Are the Brothers creating the first true community of interest for the Matrix Franchise? - Yes there have been tie ins before but this is different. I see this as a David Reed model where all the related gaming builds a permanent and evergrowing community of support for the Matrix franchise
"And it turns out that Andy and Larry Wachowski, the fraternal writer-director team behind the lucrative franchise, have been harboring a deep secret. 'They've made two and a half sequels,' divulges veteran game designer Dave Perry. That unexpected half sequel turns out to be an hour of 35mm film footage shot exclusively for the videogame Enter the Matrix, due May 15 on all major game systems.
The videogame's filmic element - starring the movie cast and shot on the Australian movie set - marks an important step forward in the burgeoning creative relationship between Hollywood and the game industry. The game also boasts a Hollywood-size price tag: a rumored budget of $20 million, roughly four times the average cost of developing a PS2 title....
The Wachowskis' master plan included a novel twist. Rather than rehash the plot of The Matrix Reloaded, the game tells a parallel but equally important story. You don't play as Neo - though he, as well as Morpheus and Trinity, definitely figures in the game. Instead, you play two characers who have supporting roles in the film: an assassin named Ghost, portrayed by Hong Kong action star Anthony Wong, and hovercraft pilot Niobe, played by Jada Pinkett Smith. ('Jada had to learn more lines of dialogue for the game than she did for the movie,' says Perry.)
More importantly - and and in a move that might have some significance in future tie-ins - the game and movie story lines will intersect in unique ways. Exact details of the crossover are closely guarded, but Perry offers one cryptic example. 'In the movie, you'll see a package. If you play the game, you'll understand how that package got to where it is in the film. We're guessing it's not via FedEx.
Between the film sequences lies a combat system similar in style to 2001's third-person action game Max Payne. But make no mistake - the moves are firmly grounded in the Matrix universe: Players battle Agents by pulling off physics-defying stunts (running up walls, slowing down time) and using martial-arts moves designed by the movies' fight choreography, Yuen Wo-Ping." [February 7 issue of Entertainment Weekly, sorry but the article is available online to subscribers only]
This is such a brilliant move. The movie AND the video game are going to be so huge. There will now be hundreds of web sites devoted to the game, and the gamers will spend even more time trying to tie together all of the ways in which the two intersect together. And all of this using supporting characters in the film. The game will instantly be the fastest-selling one to date, and the DVDs should be beyond incredible. The Wachowski brothers are the leading edge of the new directors that think and film in terms of video games. And after all, their entire story line depends upon always-on connectedness - in the Matrix's "real world" you're "always connected!
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