As this writer posited a few months ago, there’s an argument to be made that the co-directing Wachowski siblings Andy and Lana lost their mojo after “The Matrix” and the spark that once made them special has faded. Their follow-up films have been lackluster: “Speed Racer,” the last two “Matrix” movies and most of the films they’ve produced (”Ninja Assassin,” “The Invasion”) during the aughts were straight up duds or major disappointments. But there’s plenty of options that could bring redemption.
The filmmakers have been relatively quiet since 2008’s eyeball-searing “Speed Racer” (there’s a small, but vociferous contingent that think this movie is a masterpiece, fyi), but they’ve been toying with several projects as their follow-up. There’s “Hood,” potentially with Will Smith, which is a “urban retelling” of the Robin Hood mythology (lord, that sounds awful), there’s their Hard-R-rated Iraq War gay romance picture “CN-9” (aka “Cobalt Neutral 9”) which sounds like it will get made when hell freezes over, and there’s “Cloud Atlas,” the adaptation of David Mitchell‘s sprawling, multi-layered narrative, which will be co-directed by German director Tom Tykwer (“Run Lola Run“) and the siblings themselves (note, the latest unconfirmed rumors say Jonny Lee Miller and Jim Sturgess are in talks to join the film). “Cloud Atlas” is supposed to begin shooting this fall.
But should we add one more potential film to the pile?
Twitch seems to think so. They’re reporting that the Wachowskis are developing another new project at Warner Bros. — their studio of choice. Apparently called, “Jupiter Rising,” there are unfortunately no other story details available as of right now (and note, Twitch have been on a roll of late, beating the trades to the news of Ryan Gosling‘s involvement in “Only God Forgives“).
However, this is where the report gets somewhat confused. Twitch seems to suggest that “Jupiter Rising” could be the Wachowskis next project and fail to mention “Cloud Atlas” as anything more than something they’re producing. Perhaps they’re mixed-up. Either way, Warner Bros. is apparently making this film a priority and its something they want to move on quickly, but unless something’s changed that we all don’t know about, “Cloud Atlas” is their next (co-)directing gig. One could argue that Tykwer will be doing all the heavy lifting and the Wachowskis will just be shooting the future sequences leaving them free to soon prep their own solo directorial effort — it does feel like more of a Tykwer film overall — but that would just be an educated guess at this point. Hopefully more details arise soon.