Interview with Producer Joel Silver on the Matrix Sequels

[Matrix]

Video Business interviewed Producer Joel Silver. Here's a clip:
VB: With these Matrixmovies, shorts and videogames and your Die Hard and Lethal Weapon series, you are the franchise and movie series king. Is that part of the whole mix of creative and commerce, to build franchises?

Silver: I've seen the sequel change so much over the years. When I first started doing them, people thought they were cool for a while and then they became very, you know, in many cases, silly. When you finish a movie, normally, the movie ends. And then the studio would make a sequel and you had to try to find a way to go back ... I remember when we made Die Hard 2, I remember in the trailer Bruce Willis said, "How can the same thing happen to the same guy twice?" You gotta deal with it.

This is unique in that these [Wachowski] boys had this whole story. I mean, they had worked it all out. We weren't trying to find a way to make this story continue. The story continues in an incredible fashion. It's a fantastic story. And they had a way to tell the story in all these other areas. The Wachowski brothers are coming from comic books. They are big fans of serial pictures; they understand serial pictures, when a story continues. Look what's happening on TV with shows like Alias and 24. It's all serial fiction.

If we're crafting material that is good and the creativity is good, then franchises can be fantastic. But if we fall into the same situation as before, where we're just making up stupid stories...I mean, Lethal Weapon 4--it was friends with guns. Just what was it? It just didn't have any place to go. You can only go so far with a piece of material; [then] you're inventing stuff.

At the end of Revolutions, the story ends. If [the Wachowskis] want to continue it, it's their call, but this particular story ends.

VB: The DVD version of The Matrix was also groundbreaking with its extensive, innovative extra features. Is there pressure now to raise the bar there as well with the DVD versions of the next two movies?

Silver: We want to do a lot of special things with the DVD. We're talking about that now. It should come out probably around the time that Revolutions opens [this fall]. Then we'll probably do a box set of all three of the movies after Revolutions. It's an exciting time, because people are excited about this kind of entertainment.

Hm the Special Edition of the Matrix DvD will be awsome i think.....

[Marcus]

Good point about how some movies just end and others are written to continue. That seems to be a major problem with some movies - the second or third just doesn't need to happen.

At the end of Revolutions, the story ends. If [the Wachowskis] want to continue it, it's their call, but this particular story ends.

After that, I wouldn't want them to continue it unless they know what they're doing. The only thing I can think of is the Animatrix is a series of stories set in the same universe. That could work.

[Matrix]

Hm it is a trilogy so no need to continue....
But a little voice is telling me *continue*