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PROMOTING CADILLACS
Source: <LA Times>
Thanks to: <Countingdown>

The LA Times published the following:
A year from now actress Carrie-Anne Moss will engage in a gritty chase scene in the sequel to the science fiction thriller "The Matrix." She'll be driving a Cadillac Escalade EXT pickup, pursued by bad guys in a Cadillac CTS sedan.
"Putting Cadillacs in front of an aspirational crowd is exposure you can't buy," said Susan Docherty, marketing director for the Escalade, Cadillac's hot-selling SUV. "You can't get a teenager to sit down and watch a bunch of Cadillac commercials," she said. But the chase in "The Matrix Reloaded," which will be released in spring 2003, amounts to an extreme commercial teens are likely to eat up.

LordZer0' found a mistake in the article: The LA Times quote states that Trinity is driving the pickup and badies driving the sedan. But if you look at the trailer for the two sequels the drivers are reversed. Trinity is driving the sedan and the badies are driving the pickup.


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MATRIX RELOADED IN EW
Source: <Entertainment Weekly>
Thanks to: <The Matrix Online>

The sequel was on the front cover of Entertainment Weekly and was chosen as the IT sequel. Carrie-Ann Moss was elected as IT Tough Babe. She had a few things to say about The Matrix:

WHAT SHE'LL REVEAL ABOUT THE NEXT TWO 'MATRIX' MOVIES
'Nothing. Not a word. I'm sworn to secrecy. Sorry.'

CAREER LOW
Every time she gets on a motorcycle. 'I have to ride one a lot in the new 'Matrix' and I'm scared to death of them. I rode one for a bit in the first 'Matrix' - all I had to do was pull away from the curb - but I fell off every single time.'

CAREER LOW, PART 2
'The second week of rehearsals [for the sequels], I was on wires doing a stunt and I took a bad landing. Broke my leg. During the first 'Matrix,' I screwed up my ankle really badly, but this was much worse. I had to rehearse with a broken leg for six weeks.'

WHAT SHE CAN REVEAL ABOUT THE NEXT TWO 'MATRIX' FILMS (SECOND TRY)
'Well, the clothes are even cooler than the first one. Very much the same vibe, but even more so. Does that help?'

LAST QUESTION, RED PILL OR BLUE?
'Oh, definitely the red one. Once you've seen life from a truthful place, there's no going back.'

In the article on the Matrix Reloaded there's not much we didn't already know, but you can read it in the following very nice high-quality scans (thanks to Glitch):







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ANIMATRIX CHARACTERS
Source: <Dark Horizons>
Thanks to: <The Matrix Online>

The Official Playstation Magazine published these character model which are designed to participate in the Square USA episode of the Animatrix. Nice.



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RELOADED DETAILS
Source: <Coming Soon>

Time Out was at The Matrix press conference that was held in Sydney a few weeks ago. Production Designer Owen Paterson revealed some details. It's possible that you don't want to read this.

Genial production designer Owen Paterson, hunkered before a mock-Chinatown facade, reveals that the 'Matrix' world exists 600 years in the future, that 'Reloaded' takes place over one day, that a setpiece fight-sequence kicks off in the virtual Tea House in front of him, and that now there are four giant hovercrafts instead of one. When pressed further, he merely adds, elliptically, 'I think the second film is about causality, cause and effect. Definitely.

This leads to several questions... I personally think that 600 years in the future wouldn't be possible, since none of the human characters from Zion could return (the first Matrix was 200 years in the future). The timelap of 24 hours is an interesting touch too.


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HELICOPTER STUNT
Source: <The Daily Telegraph>
Thanks to: <Countingdown>

A Helicopter will fly at low level through Sydney's CBD next month in one of the most spectacular aerial movie scenes ever filmed.
The stunt for the $200 million sequel to the 1999 blockbuster The Matrix will take at least two days to film. The helicopter will fly below rooftop level from the eastern end of Bridge St towards George St in what insiders say is the climactic scene of The Matrix Reloaded (probably Revolutions - Code 808). The scene will be shot over at least one, and possibly two, weekends in July.

Stars Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne, who have been fixtures in Sydney's social scene for almost a year, are not expected to be involved in the shoot, which is reminiscent of the jaw-dropping helicopter sequences in the first Matrix. Details of the stunt are being closely guarded, with directors Larry and Andy Wachowski fearing other studios could steal their ideas. Producer Joel Silver last month said filming was about to enter a critical stage.

The helicopter will include a camera mounted in the pilot's seat - giving the moviegoer a bird's-eye-view as the aircraft whizzes across the city. It will fly west along Bridge St to George St before turning left towards Martin Place, passing the Intercontinental Hotel, the AMP Centre, the Royal Exchange building and Macquarie Place - at times less than 600 feet above the ground.

The 14-minute sequence - which took months to plan - has been described by producers as "the most complicated sequence ever made". "The effect is to get the audience in the pilot seat rather than showcase the buildings," an insider yesterday told The Daily Telegraph. It is understood the shooting is scheduled for two weekends in July - to minimise the number of people normally in the city. Sources working on the movie set yesterday told The Daily Telegraph the set will "definitely be closed to the public".


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REVOLUTIONS: FASTEST SEQUEL IN 36 YEARS
Source: <USA Today>
Thanks to: <The Matrix Online>

Sequels seem to spawn faster and faster these days. Star Wars' current Attack of the Clones attacked just two years after The Phantom Menace arrived. The second Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings movies come out later this year, 12 months after the first installments. But now things are switching into overdrive. Warner Bros. will release the next two (possibly final) Matrix movies in the same year. The Matrix Reloaded is scheduled for release in May 2003, while The Matrix Revolutions is tentatively scheduled to follow a few months later.

Teaser trailers in theaters already are tantalizing fans of the science-fiction franchise. There haven't been two movies in the same series released in a single calendar year since Dean Martin twice played secret agent Matt Helm in The Silencers and Murderers Row. And that was 36 years ago. More recently, the second and third Back to the Future films and first two Pokémon movies came out within a year of each other, though not literally in the same year.

"After the success of the first Matrix, we felt confident that audiences would welcome the chance to see the next two Matrix episodes in a single year," explains Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros., which also distributes the Harry Potter films. "The recent response to our trailer for the two upcoming movies has been tremendous and indicates that we're on the right track."

That track could well be headed to Hitsville, according to the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com), which indicates that Reloaded is next year's most inquired-about sequel; Revolutions ranks fourth.
Fans are definitely fired up. "I am very excited about it because the previous film will be fresh in my mind when I see Revolutions," says Jon Cline, 25, of Pasadena, Calif., the owner and editor of fan site thematrixonline.com. "People emulate this concept by watching the DVD of a film before watching its sequel." Adds Brian Linder, 26, from Columbia, S.C.: "I don't think fans could stand it if the filmmakers waited any longer."

As editor of the site IGN FilmForce, he monitors Matrix fans and is one himself. "My wife and I saw Attack of the Clones on opening night, and the crowd just went insane when the Matrix preview played," Linder says. "The only thing that drew audible disappointment was the 2003 release date at the end. We're ready for these sequels now."
As a result, the accelerated release plan promises a gigantic payoff, says Tom Borys, president of box office tracker Nielsen EDI. And he doesn't forsee any plausible pitfalls. "If the second leads right into the third, why not put them together for momentum and continuity?"

There actually is a good reason, says Russell Schwartz, president of domestic marketing for New Line Cinema. The studio wanted the Rings films to come out each year. ("It's actually one movie in three parts, so it didn't make any sense to sit on them," he explains.) But the studio decided that releasing two in the same year would be going too far.
"We briefly discussed it, but when you factor in the video release, you're on top of yourself," Schwartz says. "Where is Warners going to put the Matrix video? Is it a three-month window?" In order to make sure that Rings had its moment in each format, Schwartz says, a year break between films was the minimum.

If the Matrix films do well individually, other studios will nevertheless try the unorthodox approach, predicts Barnaby Dorfman, a trend tracker for IMDb. He says it's an idea that peaked in the '40s with frequent appearances of Charlie Chan, Sherlock Holmes, The Saint and Tarzan. "The studios will be watching the box office results very closely," Dorfman says. "There is a certain logic that spacing a film by six to nine months allows you to keep the marketing and publicity spin up, bridging the two releases."

Borys agrees that other studios will do it if they can — but he doubts that many can. "It's an enormous logistical challenge to pull it off," Borys says. "It requires that they are made at the same time. You need all the people to stay together a long time to make it."
Furthermore, Borys says, Hollywood honchos are rarely so confident about a movie that they would greenlight the movie and its sequel at the same time. They need to wait for box office results. (The Rings trilogy and the current Star Wars trilogy are the rare exceptions.) Even shooting the second and third sequels at the same time requires a lot of confidence and a lot of time, Borys says.

However, Bret Ratner, the red-hot director of Rush Hour 2 as well as the upcoming Hannibal Lecter prequel Red Dragon, says the Matrix matrix has its advantages. "When I did the first Rush Hour, I ended it so the plane was headed for Hong Kong," Ratner says. "If it worked, the plane would land in Hong Kong (at the start of a sequel)." It worked. But Rush Hour was history by the time Ratner got the go-ahead to make the sequel, so he had to start all over again.
"I would love it if I could make Rush Hour 3 and 4 back to back," he says. When you're on a roll, it's easier to keep going instead of starting up again." That doesn't mean Ratner would want the movies to come out the same year. Some sequels are more likely to work if audiences have to wait awhile to see them — whenever or however they were shot.

In other words, how can movie fans miss a franchise if it won't go away?
And then there's one other little problem with the dream scenario of sequel after sequel, Schwartz says. "There will come a time when the sequels will go out of favor," he says. "I have no doubt about it. "And suddenly, everyone is going to wake up."


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PRESS CONFERENCE CAST/PRODUCER
Source: <Zap2it>

SYDNEY, Australia (Zap2it.com) - On Day 212 of the almost year-long combined shoot of "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions" (with a reported 72 days to go), the company of the simultaneously-shooting "Matrix"sequels are holding a press conference about the highly-anticipated upcoming sci-fi franchise entries slated for release in May and November of 2003.

Though the Wachowski brothers, the visionary writer-directors behind "The Matrix" and its two sequels, are busy setting up the day's filming, present at the press conference are "Matrix" trilogy producer Joel Silver, as well as cast members Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving, Harold Perrineau, Nona Gaye and Jada Pinkett Smith.

Silver, whose name is synonymous with big action features, describes the second and third films of the trilogy as "not two movies – it's just one enormous movie that's being cut in half and shown in two halves."

On these two halves, however, principal photography is only half the battle as months' worth of visual effects work remain to be overlaid on both movies -- and a lot has changed since even the 1999 blockbuster.

"The computer is allowing us to do things that we never dreamed we could do before," Silver explains. "The bullet-time sequences (in 'The Matrix') were in the embryonic stage of what the computer can do. Now it's at such a level that (the Wachowskis) can do anything they want."

About the notoriously secretive Wachowskis, brothers Larry and Andy, Fishburne, who once again takes on the role of rebel leader Morpheus, jokes, "Little is known about the Wachowski brothers. They have a secret code that exists between the two of them. They're not very verbal, but they are incredibly trusting of who we are and what we bring. Their visual style makes it very interesting to be on set and to be with them when they're composing or creating these wonderful shots."

Returning from the original film are Keanu Reeves as Neo, Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity, Fishburne, and Hugo Weaving as the villainous Agent Smith. They are joined by singer/model Nona Gaye (daughter of Marvin Gaye) playing a resident of the "real world" of Zion named Zee, Harold Perrineau as her husband, Link, and Jada Pinkett Smith as the mysterious Niobe, a woman of Zion who doesn't believe Neo could be "the chosen one" at the beginning of the new movies.

Pinkett Smith, along with the rest of the key cast, participated in months of rigorous training to prepare for the substantial physicality required for their roles.

"I've never had such intense training in my life and I have to say that I'm in the best condition that I've ever been in at 31," Pinkett Smith admits. "I had no idea that I can do half the stuff I can do!"

"A lot of people, I don't think, understand just how incredibly taxing all this work is physically," Fishburne adds. "If you look at 'Revisited,' there's a small clip of Keanu at rest off somewhere and there's steam rising up off his head. The amount of time and the hours that we are required to train are the kind of hours that professional athletes deal with."

As for how Reeves keeps up with all this, the characteristically tight-lighted actor reveals, "It's been a very strict diet and very vigorous, rigorous training."

To stay true to the ideal to create a "new experience" for the audience, the cast and producer demur when it comes to questions about the plot, the characters and almost any other level of detail in regards to the two movies.

Silver laid it out in broad strokes, however.

"It's about all of us, about our role in our lives and what our lives are about," the producer explains. "The boys are geniuses because they've come up with a concept of a system, which is everywhere we're going and where we have to stop. It's a treatise on our times and where we're going and how do we not go there."

If that's too vague, Reeves reveals that despite the new powers the audience saw him with at the end of the first "Matrix," "The brothers have put up some great obstacles to test those powers. The story goes outside of the Matrix and starts to concern itself with the machines and Zion. So, it's almost what he can do in the Matrix is not enough. He's still on the path of discovery and choice."

But then the cast returns to their more reined-in approach to question-answering as Fishburne replies to a question about the significance of the franchise in cinematic history.

"We all are aware of the fact that we are involved in something that is absolutely history-making in terms of cinema in the world, so it's a great, great honor," the man playing Morpheus says.

However, Joel Silver proves more than confident about the potential success of the two films.

"This will end the way movies have been made up to now," he boasts.

And lest you think that the producer has any qualms about audiences relating to the increasingly complex franchise as the trilogy continues, Silver adds, "I think that people were able to understand (the first film) and go with it, and I believe they're really anxious to see where it's going to go."


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ANIMATRIX ON THE WEB
Source: <Sci Fi Wire>

Ten anime films set in the universe of The Matrix will debut on the official Web site in the fall, Warner Brothers announced. The anime films - including four written by Matrix directors Larry and Andy Wachowski - may also make it onto DVD, with the last released theatrically, producer Joel Silver told SCI FI Wire.

The Animatrix shorts will be directed by Japanese and other animators, Silver said. The 10th installment will act as a prelude to the upcoming Matrix Reloaded sequel film, which is now in production in Australia and is slated for a May 2003 release. The 10-minute anime feature will be released by Square, the video game publisher that also produced 2001's computer-animated movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Silver said.

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© 2002 Code 808