Matrix Reloaded Filming Wants to Shut Sydney Down 494
ro_len writes "News.com.au is reporting the producers of the Matrix Realoaded are looking to shut down Sydney for the filming of the final scene which involves flying a helicopter across the city at less than 600 feet above ground. It is supposed to be the most complicated sequence ever filmed." Just plain nuts. Here is a
previous story about the trailer, and another one announcing the film.
Shutdown ! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Shutdown ! (Score:5, Funny)
2002-06-11 15.46.17: [notice] Rebooting Sidney.australia.matrix
2002-06-11 15.46.32: [error] Sidney.australia.matrix bootstrapping failed
2002-06-11 15.46.33: [panic] scp root@Sidney.australia.matrix:/home/{neo,morpheus,
2002-06-11 15.46.36: [restore] Sidney.australia.matrix reloaded
2002-06-11 15.46.37: [warning] Older version overwrite (Agent Smith 2.0 -> 1.0)
Why? (Score:2, Funny)
What? You mean we're not in the Matrix? And that red pill I took was only Nyquil?
Re:Why? (Score:3, Funny)
at least it won't be CGI. (Score:2, Insightful)
Most complicated stunt ever? (Score:2, Insightful)
Sounds a lot like some PR mumbo jumbo to me.
Re:Most complicated stunt ever? (Score:2, Informative)
Certainly one of the most entertaining sequences ever. And Turin didn't even get the payback they wanted: since the city was basically a Fiat factory (is that right? I get muddled when it comes to cars), they wanted the film to use Fiats, but Minis were just, well, cooler
Re:Most complicated stunt ever? (Score:3, Funny)
My question is: How could they tell it from a normal traffic day in Turin?
Re:Most complicated stunt ever? (Score:5, Funny)
Worst. Prequels. Ever. Rest assured that I was on the Internet within minutes sharing my disgust with the world.
This vsCGI (Score:2, Insightful)
Personally, I like it, as I (and I'm sure many of not most people) can tell the difference between CG and real stuff.
Plus, the adrenaline factor should be fairly high, because you KNOW that it was done in the "real world" (tm), and not on come computer screen somewhere.
I can't wait to see it!
Re:This vsCGI (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:This vsCGI (Score:2)
What info have you got on this scene?
Re:This vsCGI (Score:2)
so this may not have been the greatist example, but it is an excellent example of seamless cgi integration into a scene. Just because its cgi dosent mean that its entirely cgi.
Re:This vsCGI (Score:2)
However, the scenes of the harvester and the racks of pods were all computer generated (and looked really good as well).
Can't wait for Matrix 2 though....
Re:This vsCGI (Score:3, Insightful)
I remember alot of great scenes that were done with model work. Including cockpit perspective fly-thrus.
Re:This vs Models vs CGI (Score:2, Insightful)
If they get blown off for being too wacky/arrogant, then they'll look at whether to do models, CGI or a mixture of both.
Even with all the cash the Matrix made, they still need to avoid blowing the budget with this movie. I don't blame them for investegating this angle.
Re:This vsCGI (Score:2, Funny)
Film Industry is Nuts!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
How much money in the form of opportunity cost do you think the city might lose?
Re:Film Industry is Nuts!!! (Score:2)
A smaller-scale shutdown of several New York city blocks was done on an early Sunday morning for The Devil's Advocate.
Still, dunno how easy it would be for an entire city on any day of the week -- even during a holiday.
Re:Film Industry is Nuts!!! (Score:2, Funny)
I couldn't agree more- I mean where does it end? What if MIB2 decideds they want to fly a mothership 600' over the planet?
Re:Film Industry is Nuts!!! (Score:2)
I'm assuming that 600' means 600' from the ground. I don't know Sydney that well...but I'm making a broad assumption that there are plenty of buildings over 6' in height (roughly 6 stories). Aside from pissing people off by shutting down a city...what's to say that the stunt will work perfectly? What's to say that they don't accidentally crash that sucker into one of these buildings? They'd end up with a crap load more pissed off people.
Re:Film Industry is Nuts!!! (Score:2)
Re:Film Industry is Nuts!!! (Score:4, Funny)
Only 6' in height and 6 stories? Is this the building out of "Being John Malcovich" on crack?
Re:Film Industry is Nuts!!! (Score:2)
They're asking for the city to be shut down because they're taking the possibility of an accident into account. If there's an accident while the city is shut down, they can just pay the huge amount of money for repairs. If there's an accident while the city ISN'T shut down, they would kill a lot of people and injure many others.
Re:Film Industry is Nuts!!! (Score:5, Informative)
I remember when they were filming some movie about the Brinks robbery in Boston, they forced people to take down TV antennas from their houses, so it would look more authentically 1930's (this was back in the 70's, before cable). Apparently strong-arm tatcics were used.
Finally, I was watching a TV show about a famous local chef, who was contacted by movie people, who wanted to use his restuaunt as a setting in a movie. Great, he thought. The people came in, and completely changed over his place, making it look nothing like the original. He asked "uh, so why did you want to film here if you wanted to change everything about the place?" "Oh, because the *light* was just *perfect*."
One wonders why they need to actually fly an helicopter over an actual city, resulting in the shutting down of said city. Even if computer graphics can't give them what they want as far as flying over the city, surely they could use one of those light-weight robotic camaeras on a radio-controlled helicopter to film the scene. That would be a lot less dangerous to the general populace, meaning it would be a lot less disruptive.
Geez. It's all just freakin' entertainment. I'll be glad when it all goes virtual, and we won't have to deal with these people who think movies are more important than real life.
Re:Film Industry is Nuts!!! (Score:5, Funny)
When the crew filmed downtown, he hung Nazi flags from his balcony, ensuring that they wouldn't film his house. That one was priceless.
Re:Film Industry is Nuts!!! (Score:3, Funny)
Not to be pedantic, but the quality from the setup you described would be orders of magnitude too low for even an independent film.
Hell, just let them take Polaroids and make them into a flipbook if that's the quality you're going for!
RTFA (Score:3, Informative)
I repeat, RTFA
Re:Film Industry is Nuts!!! (Score:2)
Probably about as much as they are charging WB to shut down "the city."
And while we are addressing that, they are not shutting down the entire city, just a section of it.
Re:Film Industry is Nuts!!! (Score:3, Funny)
There are major cities in Australia? Here we call them 'prisons'.
Seems a bit OTT (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Seems a bit OTT (Score:2)
Producer Joel Silver says one visual effect for a shot in one of the sequels took two-and-a-half years to create, and prepares for production on "a 14-minute sequence that is the most complicated sequence ever put on film. Silver talks about reaching the peak of visual effects in a recent story in The Sydney Morning Herald, and promises that The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions will provide more than just spectacular visuals. "It's about all that stuff that's going on in our lives that we can't really grab onto." he says, suggesting the films will continue to explore the deeper themes tapped in the first groundbreaking film. Our only question is, this complicated sequence doesn't involve any combination of Keanu and advanced problem-solving, does it?
Re:Seems a bit OTT (Score:3, Insightful)
I think they're going for "actually filming it" as a more impressive effect than using CG.
Realize the truth (Score:5, Funny)
Hmm.. (Score:5, Funny)
Part three The Matrix Revolutions is also in production and will be released in December 2000
Sorry to have missed it...
FX (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Philadelphia (Score:2, Informative)
Stupid if you ask me. (Score:2)
Much safer, and you can do some impossible camera angles too.
Re:Stupid if you ask me. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Stupid if you ask me. (Score:2)
As someone pointed out above, it's probably a lot of hype. Kinda like when "Fargo" came out -- supposidly it was based on a true story...and we found out AFTER they got their award that it was all hype.
Don’t you think they know this? (Score:4, Insightful)
You know the movie that knocked Hollywood on it's ass with bitching CGI, not lame CGI like phantom menace.
Why where the FX better in the Matrix then in Phantom Menace?
Answerer, the filmmakers of the matrix realize that not every thing can be done with computers. Some shoots just look better when filmed with real sets not CGI blue/green screen sets.
Re:Stupid if you ask me. (Score:2)
D
Renting the city? (Score:2, Interesting)
Shutdown for 2 days? (Score:5, Insightful)
gee, I hope they talk to God and get a good weather day...
Wow, Hollywood technology has really advanced..... (Score:5, Funny)
Part three The Matrix Revolutions is also in production and will be released in December 2000
Not only are they filming the most complicated sequence ever, but they will be the first movie company to premiere a movie in the _past_. How they plan to manage the space/time disruption is apparently a closely guarded studio secret
Re:Wow, Hollywood technology has really advanced.. (Score:2)
Re:Wow, Hollywood technology has really advanced.. (Score:4, Funny)
Use of the transitive par-past-prefect in the first clause:
I am going to have seen this already
necessitates the usage of an entrance stative par-past-profect (note: profect!) when describing the status of the predicate, as in:
and it is willian on-coming to have been AWESOME!!!
should be changed to:
and it is willain on-coming to have been AWESOME!!!
I know it's subtle. And, it could have been a typo, but sometimes it makes all the difference in the world for intelligibility.
What I did for summer vacation (Score:5, Interesting)
Furthermore... (Score:5, Insightful)
Did the Star Wars crew not create entire cities?
mark
Re:What I did for summer vacation (Score:3, Insightful)
That's certainly what they did when they needed a freeeway [thematrixonline.com]. Whole cities are probably harder to build cheaply.
(By the way, who the heck is this [thematrixonline.com]? She's cute.)
This is Australia. (Score:2, Funny)
Supply enough beer and you've got all the time in the world. They won't be finding their way back in a hurry.
Not so rare (Score:3, Interesting)
most complicated != best stunt (Score:4, Interesting)
I just hope the W brothers don't kill themselves in the process of trying to "out do" the original matrix. The two of them have already spent quite a few years to this effort. It's always tough when a director makes a really successful movie, because the expectation are set unrealitically high. If they manage to pull it off, they may become hollywood heavy weights. If they flop, it's going to be a costly blunder.
Other ideas (Score:5, Funny)
- Close down New York to make a film about 9-11, idea: actually fly airplanes into stuff, randomly. Pilots and crew: CIA, FBI and American Government officials.
- Close down Jerusalem to make the final scene of a movie about the Israeli+Palestinian conflict. Idea: a huge crane pounds Arafat and Sharon repeatedly against various religious monuments.
- Close down Paris to make the final scene of a film about the world cup. Idea: a giant soccer ball rolling around the streets with "losers" painted on, squishing right-wing partidaries.
- Close down a strip of territory in Kashmere to make the final scene of a film about the alleged India-Pakistan conflict. Idea: Nuclear warheads detonated on top of CNN reporters who claimed a nuclear war was about to happen, as if it was a light subject you can kid around with.
Apologies: I apologize for this post if you don't like it. It will avoid me getting into discussions later. Thank you.
Moita
OF COURSE I'M A TROLL, YOU DUMBASS. READ MY NAME! (Score:3, Funny)
They're not shutting down the *city* (Score:5, Informative)
I repeat. They are *not* shutting down all of sydney.
Not the entire city... (Score:2)
And the reason for it is? (Score:5, Funny)
But it will probably go something like this:
Filmmaker: "We need all the people out of the city for two days."
Mayor: "That's not possible. We can ban jetskies from the harbour if you like."
Filmmaker: "No, we need the city, not the harbour. We are going to do some stunts there."
Mayor: "Sounds impressive, but what if all the people start riding their jetskies in the harbour instead of going to the city? I don't like that, and I've made it illegal already."
Filmmaker: "Please have a look at this script, it's specially printed for you on green paper with some transparent parts for the so called `special effects'".
Mayor: "It's a deal, I'll just make being in the city on these days illegal, except for people with jetskies. After all, they might go ride them in the harbour if they're not allowed to put them in the city."
People from Sydney should get the subtleties...
Re:And the reason for it is? (Score:5, Informative)
Okay, while Sydneysiders do seem to make up a disproportionate fraction of Slashdot readers, I'll go ahead and spell this one out for the rest of the planet.
Aussie money is printed on plastic-coated paper in various colors. Each bank note has a little transparent plastic "window" in it as a counterfeit-countermeasure. (Heh.)
So green pieces of paper with little transparent bits are Aussie $100 notes. So the joke is that the mayor is being bribed by the W brothers.
Get it? Huh? Get it? Hah!
(More info about Aussie money can be found here [aussie-info.com].
Not a low as it sounds (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Not a low as it sounds (Score:2)
Re:Not a low as it sounds (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not a low as it sounds (Score:2)
That scene wasn't faked, I remember hearing about it in the commentary.
Re:Not a low as it sounds (Score:2, Funny)
Oh, it's not fair, I want to be an LSD tester as well :-(
It's not a control issue (Score:3, Interesting)
For a project I was working on I wanted to do some shooting over Toronto at a height that would have worked out to around 400ft. They wouldn't let me.
The problem, as I discovered, is not an issue of whether it is safe to pilot at that altitude, but should some malfunction or other problem cause an emergency (or crash) landing. Legally (in Toronto anyway) the pilot must fly at a minimum of 1000ft in order to have enough altitude that (s)he can move the helicopter away from densely populated areas in the case of an emergency - rather than arbitrarily falling on top of whatever is directly below.
Now, in the case of a Sea King (the helicopter of "choice" for the Canadian Navy) I wouldn't want one flying at *any* altitude over a populated region. Something about 30,000 parts flying in formation that makes me nervous.
Re:It's not a control issue (Score:3, Informative)
at a minimum of 1000ft
That's not entirely correct. First of all, it's a Canadian law, not a Toronto one. Second of all, it applies to all aircraft, not just helicopters. And finally, you must fly a minimum of 1000' above the highest object, not just AGL or ASL (ground/sea level). In Toronto, obviously, that's the CN tower. So you'd have to be pretty high up.
Typo or conspiracy/glitch? (Score:2)
Of course, it could also be a bug in the Matrix that was not caught by an agent.... not deja-vous, but something else entirely... unless someone did see the 3rd edition in 12/2000.... oh, man, I need some coffee now....
Re:Typo or conspiracy/glitch? (Score:2)
Not the first time (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Not the first time (Score:3, Informative)
They actually do a ton of filming in the city. There is a city agency dedicated to it - Mayor's office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting [nyc.gov].
most active city (Score:5, Funny)
They shut down Tokyo to shoot the Times Square sceene?
cities as publicity stunts (Score:2, Insightful)
But at the end of the day, I reckon them filming it is just a publicity stunt - that way they'll at least the entire population of sydney to watch the movie ("see, honey - that's where I work"), buy the DVD, get the action figure doll. Sure, it'd prolly b cheaper to do it all on the computer, but u can't buy people's sentimentality.
Re:cities as publicity stunts (Score:5, Interesting)
You've just got no clue why cities want movies to be filmed in their jurisdictions
Think about the budget for big-time blockbusters like Matrix 2 and 3, both of which are being filmed in and around Sydney. Together, they probably total around 300-500 million dollars. Much of that money will be spent on production. A significant portion of that money is spent on things adjacent to the filming process, like catering, for example.
There are restaurants in Sydney that will be made for life with the massive amounts of catering required by such a huge production. Even if Carrie Ann Moss isn't allowed to have more than a celery stick for every meal so that she still looks good in skin-tight latex as Trinity, you can bet that Bubba the gaffer and Hank the electrician want steak and potatos for every meal. Both the Wachowski brothers are big guys. I bet they don't skimp on the catering either.
Also, since the actors have been in Sydney for about a year, do you think they're living in trailers? Probably they're living in fancy hotel aparments for thousands of dollars a month.
Money makes it worth it.
Can get the figures to balance (Score:3, Interesting)
... unless sufficient amounts of cash are provided? Principles aside though, I simply can't see how paying a realistic amount to compensate each and every business and individual displaced by this activity could work out as less than doing a kick ass CGI version of it.
Unless of course Sydney is working on the "First one is free" principle (or second one in this case), to make themselves look like a great (i.e. cheap, compliant) location for foreign film companies. Fair enough, but I'm kind of picturing how we might respond if (e.g.) a Bollywood [planetbollywood.com] company thought it could just breeze in and pay to have most of Detroit forcibly evacuated. "Get lost," springs to mind, along with stronger objections and possible a slew of litigation against the City.
As I said, it's up to Sydney if they want to turn themselves into a giant movie location, but I'd be surprised if it does their reputation as a business location any good.
Re:Can get the figures to balance (Score:2)
Something missing? (Score:5, Funny)
Personally, I'd prefer that a pilot would be mounted in the pilot's seat, considering how difficult the stunt is and all...
shutdowns (Score:3, Interesting)
All for a snaking line of cars at dusk with headlights on.
Tell me computers couldn't have done that:)
Re:shutdowns (Score:2, Insightful)
The car scene was easily the most emotional one in the movie. A fake shot would have killed the mood. Ah shucks... you've made a geek get all teary.
The Matrix is everywhere (Score:2, Funny)
"Matrix Alley" (Score:2, Insightful)
They shut down this part of the city regularly during the filming of the first one and this latest one, and it caused few if any problems, although one bicycle in the immediate area did go under during that time it had nothing whatsoever to do with the filming.
Of course it did wonders for productivity as we'ed crowd to the windows whenever some kind of limo/minivan would pull up to try and catch a glimpse of someone famous, all the while trying to be cool and say how we "weren't really that interested" and stuff. Heh.
Now that the "Eastern Distributor" is finished it's actually pretty easy to divert traffic out of the center of the city, so I really think the byline of "Shut Down Sydney" is going a bit far.
Sounds like a publicity machine in overdrive to me.
Directoral pissing contest (Score:2, Insightful)
Because Cameron Crowe got to shut down Times Square for a few minutes while making Vanilla Sky. The Wachowskis pissing match does not impress me.
Re:Directoral pissing contest (Score:5, Funny)
What happens if there is an accident (these things do happen). Then they would have to digitally chop out the chopped up people. It's a matter of safety.
Publicity Stunt (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Yes, it was... (Score:2)
Wow, what a schedule! (Score:2)
They sure are taking this time phasing thing to a new level. Maybe Lucas could use this to finish Star Wars parts 7-9.
Shut Sydney Down? (Score:2)
Easy to do (Score:2)
Guys, this is Australia (Score:2)
Godzilla (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder how many security guards they're gonna need to hold back a city's entire population.
Part 3 - December 2000 ??? (Score:2)
Damn! I missed it!
How they will do it... (Score:2)
If that doesn't work, Plan B is to have the BSA tell Sydney to 'prepare to have your software licenses audited'-- as we all know, that can basically cripple whatever entity it's aimed at for a while.
~Philly
I'm glad (Score:2)
Re:Matrix Reloaded (Score:3, Funny)
Oh come on now, don't be so harsh on the fellow. It's not his fault he got a bad rap. When you actually go back and watch Point Break you'll notice it's actually quite intellectual. Are the surfer bank robbers really the bad guys or is it the corporate world who hordes all the money from the ordinary people? The bourgeoisie came to America and have crippled it with their new-aristocracy based on wealth instead of nobility. In the end we can only look to the true heroes of that film.. Patrick Swayze and his crazy bunch of presidential bank robbers.
As far as Bill and Ted, don't even get me started on the wealth of historical information that movie conveys to the viewer. Freud was my favorite character. Who would have known he was such a prude? And Khan! What a badass. If the Matrix Reloaded is half as good as Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey we will be in for quite a treat.
Re:Matrix Reloaded (Score:5, Insightful)
Be careful what you wish for. Tom Cruise is stupid enough to fall for Scientology [xenu.net].
Re:Matrix Reloaded (Score:2)
Be careful dude: there are lots of rumours that although women really like Tom Cruise, he isn't all that interested in women... He might *actually* prefer CowboyNeal!
Re:Matrix Reloaded (Score:2)
Re:I wonder. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I wonder. (Score:2)
It's mentioned in the director's commentary on the DVD (I've got a first-run, I've got a first-run!)
Re:If you thought hiring Sydney was expensive... (Score:2)
Justin Dubs
Re:What is the Matrix? (Score:2, Informative)
From the article: "Part three The Matrix Revolutions is also in production and will be released in December 2000"
Talk about fast. They can get part III released so fast that we'll see it before it was filmed!