"[183], Carrie-Anne Moss asserted that prior to being cast in The Matrix, she had "no career". And we were all pretty much sorted and agreed on dates and it was all fine, but then Lana decided she didnt think it was going to work. "[116] M. Night Shyamalan expressed admiration for the Wachowskis, stating, "Whatever you think of The Matrix, every shot is there because of the passion they have! During the testing of a breathing mechanism in the pod, the tester suffered hypothermia in under eight minutes, so the pod had to be heated. [citation needed] Reviewers have also commented on similarities between The Matrix and other late-1990s films such as Strange Days, Dark City, and The Truman Show. [131][132] The pods can be seen in Welcome to Paradox Episode 4 "News from D Street" from a 1986 short story[133] of the same name by Andrew Weiner which aired on September 7, 1998, on the SYFY Channel and has a remarkably similar concept. [163] It has also been noted that the character Morpheus paraphrases the Chinese taoist philosopher Zhuangzi when he asks Neo, "Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? [166] In the original script, Switch was a woman in the Matrix and a man in the real world, but this idea was ultimately dropped. " Margot Robbie as Harley quen . When not writing, Michael enjoys going to concerts, taking in live professional wrestling, and debating pop culture. [107] Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four: he praised the film's visuals and premise, but disliked the third act's focus on action. She answers a ringing public telephone and vanishes. Hey Movies fam, Im doing my Matrix rewatch in advance of the new sequel. Thats where it ended up. [143][144], The Wachowskis' approach to action scenes drew upon their admiration for Japanese animation such as Ninja Scroll and Akira. This Horror Movie's Ending Ruined The Entire Film, According To Fans, Charlize Theron Regrets Working On This 'Bad, Bad, Bad Movie', Viewers Demand A Trigger Warning For Mila Kunis' New Film, The Luckiest Girl Alive. A team of Agents and police, led by Agent Smith, arrives at Neo's workplace in search of him. [39] According to editor Zach Staenberg on the DVD audio commentary track, the production team sent an edit of the film's first minutes (featuring Trinity's encounter with police and Agents) to Warner executives, and secured Warner's "total support of the movie" from then on. They got the cast they got because that was the cast that agreed to train for six months. The Meditation hypothesizes that the perceived world might be a comprehensive illusion created to deceive us. To buy time for the others, Morpheus fights Smith and is captured. How did Kurapika manage to get the eyes from Neon? His non-appearance in them has also been noted: after. She basically didnt feel that my commitment to the National Theatre was going to fit in with the dates that she had in mind for me.. He quickly became an iconic villain thanks to Weaving's performance, especiallythe coldlyrobotic way he would referto protagonist Neo (Keanu Reeves) by his name within The Matrix:"Mr. Anderson". Our technique was significantly different because we built it to move around objects that were themselves in motion, and we were also able to create slow-motion events that 'virtual cameras' could move around rather than the static action in Gondry's music videos with limited camera moves. Immediately after Wolfman wrapped in spring 2008, he returned home to Australia to film a lead role in the film Last Ride, directed by Glendyn Ivin. Check out Waits on one of the late night shows in the 70s). [158][160] Some interpreters of The Matrix mention Baudrillard's philosophy to support their claim "that the [film] is an allegory for contemporary experience in a heavily commercialized, media-driven society, especially in developed countries". You done goofed. We were doing the voice for the second one and I still hadn't seen the first one. While speaking to Coming Soon.net, the actor really dug into how he almost returned to the role for The Matrix 4 and why it all fell apart. In 1991, Weaving received the Australian Film Institute's "Best Actor" award for his performance in the low-budget Proof as the blind photographer. [25] Weaving appeared in the prison drama Healing for director Craig Monahan, with whom he previously made The Interview (1998) and Peaches (2005). I'm very insecure' Rhik Samadder The actor, 54, on a lifetime of epilepsy, the secret to a successful relationship and. [130] A resemblance to the eery worlds of Swiss artist H.R. All the latest gaming news, game reviews and trailers. So Weaving was probably based in that city & was an established domestic actor as is, & evidently he's impressed the Wachowski's enough to land it. Hes got plenty of movies prior, a lot of which I havent seen. 2012 also found Weaving re-focusing on his theatrical career, with a return to the Sydney Theatre Company to star in a new adaptation of Christopher Hampton's play Les Liaisons Dangereuses in March. Davis' score combines orchestral, choral and synthesizer elements; the balance between these elements varies depending on whether humans or machines are the dominant subject of a given scene. The world in 1999 was far from a utopia, but still humans accepted this over the suffering-less utopia. Davis focused on this theme of reflections when creating his score, alternating between sections of the orchestra and attempting to incorporate contrapuntal ideas. I hope its great., In 2021, the fact that Laurence Fishburne wasnt starring in The Matrix Resurrections was brought up when he was interviewed by Collider. Then again, it's possible this new film involves time-travel and the original plan was for a pre-Matrix trilogy Smith to appear (with Weaving getting some CGI de-aging to playthe role) in scenes set in the past, alongside characters like The Merovingian (Lambert Wilson) and, rumor has it, a young Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen's supposed role). [91], The franchise also contains three video games: Enter the Matrix (2003), which contains footage shot specifically for the game and chronicles events taking place before and during The Matrix Reloaded;[92] The Matrix Online (2004), an MMORPG which continued the story beyond The Matrix Revolutions;[93][94] and The Matrix: Path of Neo (2005), which focuses on Neo's journey through the trilogy of films. You can see they argued it out!". He was arguably the biggest reason it was a blockbuster, the filmmakers were Unknowns and it was not a typical blockbuster. He starred opposite Nicole Kidman in the 1989 TV mini-series Bangkok Hilton. With these highly detailed collected data, the team were able to create virtual cinematography in which characters, locations, and events can all be created digitally and viewed through virtual cameras, eliminating the restrictions of real cameras. In one way, I regret that bit. Actor James Purefoy was originally signed to play the role, but was fired six weeks into filming over creative differences. I've never met him. Morpheus warns Neo that death within the Matrix kills the physical body too and explains that the Agents are sentient programs that eliminate threats to the system, while machines called Sentinels eliminate rebels in the real world. [58][59] He noted that mirrors appear frequently in the film: reflections of the blue and red pills are seen in Morpheus's glasses; Neo's capture by Agents is viewed through the rear-view mirror of Trinity's motorcycle; Neo observes a broken mirror mending itself; reflections warp as a spoon is bent; the reflection of a helicopter is visible as it approaches a skyscraper. He stated that since Ghost in the Shell had gained recognition in America, the Wachowskis used it as a "promotional tool". by Trey Griffeth on September 2, 2020 The Lord of the Rings and Captain America star Hugo Weaving has revealed why he did not return as Agent Smith for The Matrix 4. Lover of video games, comics, and movies! Bigger actors at the time like Jean Reno and "Priscilla" co-star Guy Pearce also turned Agent Smith down due to the time commitment. [126] In February 2022, the film was named one of the five finalists for Oscars Cheer Moment as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' "Oscars Fan Favorite" contest, for the "bullet time" scene, finishing in fifth place.[127][128]. [40], Weaving also has a brother and a sister. He is the recipient of six Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards (AACTA) and has also been recognised as an Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia . The Matrix Resurrections, the fourth Matrix movie, not only brings back Neo and Trinity, but the first film's protagonist Agent Smith as well. He said "if my wife put out three girls in a row, I'd cheat til I got a boy". This article says the Wachowskis were impressed by his acting in Priscilla, so they auditioned him, where he impressed them even more. I still didn't really know who the characters were and I didn't know what anything was. [161] The same premise can be found in Hilary Putnam's brain in a vat scenario proposed in the 1980s. The go-to source for comic book and superhero movie fans. Assuming the plan is for The Matrix 4 to usher in a new trilogy or more of Matrix movies (which it most likely is), the franchise would probably do well toshift its focus onto a new generation of heroes and villains and away from the original trilogy's leads (a la what Star Wars did with The Force Awakens) as much as possible. The Matrix Resurrections nearly saw the return of Hugo Weaving's Agent Smith, but the role ultimately fell to Jonathan Groff instead. Following the trailer's release, there's been no confirmation of who will be the new threat to those that aren't plugged into The Matrix. Beyond the appearance change, this version of Smith is a little less chaotic evil and much more chaotic neutral. [162], Andrew Godoski sees allusions to Christ, including Neo's "virgin birth", his doubt in himself, the prophecy of his coming, along with many other Christian references. Seeing Neo square off against Smith again would be like a modern-day Obi-Wan vs. Darth Vader. Just like Morpheus, a version of Hugo Weavings Agent Smith appears in The Matrix Resurrections, this time portrayed by Jonathan Groff. Weaving played Agent Smith in the original Matrix trilogy, and to some he is just as iconic as Keanu Reeves' character Neo. Or was this purely from the casting director? - March 27, 2022 05:09 pm EDT. [35], In 1996, the Wachowskis pitched the role of Neo to Will Smith. And they're presently in Berlin with the next Matrix installation," he said. [188] The Matrix was voted as the fourth best science fiction film in the 2011 list Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time, based on a poll conducted by ABC and People. Writer of all things that involve them! [24], The busy actor also joined the cast of three forthcoming Australian films in summer 2012. His mother worked as a tour guide and a teacher, while his father was an acclaimed seismologist. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Smith would go on to evolve into the big bad of the original Matrix trilogy in the sequels The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions, becoming, in essence, aself-replicating virusand nearly taking over The Matrix before Neo defeated him by lettingSmith overwrite him (allowingthe machinesthat runthe Matrix to delete Smith and his clones). [42] Yuen was optimistic but then began to worry when he realized how unfit the actors were. Matthew Thomas is a freelance writer who has written hundreds of articles over the last several years. Smith, of course, was introduced in the original Matrix asone of the"Agent" programs tasked with preventing humans from escaping the simulated reality (aka. [16], The directors had long been admirers of Hong Kong action cinema, so they decided to hire the Chinese martial arts choreographer and film director Yuen Woo-ping to work on fight scenes. Neo takes the red pill, and his reality begins to distort, awakening in a liquid-filled pod among countless other pods, containing other humans. Great resource. [5] In North America, it went on to become the fifth highest-grossing film of 1999 and the highest-grossing R-rated film of that year. After Morpheus and Trinity safely exit the Matrix, Smith ambushes and kills Neo. Next: 'Matrix 4' Has Drastically Changed Keanu Reeves' Net Worth, Here's How. No one accepted the program. But considering how little the movie was about the character in the first place, it was hardly a disastrous creative choice to give Smith a different actor. [102] The following week, the film would be displaced by Entrapment. He accordingly played the same role in Electronic Arts' strategy game The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, released in 2006 . As such, the sequelwill be moving on without him. And then, Lana decided that she didn't wanna change her dates, so I couldn't do it. However, the surgery still made him unable to kick for two out of four months of training. Switch, agent smith, apoc were all cast out of australia and new zealand. The Matrix's signature special effect, and other aspects of the film, have been parodied numerous times,[26] in comedy films such as Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999),[173] Scary Movie (2000),[174] Shrek (2001),[171] Kung Pow! [57], The film's score was composed by Don Davis. The machines had to amend their choice of programming in order to make people subservient to them, and so they conceived the Matrix in the image of the world in 1999. "[11] In 2012, Weaving said to Collider: "It was one of the only things I've ever done where I had no knowledge of it, I didn't care about it, I didn't think about it. The Matrix franchise was further expanded through the production of comic books, video games and animated short films, with which the Wachowskis were heavily involved. [75] The Wachowskis first imagined an action sequence that slowed time while the camera pivoted rapidly around the subjects, and proposed the effect in their screenplay for the film. It doesn't feel to me as though they've been the majority of my work, though that's probably the way it seems to most other people."[17]. The latest movie news, trailers, reviews, and more. [83] By 2000, the film went on to become the first to sell more than three million copies in the US. As it turns out, when he spoke to Collider in 2020, Weaving revealed that he almost starred in the fourth Matrix movie. Its amazing to think of the relatively short time between Point Break and The Matrix is for Keanu and what it did for him after. The actor recently disclosed that he nearly made to feature in the upcoming movie, but things did not pan out. [186], In 2001, The Matrix placed 66th in the American Film Institute's "100 Years100 Thrills" list. Morpheus offers Neo a choice between two pills: Taking the red pill, which will reveal the truth about the Matrix, or the blue, which will make Neo forget everything and return to his former life. [2], While in the UK, he attended The Downs School, Wraxall, near Bristol, and Queen Elizabeth's Hospital. I have SO many thoughts and so many questions and maybe well get to some more, but one of the first things I want to know is: what are the great roles Hugo Weaving performed prior to landing Agent Smith in The Matrix? [55], To prepare for the scene in which Neo wakes up in a pod, Reeves lost 15 pounds and shaved his whole body to give Neo an emaciated look. Years after the release of The Matrix, both the Wachowskis came out as transgender women, and some viewers have seen transgender themes in the film before it was officially confirmed. Morpheus and his crew are a group of rebels who hack into the Matrix to "unplug" enslaved humans and recruit them; their understanding of the Matrix's simulated nature allows them to bend its physical laws. [167], In a 2016 GLAAD Media Awards speech, Lilly Wachowski said: "Theres a critical eye being cast back on Lana and I's (sic) work through the lens of our transness. Smith explained on his YouTube channel that the idea was for him to be Neo, while Morpheus was to be played by Val Kilmer. His father's work took him to different places from time to time, and . [151] After watching The Matrix, Gibson commented that the way that the film's creators had drawn from existing cyberpunk works was "exactly the kind of creative cultural osmosis" he had relied upon in his own writing;[8] however, he noted that the film's Gnostic themes distinguished it from Neuromancer, and believed that The Matrix was thematically closer to the work of science fiction author Philip K. Dick, particularly Dick's speculative Exegesis. In 1994, the Wachowskis presented the script for the film Assassins to Warner Bros. Pictures. [147], The film makes several references to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I immediately responded yes to that, and then we went into negotiation.". [171][172] It was also the defining game mechanic of the game Superhot and its sequels. Movie News, Movie Trailers & upcoming Movie Reviews, The Leading Source for Gaming News, Reviews, and Interviews, Hugo Weaving Won't Be Returning for Matrix 4 - Here's Why, The Matrix 4 Theory: How Carrie-Anne Moss' Trinity Returns, give Trinity a far better ending than she got in, Jessica Henwick is playing a "female Neo", 15 Best Jump Scare Movies (& Where To Stream Them), Doctor Who: The 10 Best Episodes, According To Reddit, The 8 Funniest Costumes Worn By Movie Characters, 10 Most Historically Accurate Movies, According To Reddit, 10 Memes That Perfectly Sum Up Avatar (2009), Star Wars: 30 Jedi From Weakest To Most Powerful, Officially Ranked, Forget Quantumania: Ant-Man Might've Already Met Kang In His First Movie, Black Adam's Dwayne Johnson Reportedly Dislikes Shazam, Why Terrifier 2s Bedroom Scene Is So Controversial. how much did hugo weaving make for the matrix. [35], In 2004, Weaving became an ambassador for Australian animal rights organisation Voiceless, the animal protection institute. [108] Similarly, Time Out praised the "entertainingly ingenious" switches between different realities, Hugo Weaving's "engagingly odd" performance, and the film's cinematography and production design, but concluded, "the promising premise is steadily wasted as the film turns into a fairly routine action pic yet another slice of overlong, high concept hokum. Smith, of course, was introduced in the original Matrix as one of the "Agent" programs tasked with preventing humans from escaping the simulated reality (aka. By using our Services, you agree to our use of cookies. [a] It is the first installment in the Matrix film series, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano, and depicts a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside the Matrix, a simulated reality that intelligent machines have created to distract humans while using their bodies as an energy source. [68] For the scene when Neo wakes up in the pod connected to the Matrix, the pod was constructed to look dirty, used, and sinister. [87][88] The film was also released standalone in a 10th anniversary edition Blu-ray in the Digibook format on March 31, 2009, 10 years to the day after the film was released theatrically. [73] To create backgrounds, Gaeta hired George Borshukov, who created 3D models based on the geometry of buildings and used the photographs of the buildings themselves as texture. Weaving played a supporting role in Joe Johnston's 2010 remake of the 1941 film The Wolfman, starring Benicio del Toro. Cookies help us deliver our Services. The helicopter was a full-scale light-weight mock-up suspended by a wire rope operated a tilting mechanism mounted to the studio roofbeams. [26] The combined success of the Matrix trilogy, the Lord of the Rings films and the Star Wars prequels made Hollywood interested in creating trilogies. I have the same questions about Carrie Anne Moss. In 2020, Weaving starred as Alfred in Tony Kushner's adaptation of The Visit. [84] By November 10, 2003, one month after The Matrix Reloaded DVD was released, the sales of The Matrix DVD had exceeded 30 million copies. In a nutshell, that's what happened," he concluded. However though he wasn't a a part of the film, the star did have a probability to learn the script. The much-anticipated Matrix threequel concluded with a flabbergasting whimper, after Neo (Keanu Reeves) sacrificed his life to defeat Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), the Matrix was rebooted and, uh . [50], Moss performed the shots featuring Trinity at the beginning of the film and all the wire stunts herself. Actor Hugo Weaving was noticeably absent from the latest Matrix Resurrections movie. [35] The success of The Matrix created high demand for those choreographers and their techniques from other filmmakers, who wanted fights of similar sophistication: for example, wire work was employed in X-Men (2000)[180] and Charlie's Angels (2000),[178] and Yuen Woo-ping's brother Yuen Cheung-yan was choreographer on Daredevil (2003). From the moment he steps on screen, Agent Smith is a force to be reckoned with. In September 2022, Danny Boyle was announced to be directing a dance adaptation of the film, titled "Free Your Mind", and it is set to debut in October 2023 in Manchester, U.K.[201], This article is about the 1999 film. It's Weaving's loathing of the film business that has precluded him from moving to the States and he's happy with that decision. The film premiered at the Rome International Film Festival on 28 October 2010 and garnered positive reviews. [108][137][138][139][140] The similarity of the film's central concept to a device in the long-running series Doctor Who has also been noted. Before Cypher can kill Neo and Trinity, crew member Tank regains consciousness and kills him before pulling Neo and Trinity from the Matrix. Related: The Matrix 4 Theory: How Carrie-Anne Moss' Trinity Returns. Why Hugo Weaving Wasn't In The Matrix Resurrections Since he played the primary antagonist in the original Matrix trilogy, Hugo Weaving will forever be closely associated with the franchise. Im asking for recs from people who have seen him in any of those movies so I dont have to watch every single one. Hugo Weaving has played an almost absurd number of memorable characters in big-budget blockbusters over the years, but his role in the first three "Matrix" movies rises above them all. [158] "The book was required reading"[7] for the actors prior to filming. [105] It ranked 323rd among critics, and 546th among directors, in the 2012 Sight & Sound polls of the greatest films ever made. Would it have been nice to see Hugo Weaving get to ham it up as Agent Smith again? Keanu Reeves was an established name, but he wasnt the megastar he is today. Those are the words first spoken by Hugo Weaving's Agent Smith while interrogating Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) in the original Matrix from 1999. In the years following, the remaining free humans took refuge in the underground city of Zion. [85] It then debuted on both VHS and DVD formats in the UK on November 29, 1999. Although the project had key supporters, including Silver and Di Bonaventura, to influence the company, The Matrix was still a huge investment for Warner Bros., which had to invest $60 million to create a movie with philosophical themes and difficult special effects. [37][38] The storyboard eventually earned the studio's approval, and it was decided to film in Australia to make the most of the budget. [69] For Trinity, Barrett experimented with how each fabric absorbed and reflected different types of light, and was eventually able to make Trinity's costume mercury-like and oil-slick to suit the character. But then the movie came out and Agent Smith was in fact still there, just played by the (perfectly acceptable) Jonathan Groff. These were filmed back-to-back in one shoot and released on separate dates in 2003. The two sides entered into negotiations to try to make The Matrix Resurrections' schedule work out so that Weaving could do both projects, but, according to Weaving, Wachowski proved unwilling to accommodate the dates Weaving wanted. The Agents offer to erase Neo's criminal record in exchange for his help with locating Morpheus, who they claim is a terrorist. I'd imagine that The Matrix is the kind of film that was very difficult to draw up a written proposal for to take to film studios". Everything I've done since then has been because of that experience. ", He never clarified what he wasn't sure about, but given the final film's divided reception, it could've been anything. Nonetheless, Weaving admitted there have been some components of Resurrections he wasn't utterly offered on. While that case proved to be rather acrimonious, as Weaving disliked his experience working with Marvel, that's thankfully not the case for his failure to appear in The Matrix Resurrections. As for artistic inspiration for bullet time, I would credit Otomo Katsuhiro, who co-wrote and directed Akira, which definitely blew me away, along with director Michel Gondry. The code received the Runner-up Award in the 1999 Jesse Garson Award for In-film typography or opening credit sequence. As Neo recuperates from a lifetime of physical inactivity in the pod, Morpheus explains the situation: In the early 21st century, a war broke out between humanity and intelligent machines. Both appeared in the 2013 Australian film Mystery Road. Filming began in autumn 2009 in Nottingham, England, and Adelaide, South Australia, and continued through January 2010. [16] Weaving completed filming his role on the project in September 2010 and returned to Sydney to prepare for Uncle Vanya. [98] Additionally, this was the biggest opening weekend for a Keanu Reeves film since Speed in 1994. Hugo Wallace Weaving is an English film and stage actor, residing in Australia. The movie was shot in Sydney, right at the vanguard of the time when movies started doing that ( like the 2nd & 3rd SW prequels ) & Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, Guy Pearce, Care Blanchette & Naomi Watts et al started to boom. [72] The ability to slow down time enough to distinguish the motion of bullets was used as a central gameplay mechanic of several video games, including Max Payne, in which the feature was explicitly referred to as "bullet time". [5] The Matrix became the second-highest-grossing Warner Bros. film of all time, behind Twister. The Matrix opened in theaters in the United States on March 31, 1999, to widespread acclaim from critics, who praised its innovative visual effects, action sequences, cinematography and entertainment value,[10][11] and was a massive success at the box office, grossing over $460 million on a $63 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing Warner Bros. film of 1999 and the fourth highest-grossing film of that year. As it turned out, however, Agent Smith was once again set to return from the dead. He is the uncle of actress Samara Weaving, who also began her career in Australia before transitioning to American roles. [1] A year after his birth, his family returned to the United Kingdom, living in Bedford and Brighton before moving to Melbourne and Sydney in Australia; Johannesburg in South Africa; and then returning to the United Kingdom again. 'The Matrix' star talks about why he was unable to return for the upcoming fourth film.