Lana Wachowski (born Laurence "Larry" Wachowski; June 21, 1965) and Andrew Paul "Andy" Wachowski (born December 29, 1967), known together professionally as The Wachowskis, and formerly as the Wachowski Brothers, are American film directors, screenwriters, and producers.
They made their directing debut in 1996 with Bound, and reached fame with their second film The Matrix (1999), for which they won the Saturn Award for Best Director. They wrote and directed its two sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions (both in 2003), and were heavily involved in the writing and production of other works in the franchise.
Following the commercial success of the Matrix series, they wrote and produced the 2006 film V for Vendetta (an adaptation of the comic of the same name by Alan Moore), and in 2008 released the film Speed Racer. Their most recent film, Cloud Atlas, based on the novel of the same name by David Mitchell and co-written and co-directed by Tom Tykwer, was released on October 26, 2012. They are currently filming Jupiter Ascending, based on an original science fiction adventure screenplay.
Wachowski partnership [edit]
Owned companies [edit]
During The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Animatrix and Enter the Matrix production, the Wachowskis created EON Entertainment (not to be confused with Eon Productions), their production company to coordinate and direct all involved partners. It's also where the films were edited together, after the various FX vendors sent their finished work. EON's internal VFX team, ESC, did a number of visual effect shots for the two Matrix sequels and coordinated the other vendors. ESC was shut down in summer 2004. EON Entertainment hasn't made any headlines since the Matrix sequels were released, and has been likely disbanded[speculation] as Anarchos Productions (credited in Cloud Atlas as Anarchos Pictures) is their production company that has been billed for all their films starting with V for Vendetta, but EON is still being mentioned at the production credits of their latest film, Cloud Atlas.
Kinowerks is their postproduction and effects studio, based on Ravenswood, Chicago. It has been acclaimed for its green-friendly design. Roger Ebert was invited to watch a restored print of The Godfather in the Kinowerks facilities and met the Wachowskis, but he was oblivious to the fact the studio belonged to them. Chicago Tribune's Christopher Pirelli has interviewed the Wachowskis in the facility but was instructed to keep its exact location a secret, as the filmmakers want to avoid having fans showing up on the front door.
Prior to working in the film industry, the Wachowskis wrote comic books for Marvel Comics' Razorline imprint, namely Ectokid (created by horror novelist Clive Barker) in 1993 as well as writing for Epic Comics' Clive Barker's Hellraiser and Clive Barker's Nightbreed comic series.
In 2003, they created Burlyman Entertainment and have released comic books based on The Matrix as well as two original bi-monthly series:
- Shaolin Cowboy - created, written, and art by Geof Darrow (the Wachowskis contributed the opening dialogue to each issue)
- Doc Frankenstein - created by Geof Darrow and Steve Skroce, written by the Wachowskis, with art by Skroce.
Future films [edit]
In 2009 the Wachowskis were producing for Madhouse an animated film based on their comic book company's Shaolin Cowboy, titled Shaolin Cowboy in The Tomb of Doom. The feature is co-directed by the comic book's creator Geof Darrow and a Japanese director. When the American financiers backed out, the film was left half-finished and in need of $3 million. Geof does not believe that the required amount of money to finish it will be found.
Warner Bros. has expressed interest in Hood, a modern adaptation of the Robin Hood legend, which the Wachowskis wrote and plan to direct. They also wrote an Iraq war-set gay romance conspiracy thriller titled CN-9 (or Cobalt Neural 9); however, the project failed to find financing. However the siblings are still keen to make it, even if it has to be made in a different form than film.
Jupiter Ascending, an original science fiction screenplay by the Wachowskis, is set to be made into a film by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film will be directed and produced by the Wachowskis. It will star Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis, and will feature the Wachowskis regular collaborators John Gaeta on the visual effects and Kym Barrett on costumes. It is scheduled to start shooting in early 2013, with an anticipated release date sometime in 2014. It is scheduled to be released in 3-D and IMAX 3D.
The siblings are also shopping around a concept for a TV series dubbed Sense8 that they have developed with Ninja Assassin collaborator J. Michael Straczynski. In their pursuit of the concept the Wachowskis have penned three spec scripts which are said to resemble their unique storytelling style seen in The Matrix films, and they plan to direct at least a few episodes of the series, should it be made. Producer Marc Rosen of Georgeville Television (GTTV), describes the project as "an idea so big in size and scale that it doesn't make sense to try it as a pilot. The only way to let the filmmakers realize their vision on something like this is to do multiple episodes." On March 27, 2013 it was announced ten episodes will be made to be streamed on Netflix late 2014. The series which belongs to the genre of science fiction is described as "a gripping global tale of minds linked and souls hunted" which was conceived by the showrunners "after a late night conversation about the ways technology simultaneously unites and divides us".
Style [edit]
The siblings admit to a love for telling multipart stories. "Because we grew up on comic books and the Tolkien trilogy, one of the things we're interested in is bringing serial fiction to cinema," Lana has said. Andy puts his desire to shake up viewers a bit more bluntly: "We think movies are fairly boring and predictable. We want to screw with audiences' expectations." In terms of themes that run through their body of work, Lana has cited "the inexplicable nature of the universe [being] in constant dialogue with our own consciousness and our consciousness actually affect[ing] the inexplicable nature of the universe.", "interconnectivity and about truth beneath the surface" and "the paradox of choice and choicelesness". The Wachowskis cited the art of comic book artist Geoff Darrow as an influence on the look of The Matrix. Also, they stated that Ghost in the Shell, Ninja Scroll, and Akira as anime that inspired them. "in anime, one thing that they do that we tried to bring to our film was a juxtaposition of time and space in action beats."
The Wachowskis cited Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey as one of their main inspirations for Cloud Atlas. They first saw the film when they were seven and ten respectively.
Gaming [edit]
Lana and Andy are self-proclaimed gamers. As teens they spent their weekends in the attic playing Dungeons & Dragons. They liken the process of the playing parties imagining the same virtual space to the process of filmmaking. Along with some of their friends they wrote a 350-page role-playing game of their own, called High Adventure. The rights to it are available for publishing.
On the video game front, they had been exchanging letters with Hideo Kojima and finally met him during a Famitsu interview in late 1999. Metal Gear Solid was the first video game they played after finishing work on The Matrix. Candidates for an adaptation of the first Matrix movie to video game form included Kojima, Bungie and Shiny Entertainment whose Messiah PC game impressed them. Shiny's David Perry who ultimately had his company develop and collaborate with them on the Enter the Matrix and The Matrix: Path of Neo video games was impressed with their familiarity with the medium which was a big plus during development. The Wachowskis owned both a PlayStation 2 and Xbox video game console and played several games such as Splinter Cell and Halo 2 and in the case of the latter they finished it even before Perry did. Reportedly during a Halo deathmatch they destroyed their Xbox.
Asked about their feelings turning the tightly controlled Matrix saga to the unpredictable form of an MMORPG with The Matrix Online the duo appeared enthusiastic about the nature and possibilities of video games:
"
The "vagaries of an MMO where unpredictable player behavior is the rule," is the reason for doing it. Our films were never intended for a passive audience. There are enough of those kinds of films being made. We wanted our audience to have to work, to have to think, to have to actually participate in order to enjoy them. This may be because while we enjoy movies, we also spend a lot of time (as in crack-den amounts of time) gaming.
Gaming engages your mind actively whereas most genre films (the films we tend to watch) are designed to provoke as little thinking as possible. Consider why the films in which everyone knows exactly what is going to happen are the films that make the most money.
Yet the fact that the Matrix films are three of the most successful adult films in history (despite of what much of the media would have us believe), suggests that there are other people like us. Those are the people, the people who thought about it, who worked at it, who we ultimately made the trilogy for and it now makes perfect sense to us that they should inherit the storyline. For us, the idea of watching our baby evolve inside the virtual bubble-world of this new radically developing medium, which has in our opinion the potential of combining the best attributes of films and games, of synthesizing reality TV with soap opera, RPGs and Mortal Combat [sic], is fantastically exciting.
"
—The Wachowskis
Works [edit]
Films [edit]
Year
Title
Functioned as
Notes
Directors
Writers
Producers
Executive producers
1995
Assassins
No
Yes
No
No
Their script was "totally rewritten" by screenwriter Brian Helgeland. They tried to remove their names from the film but failed.
1996
Bound
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
1999
The Matrix
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
2003
The Animatrix
No
Yes
Yes
No
Direct-to-video
Writing credits for "Final Flight of the Osiris"; story credits for "The Second Renaissance Part I", "The Second Renaissance Part II" and "Kid's Story".
The Matrix Reloaded
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
The Matrix Revolutions
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
2006
V for Vendetta
No
Yes
Yes
No
Also uncredited second unit directing work
2007
The Invasion
No
No
No
No
Wrote additional action scenes, uncredited
2008
Speed Racer
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
2009
Ninja Assassin
No
No
Yes
No
2012
Cloud Atlas
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Co-directed with Tom Tykwer
2014
Jupiter Ascending
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Shooting
Television [edit]
Year
Title
Functioned as
Notes
Directors
Writers
Executive producers
2014
Sense8
Yes
Yes
Yes
Netflix series. Pre-production.
Video games [edit]
Year
Title
Functioned as
Notes
Directors
Writers
2003
Enter the Matrix
Yes
Yes
Based on a 244-page script by the Wachowskis, the game features one hour of live action sequences directed by them, and their collaboration with the game's staff for the creation of another hour of in-engine cinematics and more. Also directed the game's trailer.
The Matrix Online
No
No
The Wachowskis picked Paul Chadwick as the game's writer and provided him with the first year's theme: "Peace and the ways people wreck it" and a starting point: "the death of Morpheus and the hunt for his killer". Furthermore they reviewed and dictated changes to Paul Chadwick's early drafts, such as prohibiting the death of one character.
2005
The Matrix: Path of Neo
Yes
Yes
In collaboration with Zach Staenberg, the Wachowskis edited footage from the previously released films, anime and game to retell the story from the point of view of Neo. Additionally they scripted new locations and encounters, some of them being scrapped content from the films, along with their appearance to the player to humorously explain the reasons behind the creation of a new ending for this adaptation of the Matrix trilogy.
Comic books [edit]
Year
Title
Functioned as
Notes
Writers
Publishers
1989-1994
Clive Barker's Hellraiser
Yes
No
Larry Wachowski is credited as a writer on stories included in issues 8, 9, 12, 13 and the Hellraiser: Spring Slaughter - Razing Hell special.
1992
Clive Barker's Nightbreed
Yes
No
Larry Wachowski is credited as a writer on issue 17.
1993
Clive Barker's Book of the Damned
Yes
No
Larry Wachowski is credited as a writer on volumes 1, 2 and 4.
1993-1994
Ectokid
Yes
No
Larry Wachowski is credited as a writer on issues 4-9. Andy Wachowski reportedly worked on it as well.
1999-2004
The Matrix Comics
Yes
Yes
Written "Bits and Pieces of Information", the first part of a conceived four part story. Parts of it were later incorporated in "The Second Renaissance" short in The Animatrix.
Most of the comics originally published on whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com along with a few new ones were collected on two printed volumes, published by The Wachoskis' comic book company, Burlyman Entertainment.
2004-
Doc Frankenstein
Yes
Yes
Based on an original idea of Geof Darrow, later reworked by Steve Skroce, the duo ended up writing it.
2004-2007
Shaolin Cowboy
No
Yes
Issues 2-7 begin with a humorous recap of the story written by The Wachowskis, and narrated by a talking mule named Lord Evelyn Dunkirk Winniferd Esq. the Third.
Awards and nominations [edit]
Year
Award
Category
Title
Result
2000
Amanda Awards
Best Foreign Feature Film
The Matrix
Nominated
1997
Chlotrudis Awards
Best Director
Bound
Nominated
Deauville American Film Festival
Grand Special Prize
Nominated
Fantasporto
Best Film
Won
2013
German Film Awards
Outstanding Feature Film (shared with Grant Hill, Stefan
Arndt and Tom Tykwer)
Cloud Atlas
Nominated
Best Direction (shared with Tom Tykwer)
Nominated
2004
Golden Raspberry Awards
Worst Director
Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions
Nominated
2000
Hugo Awards
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
The Matrix
Nominated
2007
V for Vendetta
Nominated
2000
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards
Best Screenplay
The Matrix
Nominated
Mainichi Film Concours
Readers' Choice Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Won
Nebula Awards
Best Script
Nominated
2007
V for Vendetta
Nominated
2012
Online Film Critics Society Awards
Best Adapted Screenplay (shared with Tom Tykwer)
Cloud Atlas
Nominated
1997
Outfest
Grand Jury Award - Honorable Mention:
Outstanding American Narrative Feature
Bound
Won
1997
Saturn Awards
Best Writing
Bound
Nominated
2000
Best Director
The Matrix
Won
Best Writing
Nominated
2007
V for Vendetta
Nominated
1997
Stockholm Film Festival
Honorable Mention
Bound
Won
[<<]This text is based on a article from the open encyclopedia Wikipedia and stands under GNU license for free documentation. On Wikipedia there is List of the authors Available. Image: Anna Hanks
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