Matrix. Then that goes into the Oracle saying, 'Know thyself,' and he goes from this sort of isolated, solitary figure into this man who goes out into the world and learns about the nature of reality and humanity and gains relationships.

"Later, especially in 'Revolutions,' he learns about programs and machines and Zion. And he's a character who ultimately asks for peace; it's almost like a classic birth of compassion. And he's the character who brings together a kind of interconnectedness. His journey brings about a kind of restitution, which is the classical hero myth."

Deep. But like everybody else, what really gets the Beirut-born, Toronto-bred sports enthusiast going about the "Matrix" movies is their incredible action. Ever polite, Reeves raves most about "Revolutions' " epic-scaled centerpiece - the invasion of the free-thinking humans' last refuge, the underground city of Zion, by an overwhelming force of monstrous war machines - a part of the movie that Neo's not even in.

Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith in Warner Brothers' The Matrix: Revolutions. (Warner Brothers)
But he does enough stuff. Such as, blinded and with lover and fellow rebel fighter Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), breaching the defenses of the Machine City to confront the guiding artificial intelligence that has enslaved his species. And, in the film's climactic battle, re-entering the Matrix to take on Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), the rogue enforcement program turned endlessly reproducing virus that threatens the very existence of Earth, not to mention several different dimensions of reality.

And that last, gravity-dissing fight in the rain. But not just any rain. The biggest, coldest-dropping rain ever rigged up for a movie. For six shiversome weeks straight.

Teem player

"They did, like, two or three months of R&D on the creation of the perfect water drops for them," Reeves says, amused, of the level of detail the Wachowskis demanded for the concurrent production of "Revolutions" and "Reloaded," much of which was filmed on high-tech, effects-facilitating sound stages in Australia. "I love that, I love that you had to have the perfect rain drop."

And he loved being drenched. And sightless. This strange human.

"In terms of the elements that were involved in it - say, the wire work or the choreography - the fight in 'Reloaded' between Smith and Neo was more demanding," Reeves explains. "But this one, in terms of the conditions we had to fight in, was different. It was about six weeks of rain fighting. And what we found on take one, Hugo Weaving - who plays Smith - and I, was that we couldn't see each other because we were wearing glasses in the rain. But we'd fought so much together that we didn't even need to see. We can fight blind!"

Reeves famously soaked his bruises in bathtubs of ice at nights when shooting the "Reloaded" smackdown. The valances were reversed for the "Revolutions" sequence.

"It was at least 12 hours a day, soaked," he recalls, not a hint of complaint in his voice. "It came down at about a ton of water a minute. But it was great fun. We had wet suits on under our costumes. But in between setups, I would go into a spa and just sit there in hot water. In the first fight between Neo and Smith, I was in cold water. But in this one I was in hot water."

He plays with words. But Reeves, whose adolescent interest in acting was matched by his passion for hockey, is almost legendary for the amount of discomfort he'll tolerate for a role.

Keanu Reeves as Neo in Warner Brothers' The Matrix: Revolutions. (Warner Brothers)

"He needs to do what he needs to do as part of an action scene," co-star Moss says admiringly. "Sometimes, for Keanu, it's getting very frustrated and yelling and getting kind of amped up. But in the acting scenes, he's very open and generous and considerate of how I work, too."

Approachable as Reeves is for a huge star, however, he also has a reputation for reticence. He prefers to answer questions in single sentences, often with a deflecting quip. And when faced with a really unsettling inquiry - like why, despite its record-setting R-rated gross and $736 million worldwide box-office take, the mega-hyped "Reloaded" is widely perceived as a disappointing follow-up to 1999's original "Matrix" - Reeves drops his head, lowers his eyelids and literally appears to shut down. For nearly a minute.

"I hope people enjoy them," he finally responds, referring to both sequels. "I mean, I don't really ... I don't have a ... I just hope that people enjoy them. Whether ... I, uh, y'know ..."

It takes "Matrix" producer Joel Silver to voice the company line.

"We were as clear as we could be that this was half a movie," the producer says of "Reloaded," which ended right before the point at which "Revolutions" begins. "And everybody said, 'Well, it's only half a movie!' The second half completes the story, and the visual effects that are in this movie are beyond anything that's ever been seen before."

As for his sometimes inscrutable star, Silver observes: "Look, he is a great talent and a great guy who has worked very hard. He has really gone beyond himself in this third picture. He is a very smart guy, he is very private, he doesn't really like to give a lot. But he is a great friend and a great person."

Table for the One

The perception of Reeves as a self-contained unit was reinforced when he was spotted, dining alone, on his birthday last September at a famous West Hollywood eatery.

"I needed some time alone, and it just happened to fall on my birthday," Reeves says with a shrug, more tickled than anything that anyone would possibly care. Of course, this led to his thoughts about the old saw that money - of which he's making at least $30 million from the "Matrix" sequels - can't buy happiness.

"No. But you can get a good bottle of wine and a steak at Dan Tana's, and I was very grateful for that!" he says, laughing. "So it helps. But no, obviously ... It was a good day. It wasn't as terrible as they made it sound."

Reeves knows what really terrible things can be like. Such as being abandoned at an early age by his father, a Hawaiian-Chinese geologist (Keanu means "cool breeze over the mountains" in the Polynesian language) and convicted drug dealer. A few years back, Reeves' girlfriend lost the child they were expecting, and was herself later killed in an auto accident. And one of his two sisters, to whom he has always been very close, has fought an off-and-on battle with cancer for many years.

"She's in a clinic right now and she had some procedures that went pretty well for her," Reeves reports. "So that's really good news. My family is very important to me."

As are other kinds of human contact. Ask Reeves about his next film project, the romantic comedy "Something's Gotta Give" with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton, opening Dec. 12, and he turns positively rapturous.

"Oh my gosh, they're both so unique," Reeves gushes. "It was a great experience and I was just so honored as an actor to be able to work with them. They have such an effortlessness, it's just beauty on the screen. And intelligence and humor and rich souls, you know what I mean? You can really feel the soulfulness of them in their performances. And it was great to fall in love with Diane Keaton and to play Jack's doctor!"

We don't doubt it. Especially after hanging upside down in wire-flying rigs, being pelted by extra-heavy, fake Australian rain.

But Keanu Reeves is not going with that program. At the pinnacle of his career, predictability has no place in his personal wiring.

"Yeah, I like it on earth," he says of doing character-based comedy. "But I like it in the sky. I had a great experience working on 'Revolutions' and 'Reloaded' and 'The Matrix.' But in terms of too much stunt work, I just feel grateful to have the opportunity to do different kinds of films."

---

Bob Strauss, can be reached at (818) 713-3670 and bob.strauss@dailynews.com

Hugo a happy baddie

A wide grin, a cheekily raised eyebrow - a year after wrapping Matrix Revolutions, Hugo Weaving still looks like he really relishes having played "the baddie".

Exuding enthusiasm for the film ahead of Sunday's Sydney Opera House premiere - the first occasion on which he has seen it - Weaving recounted with glee the sense of physical power and dark humour represented by the evil Agent Smith.

"I enjoyed Smith a great deal because they gave him great lines and he's got a sense of humour," he told journalists in Sydney.

"I didn't think a great deal about psychological complexity; the important thing in developing the character was to do with the way in which he appeared and the way in which he sounded.

"He needed to have a humanity that was just off-centre."

Like the first two films in the Matrix trilogy, Revolutions showcases technical innovation combined with tightly-choreographed hand-to-hand combat.

They learned some slick moves, but having slogged through months of intensive physical training and demanding stunt-work, neither Weaving nor his co-star, Keanu Reeves, have maintained an interest in martial arts.

"There's a certain aspect where it's like you should take some time off and live a life," said Reeves, who faced extremely intensive training for his Christ-meets-karate kid character Neo.

"I love work, I live off work, but there is a certain aspect where you have to take a break otherwise you end up in the hospital or something."

Despite his initial surprise at the punishing regime required by directors Larry and Andy Wachowski, Weaving said he had grown to enjoy learning how to fight.

"I loved getting fit, I enjoyed being healthy and fit and we were eating well and millions of people looking after us and massaging us, but it was hard work," he said.

"I wish I could or did (keep it up) in a way, but there's no need to so I don't."

For co-star Jada Pinkett Smith, who plays hovercraft pilot Niobe, the greatest gift of Revolutions and its predecessor, Matrix Reloaded, was a kind of industry colour-blindness.

"Now I definitely get phone calls for roles that are not written as specifically for black women," she said.

"I'm being asked to do all types of things."

Physical blindness was a new experience for Reeves, who spent much of the filming wearing a blindfold.

"My character has his eyes blinded so for a couple of days the make-up covered my eyes so I literally couldn't see, and I enjoyed it, it was interesting," he said.

"I'd be like for 12 hours not being able to see, so ... you get really attuned to sounds and smells."

Reeves also developed his sense of self through exploring the role of spiritual saviour.

"At one point the character asks for peace, ... the revolution of peace without conflict, and the right to life.

"I'm really into live and let live, and you know, no judgment."

The cast said after filming for two years in Australia, they considered the Sydney premiere a welcome reunion and a fitting start to the Revolutions run.

"I have a real friendship with all these people," Reeves said.

"And this is a good spot, I really like being back here."

Matrix Revolutions opens in cinemas nationally on Thursday, November 6.

-AAP

Life on planet 'Matrix'

The stars who played the heroes of the sci-fi saga
describe what it all meant to them

By HENRY CABOT BECK

Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) battle in 'Matrix: Revolutions'

What has living and breathing the "Matrix" movies done for their four main stars?
The three-part series concludes on Wednesday with the release of "Matrix Revolutions," which opens in IMAX and regular theatrical formats at precisely the same time in nearly 70 countries.

Beginning in 1999 with "The Matrix," and continuing last May with "Matrix Reloaded," the films tell the story of a resistance group - led by Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith) and a messiah figure, Neo (Keanu Reeves) - fighting a tyranny of seemingly all-powerful machines.

The films have already spawned much debate about their philosophical and theological meanings and will continue to do so as they pass into movie history and DVD-land. We asked Reeves, Moss, Fishburne and Pinkett Smith how acting in the trilogy affected their personal lives.

Keanu Reeves

As Neo, Reeves, now 39, has joined the ranks of movie actors who have played superheroes without humiliating themselves. In "Matrix Revolutions," his powers not only exceed those of mortal men, they are greater even than the Machine World that dominates the planet.

Reeves is wary about discussing how "The Matrix" films may or may not have coincided with changes in his life, but offers, "I can say this, honestly: that I'm a better person for having played Neo."

As the central figure in the series, Reeves was called upon to commit himself to its production for 22 months in total.

"That's what makes it special - the amount of time that it took and the consistent intensity of the project," he says. "And the idea that you can have such a strong passion for something and then, when it comes out in the end, you're more than satisfied with it."

He believes this third installment is more spectacular and more fun than part two.

"There's an openness to 'Revolutions' that I think 'Reloaded' doesn't have," he says. "The character of 'Revolutions' is that it wears its heart on its sleeve, and with that openness there's a certain old-fashioned action-movie feeling. Plus, it's beautiful to look at."

He hopes audiences will have a variety of reactions to the story now that it's been completed.

"I hope what people take from it is not just one thing or another," he says. "I hope they leave the theater thinking about cinema, metaphor, Eastern myths, Western myths, the relationships between characters, the evolution of humanity and technology, man and machine, compassion, interconnectedness, will, ego - all kinds of things."

That will keep us busy, then.

Reeves is already shooting his next picture, "Constantine," based on a character created by Alan Moore, who wrote the comic that provided the basis for "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen."

Laurence Fishburne

In the three "Matrix" films, Morpheus, played by Laurence Fisburne, is Neo's staunchest defender, a partisan and disciple whose sheer faith rallies the underground denizens of Zion into fighting the good fight against the dastardly forces of the Machine World.

Fishburne, 42, is the most seasoned member of the cast: He started his acting career at age 10 and appeared in "Apocalypse Now" in his late teens. He is impressed by the magnitude of the "Matrix" project and its worldwide reception. "The first movie's about birth, the second is about life and the third is about death," he says. "I respond to the ideas about change: the way we deal with death - our deaths, the death of ideas, the death of something we hold dear, death of the physical body, death of a way of thinking. Death is transformative; it's a change from one form of consciousness to another. I believe that. I don't know what it is, but I don't think the spirit just dies. It's really about faith, isn't it?"

He is under no illusions about what the "Matrix" films might or might not mean for his career.

"This is something that I was really lucky to get a shot at," Fishburne says. "I was blessed and I'm grateful and happy. But this is the end of it. This is all.

"It means I've been working for 32 years as an actor," he adds. "That's a long time. I'm at the beginning of the second chapter of my life and I'm open for whatever, man. There's no guarantees, no rules and no road map."

Carrie-Anne Moss

If there's a single image from the "Matrix" saga that's likely to stand the test of time, it's of Carrie-Anne Moss frozen in midair for one brief instant, like a leather bird, before she unloads a kick that sends a cop flying across the room.

Moss' Trinity is the love of Neo's life. Like Ilsa was to Victor Laszlo in "Casablanca," Trinity is part of his work, the thing that keeps him going.

Moss, 36, was born in Vancouver. Throughout her 20s she worked as a model and appeared in adventure- and action-oriented television shows and movies. She landed the part of Trinity after several auditions, never imagining how profoundly the "Matrix" films would affect her.

"I thought people would love it, but I didn't really think I was going to make this kind of money or have this kind of success," says Moss. "Playing Trinity has affected who I am, and who I am has affected Trinity."

She insists that she has little in common with the character. "I was nothing like her, not a tomboy at all," she says. "I actually got into fights in school 'cause I wore dresses, and the other girls thought I was a goody two-shoes."

"Carrie-Anne is a girlie girl," says co-star Laurence Fishburne. "In the movie she's the Valkyrie, the kick-ass biker chick, but in real life she's the take-care-of-people goddess chick."

Moss had her first baby with her husband, actor Steve Roy, in September. Now that the "Matrix" films are done, she says she's "ready to go on to a new segment of my life which is not so much driven by my career as it is driven by my family."

As for the message of the three movies, she says, "What I would have people take away from these films is the idea of being awake - of taking the red pill - and once you're awake you can't go back to being asleep. I've been awake for a long time. Actually, I chose to be awake before I ever started shooting the movies."

Jada Pinkett Smith

In "Matrix Revolutions," it seems as if Niobe, played by Jada Pinkett Smith, is a newcomer to the story, even though she was introduced in "Reloaded." She is the fierce captain of a ship that she steers through a dangerous tunnel, pursued at high speeds by mechanical squids.

The film's directors, Andy and Larry Wachowski, had to help Pinkett Smith overcome her own traveling anxieties.

"There are certain questions about my faith that I had put off for a long time, and I came to a point that I had to deal with that subject after 9/11," says the 32-year-old actress. "The Wachow-ski brothers wanted me on a plane on Sept. 15, and I was so traumatized, so scared. Larry got me on the phone and said, 'Listen, are you gonna allow this situation to paralyze you? Are you gonna stop living, stay trapped in your house? This is life, this is fate. You can't hide from it.'

"It made me think, 'Jada, this is the time when you have to find out for yourself the foundation of your faith.' So faith is something I study on a daily basis now. Right now, I'm into the Tao Te Ching."

Smith admits that her husband, Will Smith, has a more thorough understanding of the underlying concepts of the "Matrix" than she does.

"See, Will reads all the philosophy and the 'Matrix' material, so he explains it all to me," she says. "Like he said, that little girl in the movie, Sati [Tanveer Atwal], represents the Dalai Lama, because they pick one Indian child as the chosen one and the child must be dropped off, and that's what the parents did in the movie."

But what is the message of the "Matrix" movies to her? "Don't be afraid to think," she says. "Don't be afraid to live. Don't be afraid to question. Don't be afraid to wonder. Don't be afraid to live outside the damn box."