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BARRIE OSBORNE ON LOTR AND MATRIX

Source: <Star Tribune>

[..] Osborne, 57, who joined the Army Corps of Engineers after falling in love with films at Carleton, has worked as a producer, production manager or assistant director on films including "The Matrix," "Apocalypse Now," "The Big Chill," "Face/Off," "The China Syndrome" and "Dick Tracy."

His role with "Lord of the Rings" was to make sure the film triptych came in on schedule and on budget. That meant watching every aspect of the productions, from acquiring thousands of "chain-mail" vests made from lightweight plastic, to overseeing a 2,000-person crew, to creating a satellite system through which director Peter Jackson could watch remote shoots by his battle-filming unit, scenic unit, "blue-screen" unit and four miniatures units. It required "a level of care and attention to detail unlike anything I'd ever experienced before," Osborne said.

After an 18-month shooting schedule, however, the three "Rings" films will be completed for not much more than their original budget of $270 million. (Parts Two and Three are due in December of 2002 and 2003.) Taking on the grueling project meant relinquishing producing duties on the highly anticipated "Matrix" sequels, incurring the ire of megamogul Joel Silver, who harangued Osborne by cell phone as the producer trudged through waist-deep snow, scouting locations for "Lord of the Rings." Osborne is confident he made the right choice -- especially since "Matrix" directors Andy and Larry Wachowski confessed that they wanted to do a "Rings" trilogy for years but couldn't persuade Warner Bros. to do it.

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POWER STATION EXPLOSION

Source: <The Daily Telegraph>

On February 14, the Matrix production will be filming at the gigantic White Bay power station near Sydney. A development application has been lodged to build a $200,000 film set for The Matrix Reloaded at the inner-western landmark, which stopped operating as a coal-fired power station in 1983. The plan is to explode the set, and cause a 20m high fireball at midnight on February 14. The explosion will last three to five seconds, and could reach a sound of 110 decibels. A chainsaw or average rock concert produces about 110 decibels of noise. The explosion needs to occur at midnight to ensure maximum darkness.

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PRODUCER ON SIMULTANEOUS SHOOTING

Source: <Associated Press>
Thanks to: <Counting Down>

Lord of the Rings started a trend of shooting films simultaneously. Meanwhile, director brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski are filming the next two installments of "The Matrix" franchise simultaneously.
"It's easier to do it all as one giant picture because the boys had the story and the material and knew what they wanted to do," said Joel Silver, producer of "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions," set to come out in 2003 and 2004 respectively.

"It's like one giant movie cut in half and shown at two different releases." That plan saved filmmakers from having to retrain the actors in martial arts, and will shorten the time between releases to one year instead of three. Silver said that makes it harder for other filmmakers to mimic any breakthrough special effects.

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ACTRICE LOSES ROLE IN SEQUEL

Source: <Calgary Sun>
Thanks to: <MatrixFans>

A Canadian actrice who won a role in the sequel to the science-fiction thriller The Matrix has lost her chance to appear in the film after being deported from Australia under the country's zero-tolerance immigration policy.
Brendalee Doen, 24, was arrested and detained in Sydney's notorious Villawood Detention Centre this month after returning to Australia from a holiday on an expired visa, newspapers reported yesterday. She became a minor celebrity in Australia this fall with her appearance as a busty barmaid in a television commercial for Cougar Bourbon. After a nine-day holiday in Japan, Doen was arrested by immigration officers because her tourist visa had expired two days earlier.

She claims she was targeted because of her high profile in Sydney and calls the decision to arrest her "tall-poppy syndrome." Doen was sent to Villawood, the ominous holding tank for illegal immigrants, and spent three days in the prison while her case was processed. She is now barred from visiting Australia for three years and will not be able to appear in The Matrix Reloaded, which also stars Canadian Keanu Reeves, and is filming in Sydney. "My life has been turned upside down," she said.

Although there is now little chance she will appear in the film, Doen says she plans a legal challenge to the deportation order because she wants to return to work in Australia. Critics have denounced the Australian government and John Howard, the Prime Minister, for the policy of detaining any visitor whose visa expires. Tourists who let their paperwork lapse can find themselves thrown into immigration jails along with migrants and criminals who sneaked into the country illegally. They remain locked up until they can post a bond.

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MATRIX ANALYSIS

Source: <The Matrix Online>

By Barrett Hooper of the National Post:

Jasin Boland, Village Roadshow

Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Agent Smith (Hugo Weaver) face off in an unreal world in The Matrix. The film raises a host of queries around the meaning of reality and our ability to influence events in our universe.

The film is more than two years old, but the question remains: What is The Matrix? A John Woo meets William Gibson, kung fu-fuelled bullet ballet with a hit of Alice in Wonderland trippiness and a driving techno-rock soundtrack? Or a thought-provoking allegory on the progressive awakening of the human consciousness and an exploration of the nature of our very existence rooted in the ideas of Plato in 300 BC?

The answer is both.

The hit film, which portrays a future when people unknowingly serve as batteries for machines while "living" in a comforting virtual world called the Matrix, is resonating with academics as much as it did with movie fans when it was released two years ago. It has become a topic of study at schools ranging from Harvard University to the New Acropolis International Cultural Association in Toronto.

While it may seem unusual to create discourse through something as shamelessly about style-over-substance as the Keanu Reeves cyberthriller, science fiction provides a good tool for teaching philosophy. According to James Pryor, a philosophy professor at Harvard University, the genre often deals more directly with larger life issues in a more salient manner than mainstream movies.

In Pryor's class, for example, a discussion about what makes you the person you are might involve Star Trek's transporter and whether or not people are "just a collection of molecules that can be broken down and reassembled or whether our identity, the essence of who we are, would be lost," he says. His students may further examine the nature of identity by reading Spider-Man comics or watching the sci-fi film Blade Runner.

But The Matrix offers numerous philosophical jumping-off points "useful for illustrating and testing different theories," says Pryor, who has incorporated the film into two of his courses, including an advanced theory of knowledge class.

One of the biggest and most obvious issues the film raises is "how you know whether the things you perceive are real or just an illusion," he says.

It's a recurring theme, he explains. In the pivotal blue pill/red pill scene, Neo, the hero played by Reeves, must decide whether or not to "see" the real world. His mentor, Morpheus (played by Laurence Fishburne), asks: "Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?"

Later he asks: "What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain ..."

Those are the kinds of questions that have made philosophers' heads spin for centuries.

"Given that Neo discovers he is living in a dream world within the construct of the Matrix, it can lead us to further question whether or not we are living in the real world or a dream world," says Pryor. "And how does Neo know that his experiences of breaking out of the Matrix program were real? Maybe it was all part of the program too, and if we're in an unreal world, how could we tell when we've escaped?"

If that's not enough to bake your noodle, how about whether the computer-generated enemy agents in the film have genuine mental lives of their own? If they are just computer programs without self-consciousness, says Pryor, then why does one agent named Smith tell Morpheus he hates being in the the Matrix program among "all the smelly humans"?

"Do you think computer programs could really have enough of a mental life to hate things?" Pryor wonders. "Could they genuinely desire to be doing something other than the task assigned to them? How would we be able to know whether the programs have real mental lives?"

Pausing for a moment, Pryor's musings chase the white rabbit from The Matrix into our world. "Do you think we have more free will than machines could ever have? Aren't our choices and desires just as determined by the laws of nature as their choices are determined by their programming?"

In the end, Pryor says we're left wondering, "What is it that gives you a mind? Could a computer have a mind?" If not, "What's the difference between you and a computer?"

"It's like Star Wars," says Françoise Soria, director of the New Acropolis, explaining why The Matrix has become a regular lecture topic at the non-profit cultural centre that offers courses in philosophy and mythology. "It has timeless teachings in how The Matrix reflects and relates to the human experience that are [analogous to] the fundamentals of Hinduism, the teachings of Buddha. It's a modern movie that reflects archetypal principles," becoming a rabbit hole to exploring the human adventure.

Soria compares Neo's plight in the film to the man chained in the cave in Plato's Myth of the Cave. "The allegory of a man who tries to set himself free only to realize that life in the cave is a lie is much like The Matrix, about this progressive awakening of the consciousness" as Neo begins to realize the world in which he thought he was living isn't real.

While the tagline used to promote the film -- What is The Matrix? -- is designed to pique the interest of moviegoers, it also speaks to our own search for identity and meaning, according to Soria.

"It's a realization of our limitations, the feeling of being trapped, the feeling that something more exists in life, and like the movie in front of our eyes, in life we are more a spectator than an actor," she says. "It's about questioning the truth in that."

There's a very strong religious theme in the film. Neo is presented as a Christ figure. He is called The Chosen One, the saviour of Zion, the last city on Earth. He questions and doubts his purpose. He is betrayed by one of his own people, killed and resurrected.

And much like the question of whether Neo is going to heed his calling, Soria says the film is about each of us heeding our own calling. "It's about whether or not I'm being completely true to myself, my dreams and aspirations," she says.

"It's the idea that something else exists and we have a choice of staying in our comfortable lives, not changing, or going further," she says. "It's the crossroads of life" -- as shown when Neo meets Morpheus and is given a choice: The red pill or the blue? Fantasy or reality? Subsistence or existence?

"That's a major moment in the movie," says Soria. "Am I going further? Am I going to start walking toward authenticity, toward truth, which involves giving up a certain comfort, accepting that I'll have to go through tests, to grow?"

Soria says when the choice is made, it becomes about preparing oneself for the journey ahead, represented on the screen by Neo's martial-arts training, "which symbolizes the self-mastery that we have to attain to get rid of our fears, our doubts, [and] learning how to use the mind, how not to be tricked by the mind. As in the movie, it's very well shown how the mind can be just a program that is actually mastering us."

Finally, there's the climactic showdown between Neo and the forces of the Matrix, "which represents the battle with our own shadows and our own dragons, to use a medieval image," says Soria. "And so it's the fight for what we believe in and again there is always this choice: Am I going to fight for these values I believe in or am I just going to submit to my fears?"

As Morpheus says, "There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path."

And as Keanu Reeves might say: "Woah ..."

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SAMANTHA MUMBA TO REPLACE AALIYAH?

Source: <Showbiz Ireland>
Thanks to: <MatrixFans>, MLopez1984

Irish Pop babe Samantha Mumba is set to rock Hollywood if rumors are true that she is to star in the third Matrix film, The Matrix Revolutions. Reports in the Irish press claim that the sexy 19-year-old Dublin singer and actress is being head hunted by Warner Brothers for the movie, which stars Keanu Reeves, Lawrence Fishburne and Carrie Anne Moss. The reports claim that Sam will take over the role left vacant by the tragic death of the RnB star Aaliyah, who died during the summer in a plane crash. Sam may play the role of Zee in the movie if she gets the role which is due out in December 2003 after the second film, Matrix Reloaded, which will be out in May 2003. Aaliyah's character Zee was due to have a small role in Matrix Reloaded, and had a major role in Matrix Revolutions. It had been rumoured on the Web that Aaliyah had not filmed any scenes and had only practised some fight sequences. Sam is due for her first bout of film stardom next year when the long awaited The Time Machine comes out across the world. The singer is currently working on her singing career and is hoping her latest single "Lately" makes it into the charts at the end of this week.

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RIGHTS TO MATRIX GAME

Source: <Hollywood reporter>
Thanks to: <MatrixFans>, MLopez1984

By John Gaudiosi of the Hollywood Reporter:

After closing in February a multiyear licensing deal worth about $10 million with video game publisher Interplay for console video game rights to "The Matrix" films, Warner Bros. Interactive is shopping around PC and online game rights to the films, industry sources said. Several major game publishers, including Activision and Ubi Soft, are interested in the rights, which would allow them to create a massively multiplayer online (MMO) PC game set within the "Matrix" universe.

Unlike Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter" video game deal, which groups console, PC and online game rights into one package for Electronic Arts, "Matrix" online rights were left out of the Interplay deal because the publisher has no interest in developing an MMO game. With the growing online gaming market, a "Matrix" persistent universe would give any game publisher with an online initiative a huge mass-market property to draw consumers to its Web gaming portal.

Once launched, a "Matrix" MMO game, like Sony Online Entertainment's best-selling "EverQuest" franchise and Mythic Entertainment's popular "Dark Age of Camelot" game, would be a continuous, evolving universe that would exist long after the films and DVDs had come and gone. Hundreds of thousands of players could enter the "Matrix" game universe simultaneously, create virtual characters and interact while adventuring through the world. The MMO business model ships a retail PC game for about $50 to launch the world, then requires players to pay about $10 a month. Expansion packs are sold at retail during the following years to expand the universe and generate additional revenue.

"Matrix" directors Larry and Andy Wachowski, avid video gamers, have been working closely with Dave Perry, president of Laguna Beach, Calif.-based video game developer Shiny Entertainment, on the development of Interplay's console game franchise. The first PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox "Matrix" video games are scheduled to ship day-and-date with "The Matrix Reloaded" in May 2003.

The action-adventure title is expected to blend various game genres into a new interactive experience. The first game will tie in to the plot of the first "Matrix" sequel. The Wachowskis will shoot exclusive footage for the games, as much as 40 minutes. The hands-on approach taken by the directors breaks new ground in the movie-licensed game arena, and Shiny has access to the entire film production, from storyboards and special effects to the actors and directors.

According to a report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 30, Microsoft loaned Interplay $5 million for Shiny to continue developing the "Matrix" game. As part of the deal, Interplay will invest at least $500,000 to create an exclusive online feature for the Xbox "Matrix" games.

Additionally, the Xbox games will include many exclusive features, from new characters, vehicles and weapons to cuts from the film's soundtrack and actual voices of the actors. There was even reference in the report to the possibility of including the first "Matrix" movie on the Xbox game DVD as a bonus.

The Interplay deal allows the company to develop and release "Matrix" games beyond the console titles slated for the second and third films. Because of the proximity of the theatrical releases of the second and third "Matrix" films, the PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox games based on the third film might not release day-and-date with the film but could ship in time for the home video and DVD releases.

Thanks goes to MatrixFans.net and John Gaudiosi of the Hollywood Reporter.

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OFFICIAL SITE CODES

Source: <The Matrix online>

The official site has recently been updated, with a section on The Matrix Revisited.

But there have also been modifications made to the "Secret areas" of the site - Including items from The Matrix Reloaded. The following list shows the codes, as well as a description of what they link to:

Code	Content
geof	Drawings from the first film
skroce	Drawings from The Government lobby scene as well as other fight sequences
darrow	Drawings from the subway lobby fight sequence
wrong number	Colour drawing of Agent Smith
guns	A strange, yet good drawing of a blonde woman sitting on a phone
morpheus	Various still images from the first film
trinity	Cartoon video of Trinity and the telephone sequence
deja vu	A small comic book sequence, which leads to the full list of online comics
Steak	A flash site, within a flash site, with pictures from the film (Can take a long amount of time on a dialup connection)
agentbullettime	Video clip of the infamous Agent bullet time clip
crash	video clip of the helicopter crashing into the building
keanu	Video clip of Keanu Reeves at a press conference
carrie	Video clip of Carrie -Ann Moss at a press conference
laurence	Video clip of Laurence Fishbourne at a press conference
tokyo	Video clip
lobby	Video clip of Trinity running up a wall during the Government lobby sequence
mirror mirror	Video Clip of Neo and the "melting mirror"
neo bullet time	Video clip of Neo's bullet time sequence on top of the Government building
SENTINAL	Video clip of a sentinal scanning the Nebuchadnezzar
NEBUCHADNEZZAR	Video clip of the Nebuchadnezzar flying through the underground tunnels
SENTINELLARGE800x600	Video clip (3,5 Mb for three seconds... ouch!)
site credits	Some information on the people behind the website
owen	Interview with the production designer, talking about The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions
chrysalis	An interesting description...
page168	Drawing from The Art of the Matrix book
page212	Drawing from The Art of the Matrix book
page98	Drawing from The Art of the Matrix book
bill	Movie clip of a new hovercraft (possibly from The Matrix Reloaded)
RED	Pictures of the lady in Red
REDPILL	A FLASH site with information on the team behind the website
explosion	A picture of an explosion from The Matrix Reloaded!

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MATRIX ON GAMECUBE?

Source: <Gamecube IGN>

The developer of games based on The Matrix movie starts on a secret NGC project.
Laguna Beach, California based Shiny Entertainment seems to be quietly beginning work on a secret GameCube title. The company recently posted a job advertisement that read: "Shiny is seeking an experienced Nintendo Gamecube programmer to work on a future project." No details regarding the game were offered in the placement.

The company, which has long remained in the spotlight for such games as Earthworm Jim, MDK and Sacrifice, recently nabbed a deal with Interplay to develop software for next-generation systems based on The Matrix movie. It is unconfirmed, but possible, and in fact probable that any GameCube effort currently underway by the developer will deal with the license.

We contacted company president Dave Perry and asked if the GameCube title was Matrix related, and he commented simply: "That would be a good guess, but I cannot confirm or deny it." That's good enough for us. Perry stressed that the GameCube programming position is still open and that candidates will find that it's something akin to a "dream job."

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THE FREEWAY IS GONE...

Source: San Jose Mercury News
Thanks to: <Countingdown>

There are some set descriptions in this story by DENNIS ROCKSTROH. From the San Jose Mercury News:

As I gaze across the old Navy runways at Alameda Point, I can confirm that the mystery freeway is gone. But, not to worry, it should be back soon in a theater near you.
The 1.5-mile, six-lane freeway to nowhere was part of the set for the upcoming sequels to the movie "The Matrix." The Warner Bros. crew was in Oakland and Alameda Point this summer, filming at three sets and on the streets of Oakland.

Tons of material
There was the cave set that filled an entire airplane hanger. The cave was made of 45 tons of material, wood and polystyrene blocks. The tenement set consisted of eight building fronts, three and four stories high. They were made of wood with a brick kind of fiberglass covering. In all, it was made of 92 tons of material.
The freeway set used more than 8,200 tons of concrete, 20 tons of structural steel and about 200 tons of lumber. And all of that is gone now.

But here's the story: Instead of hauling all that out to the dump, the set material was recycled. I learned this from the Alameda County Waste Management Authority. One of its goals is to encourage recycling of material that otherwise might be headed for a landfill. The effort to reuse the material from the three sets was a joint project by Warner Bros., the city of Alameda, the ReUse People Inc. and the waste authority.

The folks at the authority figured that about 95 percent of the sets was put to use. The ReUse People crews handled all of the deconstruction and distribution of the material. Its crews dismantled the set, piece by piece.

Leftovers
The lumber was sold to a company that builds housing for low-income families in Mexico. Forty truckloads went south. About 80 percent of the steel was used as is, with the rest recast for use again. Some 48 fire escapes were sold to area contractors along with more than 60 decorative moldings. The polystyrene blocks were sent out for use in insulation material. And the mystery freeway was broken up, crushed and sent off to become road base.

Just what became of one of the signs on the freeway remains a mystery. But if you're in someone's den sometime, and you see a sign with pictures of kangaroos and the words, "Next 8 Miles," tell them you know where that came from. You read it in the news.

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JADA QUOTES

Sources: <Cinecon> <Corona> <Calgary Sun>

Collected quotes from Jada-Pinkett Smith:
She says that brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski, who wrote and are directing The Matrix, have been equally understanding. "They rearranged shooting so that while Will was working on Men in Black 2 I could be home with the children. Now I'll go back and do all my stuff."

"Oh, it's going," Pinkett-Smith told Latino Review. "I have to go back in February for 5 more months, I feel like I’m in the Matrix for real. Its like a never ending movie, but it’s coming along. Also they had to recast Aaliyah and Gloria Foster (The Oracle) parts, which is really sad. But it's coming along."

How difficult is it for her to shoot both films simultaneously?
Well, we’re shooting two and three and we’re also shooting a video game that has movie footage in it, a video movie. So, we’re doing three projects at the same time and it’s hectic.

What character does she play and what sort of training did she undergo?
Niobe is just basically the female version of Morpheus, very tough, very “no bull crap.” She just puts it on the table. [..] she is one really tough chick. She's the captain of her own ship and, boy, can she kick butt. I don't recognize myself when I see some of the dailies I'm so mean and tough."

The type of training:
I’ve just had to do a lot of…I had to go to Oakland for four months and do four months of Kung Fu training, wire training and I have to go back in February for 5 months of filming in Australia. "I'm flying all over the place. The stunt work is amazing." "These sequels are going to blast the original off the screen, and that's exactly what the fans want."

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ANIMATRIX INFO

Source: <Digital Media FX>
Thanks to: <Matrix Fans>

What is the Animatrix? (by digitalmediafx.com)

Are you ready for the Animatrix? The Matrix producer Joel Silver is moving full steam ahead with a series of anime productions based on The Matrix. He's recruited some of Japans leading directors and animators to help. "We're planning a series of animated short subjects that will kind of take the world from the world we're in today to the world of the Matrix and how we got there," says Silver. "We have assembled a team of unbelievably talented and renowned Japanese animation directors and artists to create a series of short films that will be accessible either on the Internet or eventually on DVD."

You can see drawings for the new Matrix anime productions on The Matrix Revisited DVD. The DVD also contains interview quotes from Japanese artists and directors involved with the anime productions. "We're intending to put the animes out on a regular basis," says Silver. When can you expect the first set? Fall 2002.

More on The Animatrix (by digitalmediafx.com)
There's more information to report on The Matrix Anime production discussed in yesterday's Digital Media FX report. The anime series will apparently consist of 10 "episodes". It hasn't been decided yet how the episodes will be released, but the producers are leaning towards an Internet release followed by another DVD - all before the sequel to The Matrix hits theaters in 2003. The official title for the series is "Animatrix." The information provided in The Matrix Revisited DVD special sheds only basic information about the series.

Michael Arias is one of the producers specifically for the Animatrix series. Arias says they wanted to put the vision of The Matrix "together with the gods of Japanese animation and see what will come out of that." Several Japanese studios, including Mad House, are involved with specific episodes, some which will be original stories.

One of the episode directors for The Animatrix is Yoshiaki Kawajiri. "The Matrix is a flat-out incredible experience both visually and on a narrative level," says Kawajiri. " It really manages to fuse a lot of disparate elements of cinema. You see why people love it so fanatically. It really convinced me that a new breed of filmmaking had arrived."
Another episode is based within the simulation (training program) that ends up becoming a part of the real world. It is described as an "Akira style ninja epic". An episode titled "World Record" follows a man within the Matrix that is able to break out of it through "sheer physical power." That episode is being directed by Takeshi Koike. He says that many more questions about the Matrix will be answered and that "the more you understand it, the more interesting it becomes."
Another episode serves as a prequel to The Matrix that "details the war between man and machines," according to Producer Joel Silver. That episode is directed by Mahiro Maeda. Producer Joel Silver hints at Square Pictures involvement in a project that "deals with information that directly relates to the movie." This is the secret project Square had started working on earlier this year that was mentioned in two Digital Media FX reports last Spring.

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