Reeves & Silver Spill Matrix Sequels Detail


Keanu Reeves, who will be back as Neo in the upcoming Matrix sequels - 'The Matrix Reloaded' and 'The Matrix Revolutions' spoke with SCI FI Wire about his characters new stiff challenges and about is continued journey of discovery in the new films.

"The brothers [writer-directors Andy and Larry Wachowski] have put up some great obstacles to test those powers, and the story kind of goes outside of the Matrix and starts to concern itself with the machines in Zion," said Reeves.

"So it’s almost [that] what he can do in the Matrix is not enough. And he’s still on the path of discovery and choice. He’s told by the Oracle that ... he has some choices that he’ll have to make that will affect the survival of the human race. And there are some hardships. And all of us are trying to save the world. And the development between Neo and Trinity [Carrie-Anne Moss] is explored, and with Morpheus [Laurence Fishburne] and [Agent] Smith [Hugo Weaving]. And so I think that’s just about it. It’s the development of the hero journey for my character, which is new challenges and choices. And it’s not so much about being born. He wanted to find out where he was. Now he knows. Or he thinks he knows."

Were the Wachowskis flattered? "For a while ... I bet they thought it was flattering," Silver said. "But after a while, they kind of got angry about it. So they decided that, in these two movies, they would create visual effects that could never be copied. So we have done visual effects for the movie that, because of the time that we took to make them and the cost, will never be seen again. So I really think that the bar has been raised so high that, you know, there is no bar. This will end the way movies have been made up to now, because they can go no further. The computer is allowing us to do things that we never dreamed we could do before. ... The [first film’s] bullet-time sequences ... were the beginning, the embryonic stage of what computers could do. It’s just now at such a level that they can do anything they want. And the great thing about it is that ... the guys have enough intellect and understand the process enough so they are able to create an arena that this stuff can exist in that could not exist anywhere else."

Both movies are expected to shoot for another two months. With the 'The Matrix Reloaded' hitting theaters in May 2003, followed by a fall of 2003 release for 'The Matrix Revolutions'.

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