The Wachowski brothers

"Andy Wachowski" and "Larry Wachowski" redirect here.

Jewish-American Filmmakers

The Wachowski brothers

Larry Wachowski Born	June 21 1965 Chicago, Illinois, United States
Andy Wachowski Born	December 29 1967 Chicago, Illinois, United States

Laurence "Larry" Wachowski (born June 21, 1965) and Andrew "Andy" Wachowski (born December 29, 1967) are Jewish-American film directors most famous for the Matrix series.

Biography

The brothers were born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and the Wachowskis jokingly claim to have begun their collaboration as toddlers. Their mother was a nurse and their father a businessman. They went to Kellogg Elementary School, in Chicago's Beverly Area. Both brothers graduated from Whitney Young High, a public high school known for its performing arts and science curriculum, in 1983 and '85. They weren't seen as stand outs at Whitney Young - students recall them playing Dungeons & Dragons and working in the school's theater and TV program, but they were always behind the scenes. Afterwards, Andy went to Emerson College in Boston. He was a top student in his introductory film class but dropped out because of failing a test says former professor, Claire Andrade-Watkins. Larry went to Bard College in upstate New York. After dropping out of college, both entered the carpentry business, and began to unleash their ideas for the Matrix Trilogy. Before entering show business, they ran a carpentry business in Chicago while creating comic books in their free time. Matrix Revelations: The Wachowski Brothers FAQ (Wired)

In 2003, Larry's wife of nine years, Thea Bloom, divorced him on the grounds that she felt there had been dishonesty in their personal and financial lives, and sought financial remedy. Following his separation from Bloom, he has been romantically linked to the famous ex-professional dominatrix, Ilsa Strix.

Since their hit with The Matrix, Trimark has bought an unproduced script they wrote years ago, Carnivore, about a boarding house whose residents keep disappearing. The brothers will executive-produce it, while horror veteran George A. Romero (Dawn of the Dead) will likely direct.^*

Style

The brothers admit to a love for telling multipart stories. "Because we grew up on comic books and the Tolkien trilogy, one of the things we're interested in is bringing serial fiction to cinema," Larry explains. "If you could have a film where you don't get to the hour-and-a-half mark and know, 'Okay, here it comes, the big wrap-up,' but instead you have no idea how the movie's going to end, I think that would be very exciting." Andy puts his desire to shake up viewers a bit more bluntly. "We think movies are fairly boring and predictable. We want to screw with audiences' expectations."^*

Comic books

Prior to working in the film industry, the Wachowski brothers wrote comic books for Marvel Comics' Razorline imprint, namely Ectokid (created by horror novelist Clive Barker) in 1993.

In 2004, they created Burlyman Entertainment and have released comic books based on The Matrix as well two original bi-monthly series:

Shaolin Cowboy - created, written, and art by Geoff Darrow (with the Wachowski Brothers contributing an opening dialogue to each issue)
Doc Frankenstein - created by Geoff Darrow and Steve Skroce, written by the Wachowski Brothers, and art by Steve Skroce.

During Skroce's run on the Marvel Comics series Gambit, he helped create a pair of bounty hunters, the Mengo Brothers (Stanislaus and Gregori Mengochauschras), as adversaries, who resemble the Wachowskis.

Criticism

The Wachowskis are often noted as borrowing very heavily from existing works, and are very vocal about their inspirations such as comic book writer Grant Morrison and his series, The Invisibles. Morrison has gone so far as to claim that the Wachowskis have plagiarised The Invisibles.^*.

There are also parallels between The Matrix and William Gibson's cyberpunk novel, Neuromancer. The title of this novel's sequel - Mona Lisa Overdrive - is explicitly referenced by the entitling of the score piece accompanying the freeway sequence of The Matrix Reloaded after the book. It is unknown who titled the piece, the composers (Don Davis and Ben Watkins), the artists (Juno Reactor), or the Wachowski brothers.

Filmography

V for Vendetta (2006) (written, based on the graphic novel of the same name by Alan Moore)
The Matrix Revolutions (2003) (written & directed)
The Matrix Reloaded (2003) (written & directed)
The Matrix (1999) (written & directed)
Bound (1996) (written & directed)
Assassins (1995) (story, screenplay credits)
Carnivore – unproduced
Plastic Man – unproduced
Primavista – online

References

External links

Die Wachowski-Geschwister, biography (German).
In 'Matrix,' the Wachowski Brothers Unleash a Comic Book of Ideas interview by The New York Times.
The Many Meanings of The Matrix, Larry Wachowski in dialogue with philosopher Ken Wilber.
Matrix Revelations, Wired Magazine article about the Wachowski brothers.
The Mystery of Larry Wachowski, Rolling Stone Magazine article about the latest rumours about Larry's gender status, largely dependent on the above Wired Magazine article for background.

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