
Are the Wachowski Brothers shooting a top secret movie right now? This is the question I received in my email from /Film reader Seann A, who included a link to Arianna Huffington’s twitter account. Many of you will recognize Huffington as a syndicated columnist and co-founder of the liberal news website The Huffington Post.
Arianna sent out a bunch of interesting tweets today claiming to be shooting a part in a Wachowskis Brothers film, a movie about the Iraq War, from the perspective of the future. I would normally just write this off as not legit, but Huffington has posted photos from the set, one of which features Wachowski brother turned sister Lana Wachowski. Is it possible that the Wachowski Brothers have actually sneaked their next film into production without anyone noticing? Or is this just part of a short film, commercial, or test footage for a potential future project?
Anyone have any ideas or know anything more solid? We’ll keep you updated.
Updates:
- Erik Davis (of cinematical fame) e-mailed me in response asking if it could be Cloud Atlas, the Wachowski Brothers-produced Tom Tykwer-directed adaptation of the postmodern novel by David Mitchell . But as far as I’ve heard, that film is still in the development stages and Tykwer just wrapped last week on a new feature called Drei (Three), so it is unlikely that he is back behind the camera so soon. Or maybe Tykwer is no longer involved?
- Devin from Chud claims the Wachowskis are not yet in production, but are spending a couple says shooting “test footage” for their next project.
More photos after the jump.
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Later this week we’ll be publishing our full interview with director James McTeigue (V For Vendetta, Ninja Assassin), but until then I’ve been posting some of the more newsworthy bits to come out of our discussion. Yesterday, McTeigue revealed his next project, a Se7en-stlye thriller titled The Raven, and he gave us an update on the development of the sci-fi adaptation Altered Carbon. You can read about both projects in our previous post.
James also took the time to address three comic book movie related rumors that have been circulating the interwebs recently, including Plastic Man, X-Men Origins: Magneto and a Superman reboot. Rumors debunked and quotes after the jump.
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Walt Disney Pictures has announced a July 16th 2010 release for the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced Jon Turteltaub-directed family adventure film The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Marvel recently moved Thor out of the weekend, but now the Mouse House production will go head to head with Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi action film Inception. Disney has two other event films scheduled for Summer 2010: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time hits theaters on May 28th and Toy Story 3 will be released on July 18th.
Meanwhile, Warner Bros has set The Wachowski Brothers-produced James McTeigue-directed Ninja Assassin on November 25th 2009, up from a TBA 2010. Richard Kelly’s sci-fi thriller The Box has been moved from November to Halloween weekend, up against Youth in Revolt, and a week after Saw VI.
source: Variety

Remember that report that showed up on AICN last week claiming that The Wachowski Brothers had been offered a reboot of Superman? Sorry to get you guys all excited but I have just gotten confirmation from two independent sources that the report was completely false. I don’t know if an interview with James McTeigue actually aired on RTL1 or not (I’m guessing not) but The Wachowski Brothers have definitely never had any talks with DC or Warner Bros to helm a Superman film. This is confirmed.

Could The Wachowski Brothers be in line to direct a reboot of Superman for Warner Bros? A scooper over at AICN caught an interview with V For Vendetta director James McTeigue on Berlin television where the filmmaker admitted that Plastic Man was originally scheduled to be the brothers’ next project, but the film has been delayed indefinitely due to a major shake-up of projects at Warner Bros. McTeigue was even signed on to direct second unit, as he has done on past Wachowski Brothers productions.
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FirstShowing has word that The International director Tom Tykwer is adapting the David Mitchell novel titled Cloud Atlas for The Wachowski Brothers. Written in 2004, the novel went on to win the British Book Awards Literary Fiction Award and the Richard & Judy Book of the Year award.
The book is comprised of six seperate but loosely connected stories that take us from the remote South Pacific in the nineteenth century to the far future after a nuclear apocalypse. Each tale is told from the point of view from the the main character in the next. It’s unclear if Tykwer is focusing on one, a couple or all of the stories. I cant imagine that a film adaptation would feature all six stories as the narrative would become too episodic. And each story is a vastly different genre than the next, spanning post-apocalyptic sci-fi to modern comedy. The author has said that the book’s theme is predacity — individuals prey on individuals, groups on groups, nations on nations.
Funny thing, I received an email tip a few months ago that claimed that Natalie Portman was somehow involved in a big screen adaptation of Cloud Atlas, but I wrote it off as unsubstantiated false info. But now that Alex has uncovered that Tykwer is adapting the novel for The Wachowskis, I’ve been doing some research and there seems to be a few connections.
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/Film reader Christopher M scored this bad ass fight choreography/stunt training video showing some of the work of 87 Eleven (the stunt team that worked on 300, Watchmen, Matrix and Bourne films) on The Wachowski Brothers-produced, James McTeigue-directed Ninja Assassin. Check it out after the jump.
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/Film reader Jacob sent over this footage from The Wachowski Brothers’ Ninja Assassin.

German newspaper BILD has run a set photo from James McTeigue’s Ninja Assassin, which shows the front end of a car with who knows how many Ninja stars sticking through the hood. One can only imagine what kind of sequence The Wachowski Brothers have come up with that has resulted in this kind of car damage. Thanks to Christopher M for sending the photos along. The photo appears to be a month old, so I apologize to anyone who may have already seen it (I had not, so I decided to share).
Ninja Assassin stars stars Korean pop star Rain (Speed Racer) as Raizo, one of the deadliest assassins in the world. Taken from the streets as a child, he was transformed into a trained killer by the Ozunu Clan, a secret society whose very existence is considered a myth. But haunted by the merciless execution of his friend by the Clan, Raizo breaks free from them… and vanishes. Now he waits, preparing to exact his revenge.
In Berlin, Europol agent Mika Coretti (Naomie Harris) has stumbled upon a money trail linking several political murders to an underground network of untraceable assassins from the Far East. Defying the orders of her superior, Ryan Maslow (Ben Miles), Mika digs into top secret agency files to learn the truth behind the murders. Her investigation makes her a target, and the Ozunu Clan sends a team of killers, led by the lethal Takeshi (Rick Yune), to silence her forever. Raizo saves Mika from her attackers, but he knows that the Clan will not rest until they are both eliminated. Now, entangled in a deadly game of cat and mouse through the streets of Europe, Raizo and Mika must trust one another if they hope to survive… and finally bring down the elusive Ozunu Clan. The film also stars legendary martial arts performer Sho Kosugi (Revenge of the Ninja) as the ruthless leader of the Ozunu Clan.
Images Removed at Warner Bros Request
/Film reader Christopher M sent over four photos from James McTeigue’s Ninja Assassin, which is being produced by The Wachowski Brothers. You might also want to head over to IESB, because they have some details about the opening sequence of the film.
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