My Publicist Note Book

“No one can be told what The Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.”  Illustration: Owen Freeman Though made for a (relatively) big budget by a major studio and starring a recognizable name,  The Matrix  arrived as an unknown quantity in the spring of 1999. Would critics get it? Would audiences even show up? The answers were yes (mostly) and yes (decidedly). What first caught filmgoers’ attention via a weird-looking  trailer in which Keanu Reeves dodged a bunch of bullets in slow-motion would soon become a pop-culture phenomenon that would inspire sequels and spinoffs and launch the careers of a pair of sibling filmmakers previously best known for one acclaimed low-budget crime movie. The film seemed to come out of nowhere. It didn’t. In fact, if the stars didn’t align just right, and Warner Bros. hadn’t done the studio equivalent of taking the red pill and seeing what happened, it might not have happened at all.  The Mat...

Zak Penn suggests in a new interview that he is planning to explore the universe established in the original movies from the Wachowski Brothers. It was last March  when the news broke  that Warner Bros. Pictures was interested in returning to the groundbreaking sci-fi franchise originally created by the Wachowskis in 1999. Writer Zak Penn ( The Avengers ,  X-Men: The Last Stand ) was attached to the project and, at the time,  sought to reassure fans  that he wasn't writing a remake or a reboot.    More details of the planned reboot of "The Matrix" have hit the web. Screenwriter Zak Penn, who is reportedly tapped to provide the script for the new take on the popular sci-fi movie, has opened up about his plans for his upcoming projects, including "The Matrix" revival. The "Ready Player One" writer reveals that he's "been working on 'Matrix' right now. Which is in… a phase right now." He added, "That's a franchise ...