The Wachowski Brothers Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Tempted though I may be to do so, I won't take credit for Warners' moving up the release of Richard Kelly's hopefully good The Box after I blathered on about it for too long and then some last month. According to BOM, the thriller is now scheduled to open on October 30th and just opposite Saw VI -- and between us, if it was between either the fifth Saw sequel or a title with both Richard Kelly and Richard Matheson's names on it, my moviegoing dollar would surely find its way to the latter.

Going instead into the newly vacated 11/25 slot is the Wachowski-produced Ninja Assassin, helmed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta, the third act of The Invasion) and starring that guy Stephen Colbert hates so much. Not much has come of that film beyond a "we're making it!" press conference -- no trailer, no poster, no nuthin' -- but the film has been formally rated R for "strong bloody stylized violence throughout, and language," which suggests that the film is completed.

And when you have a completed film on your hands, you generally release it. (And then this'll be the part where the "More You Know" star will shoot overhead...)

Ever since the numbers were released yesterday, anyone and everyone (as well as anyone who is everyone) has been talking Speed Racer -- specifically, how a $120 million Hollywood blockbuster could open with only $20 million at the box office. You can blame Iron Man, you can blame the marketing, you can blame the blogs for trashing the film all year long, you can blame Christina Ricci's weird haircut, or you can blame that judge on Project Runway for saying, "You can never have too much color!" Fact is, it missed the mark.

But what could've helped Speed Racer make more money in its opening weekend? The running time has been mentioned a lot in the past 24 hours, but a running time doesn't exactly woo audiences into the theater. Is the film's marketing 100% to blame? Should the trailers have been cut differently? Should they have stressed that this was a film for kids? Should they have added a little viral action into the mix? Or what about overall? From the beginning, were the Wachowski Brothers the right folks for the job? Should they have gone the animated route instead -- or maybe the animated 3-D route? Should they have made this a film for older kids; slap on a PG-13 rating?

In your opinion, what could've helped Speed Racer -- both in its opening weekend and in its development as a feature film?

As part of its latest issue, Entertainment Weekly has done up a whole spread on the upcoming live-action Speed Racer flick, directed by those nutty Wachowski Brothers. Not only are there a few new photos tossed into their gallery, but there's also some great descriptions of the technology that went into creating the very surreal world. Some have said it looks "too much like a video game" -- but then I have to wonder what you expected from a live-action Speed Racer film. When I watched the old cartoon, I thought it was as close to tripping on acid -- sober -- as a person could get. That's what the movie looks like. Thus, in my opinion, job well done. (But don't go tellin' the kids that because this puppy is rated PG.)

Remember, the entire film was shot in front of a green screen -- so the actors had to do, well, a lot of "acting." I found this quote to be rather interesting: "Because the actors weren't really racing, they were plopped instead into hydraulically-controlled cockpits that would bob and weave in real time along with what cars were supposed to be doing on screen. 'We gave the directors a joystick that would allow them to simulate other cars bumping into them,' says Leo (one of the effects supervisors). Freaky.

Check out a few more images after the jump, then head over to EW to see the rest. Speed Racer hits theaters on May 9.

So there's a little mystery starting to brew on the net surrounding the Wachowskis' action flick, Ninja Assassin. Over at kungfurodeo.com, there are reports that a new casting call for the flick is proof that the brothers are actually making a live-action version of the classic anime, Ninja Scroll. For those fans of Scroll out there, maybe you can tell me if the characters on the casting sheet over at Freebase Media look a little familiar.

The story of Ninja Scroll is set in feudal Japan. A ninja-for-hire is forced into fighting an old nemesis that has set his sights on toppling the Japanese government. Complicating matters is a group of super-demons under the bad guys control. So far, not much is known about the plot of Ninja Assassin, but all we do know is that Korean pop star Rain has scored a part in the James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) directed flick.

He may not be a big star yet here in the states, but the South Korean pop singer Rain is starting to land big roles in some big films. He already has a supporting role in this summer's Speed Racer, and now Variety reports that Rain (aka Jung Ji-hoon) has nabbed a leading role in a film called Ninja Assassin, which will be produced by Joel Silver and the Wachowski Brothers, and directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta). Though there's no mention of their further involvement in the film, one assumes Andy and Larry Wachowski also wrote the script.

The news came via a press conference in Seoul earlier today, and there's currently no word on what the film will be about other than the fact that there will be lots of action. Rain's debut on the big screen came last year in the flick I'm a Cyborg, but That's Okay -- and, having seen the film, I enjoyed the guy quite a bit as an actor. Ninja Assassin is tentatively scheduled to shoot from March to July in Berlin for Warner Bros. I imagine we should expect more casting announcements to come soon, but in the meantime you Wachowski fans can look forward to plenty more fancy hand-to-hand battles from the brothers who brought us The Matrix trilogy.

The first poster for Speed Racer has arrived online (courtesy of JoBlo) -- a film that's sure to give you an "interesting" experience at the theater when it arrives on May 9. The trailer, which first hit Moviefone recently, has caused all sorts of commotion from people who either love the trippy live-action look to people who hate the fact that it looks like a high-priced video game. This particular poster, according to recent photos over at FirstShowing, appears to be lenticular for the in-theater versions. That means the image changes based on the way you look at it. So next time you visit the theater, expect a bunch of stoners to be standing in front of the Speed Racer poster like a pack of hypnotized Chim-Chims.

Directed by the Wachowski Brothers (or siblings), Speed Racer is based on the popular '60s cartoon. It stars Emile Hirsch as an up-and-coming race car driver who enters into a dangerous race in order to help thwart an evil company's plans to destroy his car and his family's business. The film co-stars Christina Ricci, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon and Matthew Fox. You can check out the trailer over on Moviefone, or visit the film's official site for more info.

USA Today has nabbed the first look at several new photos from this summer's Speed Racer, directed by The Wachowski Brothers (The Matrix Trilogy). The photos are trippy as all hell, and they help to give you a tiny taste of what you're in store for when this film finally arrives in theaters on May 9, 2008. On the surface, one might think the Wachowskis are completely out of their minds. But those of you who remember the old 1960s cartoon will look at these pics and say, "Holy crap, I didn't think there'd be a way to do this live action -- but they somehow pulled it off." Because that's what I was thinking. And I know what some of you might say: "Yeah, but it totally looks like a video game." Fine, valid point, but for Speed Racer, I think you need to go a little nutty. You need to borrow from the fantastical universe already in place, update it, throw in colorful live-action characters and produce something that's real fun to watch. Based on these pics and the soon-to-be-released thing that I saw but can't talk about, I feel this film is going to soar. You?

See more over at USA Today ...

It might just be me, but every time I turn around it seems like The Invasion has released another batch of photos, a trailer, or a new poster in the hopes of drumming up some business for the production. Now ComingSoon.net is hosting a brand new gallery of images from the film. Actually, I'm sure we have seen some of these before, but at least this grouping has some more action-packed images to choose from. It's no secret that the film has been making headlines for over a year, with news of massive re-shoots being undertaken by the WB's sci-fi/action duo, The Wachowski Brothers, as well as James McTeigue (V for Vendetta), reportedly to liven up some of the film's action sequences. All of this without the involvement of original director Oliver Hirschbiegel.

The film is a loose update of the 1955 classic, The Body Snatchers and even 52 years later, if it's done right, the tale of conformity and paranoia should probably resonate with audiences. This version stars Nicole Kidman as a psychiatrist living in D.C. when a mysterious space shuttle crash seems to be turning local residents into mindless drones. Along with her doctor friend (Daniel Craig), she tries to unravel the mystery of what has happened while trying to locate her son, who "may hold the key to stopping the devastating invasion." This latest gallery will probably be the last we get from the film until it hits theaters on August 17th, and considering that the photos do not give too much away, there is still plenty of room for surprises.

Hollywood has been using chimpanzees for years and years, so you'd think they knew how to treat them. Sure, back in the early days there wasn't as much monitoring of animal wrangling on film sets, but by now filmmakers certainly know what is right and wrong when it comes to possible animal abuse. For instance, nobody would ever beat a chimp. Right? Maybe not. If the allegations are correct, though, the chimpanzee playing 'Chim-Chim' in the Speed Racer movie has been hit. One thing that has been confirmed is that the animal bit a young actor, but Warner Bros. claims that no harm has come to the chimp. PETA has heard differently, however, and the animal rights organization has asked producer Joel Silver to replace the live animal with an animatronic chimpanzee.

When a film production uses live animals, it is supposed to have a representative from the American Humane Society watching over the care and treatment of them. The AHS even has a part of its website that loosely details a movie's 'featured animal scenes' and whether or not a movie gets the 'no animals were harmed' stamp. Occasionally animals do die on set, or they may be unintentionally injured, but otherwise, the AHS maintains that animals like the Speed Racer chimp are taken good care of (and they apparently prefer animal stars to animatronic stars). Despite Warners' assurances that the AHS has seen no animal abuse with Speed Racer, PETA argues that the AHS is not monitoring off-set abuse nor pre-production training of the animal. In a final response to the studio, PETA stated, "we regret to say that the assurances you offer are meaningless."

So even though the film has had more than it's share of bad press, Nicole Kidman's sci-fi thriller The Invasion appears to be soldiering on until its release date later this summer. The German web site Movie-Info currently has a whole batch of stills just released from the film starring Kidman, Jeremy Northam and Daniel Craig. This latest batch of pictures pretty much builds on what we've already seen in the trailer. Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall), the Body Snatcher update centers on a psychologist (Kidman) who learns that her son could be the key to stopping an alien invasion -- and even though they seemed to have done away with the pods, it looks like those pesky aliens still have a fondness for getting us in our sleep.

As we all know now, the film has had a "troubled" history to put it lightly, culminating in the addition of Warner Bros. favorite action duo, The Wachowski Brothers to help out with the film's action sequences. Hirschbiegel is still credited as the film's director, but gossip had The Wachowski's pretty much remaking the entire film with the help of V for Vendetta director James McTeigue. Of course, early reviews calling The Invasion "one of the most misguided and ultimately terrible genre films in years" are probably not going to help with public perception. Thanks to Jennifer we now know that the news about the movie isn't all bad and after watching the trailer I have to admit my hopes were definitely raised a little. Invasion is set for release on the relatively "competition-free" date of August 17, where it will go up against the Frank Oz comedy Death at a Funeral and Superbad. So, it hardly looks like they will be competing for the same audience. Considering what the film has been through already, you can't blame WB for wanting to hedge their bet just a little.