I believe even the Wachowski’s said they pitched it terribly. Apparently they focused on bullet time and did a terrible job explaining it. So nothing made sense. Then you realize it was a new age Film Noire, and that wasn’t exactly going to entice funding. Other than Keanu Reeves I don’t think any of the cast was well known, and I’m not even sure how big Keanu Reeves was. Other than Speed it was an odd assortment of movies for him.
Keanu was big. Bill & Ted was iconic, after that he was in Point Break, a fairly successful action flick and Speed was massive. Yeah he did some more niche stuff like Johnny Mnemonic, but makes me think he makes more sense for something like the Matrix. Will Smith opted for Wild Wild West over Matrix, which obviously wasn’t a success, but fit with the kinds of movies he was doing at the time.
Makes sense for a guy to go from Speed to Johnny Mnemonic to the Matrix, and it also makes sense for a guy to go from Bad Boys to Independence Day to Men in Black to Wild Wild West.
From the interview I heard they pitched the matrix terribly.
Back in the late 90s, I have no idea how you’d pitch that any other way. It’s a miracle that movie got made.
I believe even the Wachowski’s said they pitched it terribly. Apparently they focused on bullet time and did a terrible job explaining it. So nothing made sense. Then you realize it was a new age Film Noire, and that wasn’t exactly going to entice funding. Other than Keanu Reeves I don’t think any of the cast was well known, and I’m not even sure how big Keanu Reeves was. Other than Speed it was an odd assortment of movies for him.
Here’s will smith https://youtu.be/hm2szuXKgL8&t=70
Keanu was big. Bill & Ted was iconic, after that he was in Point Break, a fairly successful action flick and Speed was massive. Yeah he did some more niche stuff like Johnny Mnemonic, but makes me think he makes more sense for something like the Matrix. Will Smith opted for Wild Wild West over Matrix, which obviously wasn’t a success, but fit with the kinds of movies he was doing at the time.
Makes sense for a guy to go from Speed to Johnny Mnemonic to the Matrix, and it also makes sense for a guy to go from Bad Boys to Independence Day to Men in Black to Wild Wild West.
Keanu was famous, but the way I remember it he wasn’t a huge box office draw yet.