#OnTheBigScreen: The Matrix Resurrections, The King's Man and Sing 2

The Matrix Resurrections
The long-awaited next chapter in the ground-breaking franchise that redefined a genre is here!

In The Matrix Resurrections, return to a world of two realities - one, everyday life, the other, what lies behind it. To find out if his reality is a physical or mental construct and to truly know himself, Mr Anderson will have to choose to follow the white rabbit once more. And if Thomas has learned anything, it’s that choice, while an illusion, is still the only way out of, or into, the Matrix. Of course, Neo already knows what he has to do.

But what he doesn’t yet know is that the Matrix is stronger, more secure and more dangerous than ever before - Déjà vu. Keanu Reeves reprises the dual roles of Thomas Anderson, the man once saved from the Matrix to become the saviour of humankind, who will once again have to choose which path to follow.

Carrie-Anne Moss portrays the iconic warrior Trinity, a suburban wife and mother of three with a penchant for superpowered motorcycles. This science fiction action film is produced, co-written and directed by visionary filmmaker Lana Wachowski. It is the fourth instalment in The Matrix film series.

Visionary filmmaker Lana Wachowski said: “My art all comes from this emotional place. I think about things intellectually but it’s all led by this emotion. This desire to say something about my heart to other people’s hearts.

“I wanted to bring that same heart to the trilogy. That the trilogy is a really beautiful love, and the struggle of human beings, and the meaning of our lives—it’s all in there. I was struggling with all of that when I was young. But, I wanted this older self, this older heart, to be a part of The Matrix Trilogy. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to go back.”

Read more here.

The King’s Man

An epic origin story featuring a collection of history’s worst tyrants and criminal masterminds. In 2014, King’s Man: The Secret Service introduced the world to Harry Hart, suave gentleman spy and Gary “Eggsy” Unwin, a kid from the wrong side of the tracks, desperately in need of a father figure.

Harry recruited Eggsy, trained him to be both a gentleman and a spy and, alongside their Kingsman cohort, the pair took down evil tech billionaire Richmond Valentine. In the 2017 sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle, we met the organisation’s American equivalent in the shape of The Statesman, while the threat came via enterprising drug dealer Poppy Adams.

However, for the new iteration, The King’s Man, the story kicks off more than a century earlier and plays out in the shadow of WWI, explaining how and why the Kingsman agency began.

The King’s Man unfolds the origins of the very first independent intelligence agency through a story that features a collection of history’s worst tyrants and criminal masterminds, gathering to plot a war to wipe out millions and the one man who must race against time to stop them.

The film is directed by Matthew Vaughn from a screenplay based on the comic book The Secret Service by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons, a story by Matthew Vaughn and screenplay by Vaughn and Karl Gajdusek (The November Man and Oblivion). Vaughn believes The King’s Man is a period piece that will speak to modern audiences.

“I want kids to see that when crazy people are running the world, things can get out of control very, very quickly,” says Vaughn. “And we’re in a political climate which is very similar to the pre-World War One climate - where nobody thought there could be a war, then there was a war, and nobody understood why there was a war. World War One was pure madness and King’s Man was founded because of it.”

Matthew Vaughn believes there’s a single element that ties the King’s Man films together and connects them to his previous directorial efforts: “If you really analyze my movies, they do have a heart. If there isn’t an emotional story, it doesn’t matter how good the action or the effects are, you don’t feel anything. It becomes noise.”

Read more here.

Sing 2

Sing 2 is a new chapter in Illumination’s animated franchise arrives with big dreams and hit songs as the ever-optimistic Buster Moon and his cast of performers prepare to launch their most dazzling stage extravaganza yet… All in the glittering entertainment capital of the world. There’s just one hitch: They first have to persuade the world’s most reclusive rock star to join them.

If Sing was about finding the courage to pursue your dreams, Sing 2 is about liberating yourself from the limits that other people place on your dreams – or that you place on yourself.

Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri commented: “Audiences love the subversive humour of our films, especially when it’s playing on multiple levels so that both adults and children are appreciating the films simultaneously.

“One of the truly ubiquitous aspects of our popular culture globally in the 2000s was the advent of pop idol, which became American Idol, which then spawned The Voice and many other shows around the world. “It was a return to a very old-fashioned idea, which is, ‘I have a talent, and I want to share it with the world. I have no idea how I’m going to be received, but this is my dream, and I’m going to go for it,” Meledandri added.

The film is written and directed by British writer, film director and artist Garth Jennings who also wrote and directed Sing in 2016. Sing 2 combines more than 40 contemporary and classic hit songs from pop to rock, K-pop to Latin and from artists including Billie Eilish, Drake, The Weeknd, Prince, Taylor Swift, BTS, Cardi B, Bad Bunny, J Balvin, Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello.

The film features three classic U2 songs plus a new original song was written exclusively for the film Your Song Saved My Life the first new music from U2 since 2019.

Read more here.

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