The Matrix, as a Super Panavision 70 Film from the 1950s

The date might have gone unnoticed by many, but last March 31, The Matrix turned 25 years old. Regardless of what one might think of its sequels, no one denies that that first installment was a turning point for science fiction, and it remains a fantastic source of inspiration. That brings us to the channel of Patrick Gibney, who often plays with Midjourney and other generative tools to create alternative versions of trailers and films. In the case of The Matrix, he sent it to the 1950s and turned it into a Super Panavision 70 film...

Phone booths, mysterious characters in very tight leather, gravity that stops working, 'men in black', strange code, and a green tint that dominates everything. The Matrix only needs a few minutes to completely capture our attention and fill our brains with questions. The craziest part? This happened in March 1999, and part of me still can't process (nor get over) the fact that the movie is already 25 years old.

Some theaters have decided to bring it back to the big screen to celebrate, while Warner already confirmed a new installment last April (placing Drew Goddard as director and writer, and Lana Wachowski moving to the role of executive producer). However, what brings us here today is an experiment with artificial intelligence.

How The Matrix would look, filmed in the 1950s

Patrick Gibney is a YouTuber who often creates anachronistic versions of series and films, 'adopting' as his favorite format the Super Panavision 70. Lawrence of Arabia, Grand Prix, 2001, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and even Tron were created with that format, and to be honest it never completely disappeared (the Wikipedia article has good information on the subject).

Gibney uses a combination of Midjourney, Pika Labs, Haiper AI, Suno, and ElevenLabs. His chosen actors are Keanu Reeves as Neo (because being immortal, Keanu already existed in the 50s), the unforgettable Audrey Hepburn as Trinity, Sidney Poitier in the role of Morpheus, and Marlon Brando as Agent Smith. Needless to say, the "algorithm pains" are inevitable, especially with the hands (enemies of generative models) and the animations... but this also explains to some extent why the acting world declared war on artificial intelligence. For an actor to return from beyond, only a few clicks are needed...