Movies
Head Back Inside ‘The Matrix’ on May 21, 2021
Warner Bros. will take audiences back inside The Matrix with the fourth entry on May 21, 2021. Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss will be back, reprising the roles of Neo and Trinity. Interestingly, this is the same day Lionsgate will release John Wick: Chapter 4, also starring Keanu Reeves.
Jada Pinkett Smith is also returning as Niobe, the captain of the Logos hovercraft. “She’s also one of the rebels in the war against the Machines and the Matrix. In the virtual world of the Matrix, Niobe is a gifted martial artist,” write Deadline.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jonathan Groff, Jessica Henwick, Toby Onwumere and Neil Patrick Harris will also star in the new film with plot details still under wraps.
All we know is that Lana Wachowski is directing for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow.
“We could not be more excited to be re-entering the Matrix with Lana,” said Warner Bros.’ Toby Emmerich when announced. “Lana is a true visionary — a singular and original creative filmmaker — and we are thrilled that she is writing, directing and producing this new chapter in ‘The Matrix’ universe.”
“Many of the ideas Lilly and I explored 20 years ago about our reality are even more relevant now. I’m very happy to have these characters back in my life and grateful for another chance to work with my brilliant friends,” Wachowski added.
Aleksandar Hemon and David Mitchell are co-writing the script with Wachowski.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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