Born: Larry- June 21, 1965; Andy- December 29, 1967, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Early days. Father, Ronald- a businessman, mother, Lynne- a nurse and painter, played an important role in developing film interest in both brothers. They went to Kellogg Elementary School, in Chicago. Both graduated from Whitney Young High School, a public magnet high school known for its performing arts and science curriculum, in 1983 and '85 respectively. During this time they worked in the theater and for the TV program for the school and played computer games. Afterwards, Andy went to Emerson College in Boston. Larry went to Bard College in upstate New York. After dropping out of college, they ran a carpentry business in Chicago, began to develop their ideas for the Matrix Trilogy. Larry married Thea Bloom in 1993; they divorced in 2002.
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." The brothers have quite often very similar opinions about several items. Still their characters and interests are to some extent different. Andy is described as beer drinking sci-fi fan while Larry prefers good restaurants and philosophy books. Both surprise with their intellect and far reaching knowledge. They are interested in mathematics, physics and philosophy. Both are passionate film fans and their role models are among others. John Woo, Stanley Kubrick, Ridley Scott, George Lucas, Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Roman Polanski, Alfred Hitchcock and John Huston. Their favorite lecture is: Odyssey by Homer, Alice in Wonderland, the novels of William Gibson and many others.
Comic books. Prior to working in the film industry, the Wachowski brothers wrote comic books for Marvel Comics', namely Ectokid in 1993. In 2003, they created Burlyman Entertainment and have released comic books based on The Matrix as well two original bi-monthly series: Shaolin Cowboy and Doc Frankenstein .
Filmography. Assassins (1995) (story, screenplay credits); Bound (1996), The Matrix (1999), The Matrix Reloaded (2003) , The Matrix Revolutions (2003) (all four: written and directed, executive producers); The Animatrix (2003) (producers, wrote four of the nine animated shorts); V for Vendetta (2006) (produced and written); The Invasion (2007) (rewritten various parts and added a twist ending); Speed Racer (May 2008) (written and directed)
Games. Enter the Matrix (2003) (written and directed); The Matrix: Path of Neo (2005) (written and directed)
Awards. 1996 L.A. Outfest Year; Grand Jury Award - Honorable Mention Outstanding American Narrative Feature for: Bound (1996)
1996 Stockholm Film Festival; Honorable Mention for: Bound (1996)
1997 Stockholm Film Festival; Honorable Mention for: Assassin(s) (1997)
1997 Fantasporto; International Fantasy Film Award Best Film for: Bound (1996)2000 Saturn Award Best Director for: The Matrix (1999)
2000 Mainichi Film Concours; Reader's Choice Award Best Foreign Language Film
for: The Matrix (1999)
In addition: they got numerous nominations for various awards.
This article uses, among others, material from the Wikipedia article "Andrzej Wajda" licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. :
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