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EXCLUSIVE: Little has been heard from The Matrix team of Larry and Andy Wachowski since 2008′s Speed Racer crashed. I’m told they are circulating a new script that brings them back to terrain they covered in 1996′s Bound, a heist film with a lesbian romance. This one’s a drama that focuses on a “hard R” homosexual relationship between a U.S. soldier and an Iraqi. It’s a cinema verite-style treatment that begins in the near future and then spans back over years that include the current war in Iraq. I’ve heard the siblings completed the script, want to direct it next, and that it is out to financiers. It sounds far afield of their trademark stuff, but then again, The Matrix seemed pretty far out when the siblings first pitched it. Will furnish more info when I get it.
Larry And Andy Wachowski Shop U.S.-Iraqi War Tale With ‘Hard R’ Gay Love Story
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Absurd. Stupid. Bound to fail.
If you want to pick on the Wachowskis, please include your own filmography and we’ll see which one stands the test of time.
Please, the Matrix is just Johnny Mnemonic with a budget and Bound is just a lesbian Thelma and Louise.
You don’t have to be a horse to know horse shit.
A gay romance set in the backdrop of the US Iraq war… What??? Then again, perhaps Kiss of the Spiderwoman recieved similar scoffs when first pitched around town.
As it should have (Kiss of the Spider Woman, yeah, there’s a movie everyone wants to see again. I never did take William Hurt seriously again after KOTSW).
Zing!!!!! Bu dum chuh. Mike sone good f’n jokes on this one hahahahaha.
Lemme guess… it’s a story that needs to be told in three parts?
Boy did they destroy THE MATRIX with those AWWWWWWWFUL sequels…
“Bound” was great – let’s give them a chance
Considering the youtube military “military men blowing off steam with gay dancing” trend, this film will succeed and will be more realistic, if it includes heavily choreographed dance sequences
It still might outgross speedracer… and that is the problem. Can’t follow up a bomb with this. This is insane.
The Hard Locker
The Blue Zone?
Desert Storm Hearts? I’d rather sit through a Speed Racer 2 than this awful idea.
Hate to go against all you naysayers, but I remember all the “gay cowboy movie” jokes before “Brokeback Mountain” came out and now the film is considered a modern classic (it’s one of my personal favorites and yes, I am straight). I think this concept is intriguing and a unique spin on war movies that hasn’t already been done to death. I mean, it’s not like soldiers don’t have gay relationships, right? We just don’t see movies about them. I say give these guys a chance and quit nay-saying.
I believe its homophobia.
You are right about Brokeback Mountain, and yet, there are a plenty of people who can’t fathom or understand that Brokeback made 250 mil world wide. To them, despite the financial success of Brokeback, Philadelphia, or Milk (just to name 3)- movies with gay stories are per se failures. What they are really saying, as I learned with this one producer, is that they don’t want to see it. Thus you competing against their prejudices.
Considering Brokeback cost around 11 million to make, that’s a huge ROI. But you would never know from talking to most phobes.
please enough homo talk. yes it does exist. yes there are very smart and very good people who are “gay”. every movie and every tv show doesent have to have a homo in it. give the topic a rest. let the psycologists and psychiatrists argue about it.
Bingo, Akaison…..There are very open homo-haters in this biz…Their discomfort with gay content is demonstrated by the clamor about the Newsweek piece about gays playing straight….A lot of people in this biz are nervous about conduct they see as threatening….Something about a movie of two hot women “doing it” is fine…But not men…Yuk!
This pure hypocrisy is different than a cool business decision made purely on the basis of ROI.
There is a big difference between homophobia and good business.
I love all the fake reasons given above for not liking the idea. One special treat is movies about Iraq don’t work. Uhm, 3 king, anyone?
Anyway, here’s the thing- at least be honest, and admit that for many of you the real issue is that the story involves a gay couple. All this pretending its about the story is just b.s.
Exactly. From my experience, what surprises me is that males – and let’s be honest here, most of the above posters are probably males – usually like seeing movies about gay women (because they think it’s “hot” or something), but hate seeing them about gay men. There is a lack of maturity in those “Ewww, gay romance” comments. And it’s total homophobia. I noticed nobody was going “Ewww, interracial romance” – if it even is interracial at all – or “Ewww, mixed religion romance” – again, if it is. All those things would be fine, too. But you only hear the bitching when it’s a same sex couple.
They don’t get that the audience for this movie is not straight males alone.
The audience will be a) straight women (who eat up gay romances both domestically and abroad if marketed to them properly); b) gays; c) and accepting straight men. Together this represents a sizeable bit of counter programming. The fact the story line is what it is also offers more cross over potential for non phobes to check it out if its good.
That’s why a movie like Brokeback grosses 250mil or Milk 60mil.
There’s an audience for it, but it comes down to a) execution of the story; b) the quality of the talent involved (named talent is very important to the story gaining box office appeal) and c) distribution/marketing.
It is a risk? Sure. No one is making movies with gay characters like this now. So, the risk is that people will be uncertain. but that’s a matter of smart marketing. Not whether there is an audience.
After the success of Brokeback no one bothered to see could the success be replicated. We went back to the default that it couldn’t- just like African Americans would experience in the industry. At one point, although were successes, there was always the assumption that African American leads would always fail to achieve wider appeal.
All movies are risks. The real issue here is the assumption that this will per se not make money. Why exactly is that assumption made given recent economic successes?
People generally enjoy movies where it’s fufilling one of their fantasies. The fugly (although admittedly usually played by really hot woman with glasses on) girl gets the handsome man. The nerdy guy gets dragged into a secret spy agency surrounded by desperate beautiful women. Tyler Perry movies do very well among black women because they want to see people they identify with, which are not the women from “Sex and the City”.
“Brokeback Mountain” was 22nd ranked in terms of boxoffice gross for 2005 behind quite a few forgettable movies. It did pretty good for its production value, but didn’t blow the world away. And it had enormous hype. It’s difficult to predict how many people saw it just to prove their liberal credentials.
I really don’t know what people are complaining about. I’m a fan of the “Horror” genre (both written and on-screen). Everytime I search by genre “Gay and Lesbian” is usually right above the “Horror” genre. Do you really need a $50 million production budget to make a romance? I’m sure there are plenty of indepedent gay films/books for you to enjoy. It’s just not popular enough to warrant higher budgets.
Did someone mention a $50 million budget or are you assuming that’s what they’re asking for?
It made 250 mil on a budget of 11 mil. It was an indie flick. The fact you feel the need to manipulate what that means is just deep the need to reinforce your own bigotry here goes. For the record, there are not many movies made on 11 mil that made 250 mil. Those are considered megahits in the indie world for a reason.
It didn’t do pretty well for its production value. When other movies made similar numbers in the indie world, and had B-list stars (which is what the lead was at the time and it was that movie that provided his breakout role), that was considered an impetus by the studios to copy those movies.
It was ranked 9th (right behind Paranormal Activities that the studio is rushing to make into a franchise) in the 2000s as a top grossing indie film ahead of Little Miss Sunshine (which has generated copies), Napoleon Dynamite, 28 Days Later (Which has generated copies), Lost in Translation based on domestic haul alone.
Your ignorance of this fact is why I don’t trust your opinion or the homophobia that pervades the industry. This is all data that is readily available to anyone actually seeking to examine the market for movies like this.
As to your proposition about fantasy- again this is you projecting your fantasies into the conversation. You think straight women aren’t fantasizing about the guys in the gay romances that they like to watch. When they went to see Brokeback, you think they weren’t fantasizing about the male leads? You must be a guy to think that. Only straight men are that self absorbed to think attraction is what they are attracted to.
There is an entire group of straight women who love gay romances across the globe. I am not sure if this site allows links. I will simply say there is an entire subculture in the US and countries like Japan where this is true. Just like there are men who like to see women together (Bound), there are women who like to see men together (Brokeback Mountain, the emerging romance novel genre of gay leads being driven by a straight women market, the love of gay couples in soaps, and on and on). Its women buying or tuning in to this stuff.
You need to stop passing your ignorance and bigotry off as anything remotely close to economic analysis or audience potential.
Follow up:
Your lack of apples to apples comparison also suggest you don’t understand the industry. When reading the project the brothers want to do, I don’t sense, and may be you do, that they want to do some 100 mil dollar matrix affair with the subject matter.
The assumption I am making is that they will have a modest budget of say 10 to 30 mil dollars with great named talent. Certainly a movie like Brokeback or even the low budget sci fi prestige project like District 9.
The point is there is a way to make a movie like this and make money. The fact you are trying to compare a big budget movie that defines the list of 21 movies you want to compare Brokeback to says a lot more about massaging numbers to achieve the view you want to have than in comparing economic comparables that will aid one in understand the economic performance of a movie.
That’s cool. I really liked their direction of SPEED RACER. MATRIX is a classic film to me. I’m not too sure about their other stuff.
I’m actually super excited about this. I’ve lived for the day the Wachowskis finally make a romantic/action-ish movie about two men.
I’m really excited about this. It’s especially appropriate right now because of that whole DADT mess.
(Please make ‘em hot, though.)
Something tells me Joel Silver is gonna pass on producing this one….
Bound and The Matrix where amazing. Parts of Matrix 2 were cool. Speed Racer was a steaming pile of waste. How out of touch to make a 2 hr 30 minute kids movie. The studio must have been shitting their pants.
Then there was the non starter of Ninja Assassian, how’s that superman directing gig treating you McTeigue? I’m holding off judgement until I see what they have to offer. Right now I can no longer defend them.
Is the homosexual relationship m/m? I didn’t see that specified in the source bit. Bound was referenced.
Talented commercial filmmakers taking a real risk — WOW! What a concept! I, for one, can’t wait to see this.
The W’s are dynamic, talented, risk taking filmmakers.
I can’t wait to see how they bend another genre to their bidding.
I’m sure their “edgy” story about a Gay Iraqi will end at his muslim faith, bet you a dollar Andy & Lana won’t go near mohammed.
It will tank, just like every other Iraq war movie that’s been released (including Hurt Locker, which I loved). As we saw recently, even Hollywood darling Matt Damon can’t sell this subject matter. Any studio would be insane to take it on.
These guys proved they were creatively spent after the first Matrix. Done. The second and third were such absolute abortions I can’t even watch the first one anymore — and I used to love the first one.
But perhaps the undertaking with this film is to see whether or not you could make a film even gayer than “V For Vendetta”.
Mogul: So what’s your next idea boys?
W1: Well its a concept piece, we want to take a big pile of money… stacked like, a hundred feet high…
W2: Then we’re going to light it on fire…
W1: Then the entire film will be an hour and a half single camera shot of this big pile of money burning. What do you think?
Mogul: Brilliant! That sounds like our last ten Iraq movies!
How many movies have been made on WWII? Do people go to see them? What’s a pile of money? Like the other cat above, you seem to make an assumption about the budget that’s not in the text of the article as far as I can see. There’ve been how many Iraqi War movies- 5 or 10? Versus how many WWII or Vietnam movies? We have been in Iraq longer than most of the wars we have been in our history. So, you are saying 10 is too many for such a long war or changing political landscape? Really?
Well, I’m gay and guess what…I think this idea is LAME. It sounds like the kind of premise tailor-made to appeal to Hollywood’s liberal elite, and no-one else. Also, I haven’t seen Brokeback Mountain (so far), but this sounds more like a knock-off than anything else. Furthermore, I’m not sure exactly why it has to be a GAY love story, why can’t one of them be a chick? Come to think of it, they could BOTH be–I don’t recall either the article or the “phobes” specifying their gender (much). It actually feels to me like they’re pandering to the gay community…and once again they disappoint me by falling for it hook, line and sinker.
Oh…and last I heard the Iraq War was still going on. How many WWII or Vietnam movies were made during those conflicts? More to the point, how many good and/or successful ones?
So, akaison, tell me honestly…did I BLOW YOUR MIND???
I don’t care what your sexual orientation is. Do you think that gives you a get out jail free card from being a homophobe. Between the Newsweek article written by a gay homophobe and the gay homophobe who was helping prevent gays from adopting kids in Fl, you sexual orientation means nothing.
The issue is not why is must be a gay love story. The question is what’s your beef against a gay love set in Iraq? That’s like asking why the English Patient had to have the two lovers it did? Or the millions of other love story movies set during wars with straights as the couple. You don’t ask that about those stories. Yet here, your homophobia requires you to assume that they are telling the story for some other reason than, wait for it, they are interested in the story.
See, some of us, we are weird that way. We are interested in a wide range of stories. I can love everything from 40 year old virgin to Women on the Verge of a Nervous Break Down to My Beautiful Laundrette to a Wong Kar Wai film to big budget. I want to see movies about black people, poor whites, gays, rich people, everyone. Straight or gay. I want to see all kinds of stories. It never occurs to me in seeing these stories that there is something wrong with seeing different stories about different lives
So, the truth is your question to me reflects your homophobia. That proudly trot out not even realizing the bigotry involved in such a question.
Finally, please stop embarrassing yourself about movie history. Are you serious with the question about how many movies were made about WWII during WWII? Seriously? You know that multiple movies were made at the time of WWII about the war right? I mean, you can’t seriously think that’s a response do you?
I know one thing…there is nothing I can say that will both disagree with you and convince you I’m not a homophobe. Therefore, this debate is concluded.
By the way, the English Patient, the story about a straight couple, it turns out the real lover was gay. There is a universe of stories out there that you can’t allow to be seen because it would go against your phobia. It has nothing to do with politics other than your own politics. I even like watching interesting movies about conservatives and christians so long as it is good. That’s the difference between me and you. I see this as chance to see a story that i’ve not seen before rather than as a chance to condemn “liberal hollywood.” That’s the same town that brought up passion of the christ.
Getting really tired of this, but BBM made money because of the pedigree of the director; Philadelphia made money because of the star power; and Milk did ok for what it was, but not huge. And The English Patient made money because of Harvey’s Oscar campaign power and Disney’s ad money. But the fact that the latter film also became a popular Seinfeld joke just proves it wasn’t really popular otherwise. So unfortunately, movies which revolve around gay characters, and not marketing campaigns and/or big-name talent, are still niche. That’s why it’s taken so long for even Philip Morris to find a distributor. So until the community can come up with the gay equivalents to Tyler Perry or Ice Cube movies, it’s just going to have to accept that the demand isn’t there yet. Anyway, I don’t really care if it’s a gay love story, but the whole Iraq back-drop just sounds like a desperate attempt to validate it, since the Wachowskis can’t seem to get any attention otherwise nowadays.