Wachowskis hope to surprise with next film

[October 26, 2013]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Wachowski siblings say they're hoping to again surprise audiences with the science-fiction movie "Jupiter Ascending," starring Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis.

Andy and Lana Wachowski said in an interview Thursday night that they were overseeing editing and special effects for the movie set for release next summer.

"It's a science fiction space opera," Lana Wachowski said outside an Australians in Film awards dinner. "It has a lot of things from a lot of genres that we love. It's got a lot of original action, it's got a lot of romance."

Andy Wachowski, 45, said editing "Jupiter Ascending," which the siblings wrote and are directing together, has been smoother than last year's ambitious, multi-layered book adaptation "Cloud Atlas," though he called the new film's visual effects "way more complicated."

"We seem not to be very good at making small things. We keep saying 'Let's go make a small movie.' But then they always end up being enormously complex," said Lana Wachowski, 48. "We want to somehow always find something that is different or that no one has tried."

"The Matrix" directors said that while "Cloud Atlas" and their previous film, 2008's "Speed Racer," were considered box office flops, both seemed to have struck a chord with fans.

"People come up to us and just break into tears talking about ('Cloud Atlas')," Lana Wachowski said. "Even 'Speed Racer,' we get people that come up and say it was their favorite movie of all time. We've been very lucky that way. We have great fans. ... And we keep trying to keep surprising them."

The writer-directors say they'll begin pre-production in January on the Netflix sci-fi series "Sense8." And if all goes well, Lana Wachowski said, laughing: "Then we're going to take a sabbatical."

[Associated Press; By RYAN PEARSON]

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