Joel Silver Talks Speed's Wachowski Brothers

Uber-producer Joel Silver, who worked with writing and directing team Andy and Larry Wachowski on the Matrix trilogy and the upcoming Speed Racer, told SCI FI Wire that the famously reclusive brothers aren't as enigmatic as the media makes them out to be.

"The only part they don't want to engage in is [promotion]," Silver said in an interview. "That's the only part. ... But, you know, they are the greatest guys I've ever worked with. They're funny. They're smart. They know what they want. They plan everything out to perfection, and everybody here--Susan [Sarandon], Emile [Hirsch], John [Goodman], Christina [Ricci]--they'll tell you the same thing, that they're the greatest, fun guys."

Silver said the Wachowski brothers did publicity for the first Matrix movie. "They did everything," he said. "They did the junkets and the tours and the one-on-one [interviews], and they did everything. And they just said, 'We just don't like this, and if you make us do this, we aren't going to make any more movies.' And I said, 'OK.'"

Silver is happy to speak for the Wachowskis, whom he credits with changing the process of filmmaking with the Matrix trilogy. He went on to say that their new film, Speed Racer, is just as groundbreaking.

"They've changed the system again on how to make pictures," Silver said. "The camera loses its physical self. ... So you have a scene where the camera zooms into Speed's face, and then zooms past him to Trixie. and then past her to Rex. Where is the camera? What is the camera? The camera can't do that, but the computer can. We put our people on gimbals, in a cockpit, on a green stage, and once we get that, capture that image, then we can manipulate it any way we want and make the camera see what you want it to see, which I think is going to change the way we make movies."

The next collaboration between Silver and the Wachowskis will be Ninja Assassin, a martial-arts film being directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta). As for when the brothers will return to directing themselves, even Silver doesn't know that yet.

"If this movie works, they may want to do a sequel," Silver said. "They may not. When they immerse themselves in a movie, they work literally seven days a week for, like, seven months to finish this movie. It's really grueling. These guys don't phone anything in. There's a book coming out, I think coming out in a few weeks, which is called The Art of Speed Racer. You can actually see in that book how the drawings became [pre-visusalization and] became finished shots. You're realizing, I mean, this is created from nothing. I mean, you're not shooting anything. It's all in their heads. And it's a really grueling thing to do. And they take time off, and then they go back to work. And when they want to, they call me--I hope they call me--and say, 'We want to do something.'" Speed Racer opens May 9. --Cindy White