So a studio executive and a producer are sitting in a room. ''Hey,'' they say to Warner Bros. chairmen Bob Daly and Terry Semel, ''here's an idea. We've signed these two brothers who direct and write together. They made Bound, a randy lesbian crime caper, for $4 million. Now they want to do a $60 million science-fiction film. Or maybe it's a spiritual allegory. Actually, no one understands what it's about, but that's okay, because they want to use amazing special effects. The technology hasn't been ironed out yet, but whatever. Brad, Leo, and Will were interested, but we got Keanu Reeves, who's so over he's in again. All the stars will do their own stunts, which is unusual because movie stars have, like, this fear of death. But if there's a fatality, the cool thing is, we won't see it happen because, see, the brothers? They're going to take our $60 million and go make this movie in Australia.''
Maybe that isn't exactly what was said by Warner Bros. President of production Lorenzo di Bonaventura and producer Joel Silver when they were asking for a greenlight on Larry and Andy Wachowski's The Matrix two years ago. But nuance aside, here's a sure fact: This project was so risky, it might as well have come with a suicide note attached.
This week, Warner Bros.' gamble will pay off...or not. While the studio seems to be on a much-needed upswing (You've Got Mail, Analyze This) it has yet to fully divest itself of a reputation for spending too much on too little (The Postman). And with The Matrix, Warner Bros. has pinned its hopes not only on a pair of relatively untested directors, who refer to themselves as ''two schmoes from Chicago,'' but also on the appeal of an actor who has seemed, ever since 1994's Speed, enthralled with downward mobility.
But before you ask What were they thinking? you must remember this: Those special effects were ironed out, Keanu Reeves cuts one fine action figure, and the Matrix trailer — perhaps the most crucial marketing tool for a sci-fi film — rocks.
Warner Bros. began placing its bets on The Matrix five years ago. In 1994, Di Bonaventura read the brothers' script of Assassins, a tale of two hitmen, and immediately signed the former Marvel comic-book writers to a three-picture deal. While 1995's Assassins, rewritten as a mainstream thriller with Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas, took a bullet at the box office, the brothers went on to direct their script of Bound for Gramercy. A critical hit about two women (Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly) who fall for each other and foil the Mob, Bound earned the Wachowskis reputations as edgy, energetic talent.
Now the brothers were asking to direct a script of theirs that Warner Bros. had also bought in 1994. Intended to be the first of a sci-fi trilogy, The Matrix was a futuristic extravaganza that would use elements of the Bible, philosophy, mythology, Alice in Wonderland, and Hong Kong-style fighting to suggest that reality — or ''the Matrix'' — was in fact a computer-generated universe created by evil creatures committed to keeping human beings enslaved.
You Might Also Like
- Movie News 12 Awesome Action Hero One-Liners (Mar 09, 2007) | Mark S. Luckie
- Movie Commentary Carrie-Anne Moss kicks butt in the ''Matrix'' movies
- News + Notes Next Neo Thing | Geoff Keighley
- The 5-Year Plan Harold Perrineau Jr. | Kimberly Reyes
