JediDefender.com Forums
Community => Watto's Junk Yard => Topic started by: Bob Crane on December 4, 2004, 04:06 PM
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... or further proof Hollywood is filled with nothig but charlatans-
"Mother of the Matrix" Victorious
By Martha Carter
Monday, October 4th 2004 ended a six-year dispute involving
Sophia Stewart, the Wachowski Brothers, Joel Silver and Warner
Brothers. Stewart's allegations, involving copyright infringement
and racketeering, were received and acknowledged by the
Central District of California, Judge Margaret Morrow residing.
Stewart, a New Yorker who has resided in Salt Lake City for the
past five years, will recover damages from the films, The Matrix I,
II and III, as well as The Terminator and its sequels. She will
soon receive one of the biggest payoffs in the history of
Hollywood, as the gross receipts of both films and their sequels
total over 2.5 billion dollars.
Stewart filed her case in 1999, after viewing the Matrix, which she
felt had been based on her manuscript, "The Third Eye,"
copyrighted in 1981. In the mid-eighties Stewart had submitted
her manuscript to an ad placed by the Wachowski Brothers,
requesting new sci-fi works.
According to court documentation, an FBI investigation
discovered that more than thirty minutes had been edited from
the original film, in attempt to avoid penalties for copyright
infringement. The investigation also stated that "credible
witnesses employed at Warner Brothers came forward, claiming
that the executives and lawyers had full knowledge that the work
in question did not belong to the Wachowski Brothers." These
witnesses claimed to have seen Stewart's original work and that
it had been "often used during preparation of the motion
pictures." The defendants tried, on several occasions, to have
Stewart's case dismissed, without success.
Stewart has confronted skepticism on all sides, much of which
comes from Matrix fans, who are strangely loyal to the
Wachowski Brothers. One on-line forum, entitled Matrix
Explained has an entire section devoted to Stewart.
Some who have researched her history and writings are open to
her story. Others are suspicious and mocking. "It doesn't bother
me," said Stewart in a phone interview last week, "I always knew
what was true."
Some fans, are unaware of the case or they question its
legitimacy, due to the fact that it has received little to no media
coverage. Though the case was not made public until October of
2003, Stewart has her own explanation, as quoted at
daghettotymz.com:
"The reason you have not seen any of this in the media is
because Warner Brothers parent company is AOL-Time
Warner... this GIANT owns 95 percent of the media... let me give
you a clue as to what they own in the media business... New
York Times papers/magazines, LA Times papers/magazines,
People Magazine, CNN news, Extra, Celebrity Justice,
Entertainment Tonight, HBO, New Line Cinema, Dreamworks,
Newsweek, Village Roadshow... many, many
more!... They are not going to report on themselves. They have
been surpressing my case for years..."
Fans who have taken Stewart's allegations seriously, have found
eerie mythological parallels, which seem significant in a case
that revolves around the highly metaphorical and symbolic Matrix
series. Sophia, the greek goddess of wisdom has been
referenced many times in speculation about Stewart. In one
book about the Goddess Sophia, it reads, "The black goddess
is the mistress of web creation spun in her divine matrix."
Although there have been outside implications as to racial
injustice (Stewart is African American), she does not feel that
this is the case. "This is all about the Benjamins," said Stewart.
"It's not about money with me. It's about justice."
Stewart's future plans involve a record label, entitled Popsilk
Records, and a motion picture production company, All Eyez On
Me, in reference to God. "I wrote The Third Eye to wake people
up, to remind them why God put them here.
There's more to life than money," said Stewart. "My whole
message to the world is about God and good and about choice,
about spirituality prevailing over 'technocracy'."
If Stewart represents spirituality, then she truly has prevailed
over the "technocracy" represented in both the Terminator and
the Matrix, and now, ironically, by their supposed creators.
Stewart is currently having discussions with CBS about a
possible exclusive story and has several media engagements in
the near future to nationally publicize her victory.
So there!
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The Matrix still isn't good, so she isn't that creative either.
Nonetheless, (hopefully) Justice prevailed and she gets her due.
Keeanu Reeves: "I know Kung Fu..."
Alex Trabec: "We've been over this... No you do NOT!"
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Wow, actual proof that those Wachoski Bros are just as big of a sell out as any other Movie mogul in Hollywood. Tsk tsk tsk. ::)
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Good. Those movies sucked anyway. Specifically the sequels.
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How does everyone who becomes succesful in hollywood automaticly fall intothe "sellout" catagory?
Kevin
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I think in this instance sell-out is referring to their apparent plagerism. I always say that if you're gonna rip off an idea - rip off a good one.
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By the way - is there a link to this story?
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I agree that “The Matrix” isn’t that spectacular, although I must admit that when I saw it for the first time it did surpass my expectations (seeing as I’d seen Johnny Mneumonic- Gibson, forgive them… they know not what they do). As far as the Wachowski Bros. “Bound” remains their best film IMNSHO.
Zod, Here’s the link:
http://www.slccglobelink.com/main.cfm/include/detail/storyid/785067.html
Ps. I do however, feel compelled to re-affirm that this paints James Cameron as a thieving scoundrel as well, not that there was ever any doubt of that, case in point- Titanic wins academy award for “Best Production Design”… huh? Excuse me, but didn’t the art team just COPY the original interior plans of the ship? Yah, I suppose it must be the work of a genius!
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The first Matrix was really good - but the other two sucking so bad made the first look like a fluke. Kind of like how everything George Lucas has touched since ANH has made ANH look like a fluke.
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Are we sure that article is reliable? It's from some community college and I couldn't find any other mention of the story on google news. I'd think something like that would be all over the place.
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Whatever, the boys are sitting back couting the the piles of cash they made over those 3 films. Much like Lucas has over his "flukes". I wish I could come up with flukes like that. LOL!
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"There's more to life than money," said Stewart. "My whole
message to the world is about God and good and about choice,
about spirituality prevailing over 'technocracy'."
Added Stewart, "Now I'm gonna go count my $2.5 billion dollars. Get the hell out of my way."
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They're still crappy films I think, whether or not the article's real.
I'm tired of anything that has to do with jumping sideways while firing guns and slow motion bullets.
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I thought the first one was pretty good, the other two were horrible. Meh...I'm with Broem, I wish I could make money off of "flukes"
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I get what people are griping about with these films I really do. heck I do it as well. But it's not like the Matrix sequels and the Star Wars prequels are horrible films by any stretch of the imagination. Their box office totals are helped by name recognition of films that were far superior in the series that came before them. That's for certain. But they still made a boatload of money. Especially the SW prequels. No doubt they did not hit the impossible expectations the general public heaped on them, but they are still decent films for the most part.
I just don't think they are as awful as people make them out to be. If that were true then none of them would be that sucessful at the box office beyond the first two weeks of their openings. It's hard to argue the SW prequels are that bad when one makes over $400 million and the next one makes over $300 million competing against Spider-Man which made over $400 million the same summer. A sequel to a movie that was supposedly so wretched yet it still makes over $300 million?
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Well, from my own experience...I saw the first Matrix twice and like I said, it was great. I saw Matrix part deux once at the theater and almost got up and left...it was boring and basically abandoned the total mind screw that made the first one so great. So, I skipped 3 altogether and haven't seen it yet
I'd have been satisfied if they left it at Matrix and not have two half assed sequels but thats just me
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I skipped 3 altogether and haven't seen it yet
I envy you.
It was terrible.
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Are we sure that article is reliable? It's from some community college and I couldn't find any other mention of the story on google news. I'd think something like that would be all over the place.
According to the story:
"The reason you have not seen any of this in the media is
because Warner Brothers parent company is AOL-Time
Warner... this GIANT owns 95 percent of the media... let me give
you a clue as to what they own in the media business... New
York Times papers/magazines, LA Times papers/magazines,
People Magazine, CNN news, Extra, Celebrity Justice,
Entertainment Tonight, HBO, New Line Cinema, Dreamworks,
Newsweek, Village Roadshow... many, many
more!... They are not going to report on themselves. They have
been surpressing my case for years..."
Why WOULD they rat themselves out? That's like expecting Dan Rather to say CBS falsified the Bush National Guard memos.
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Here, I ran across this while looking for more info:
In reference to the recent article entitled "Mother of the Matrix Victorious," some information has been deemed misleading. Ms. Sophia Stewart has not yet won her case against Joel Silver, Time Warner and the Wachowski Bros. The decision on October 4th enabled Ms. Stewart to proceed with her case, as all attempts to have it dismissed were unsuccessful. Ms. Stewart's case will proceed through the Central District Court of California.
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Yeah, her case is only very preliminary. That article is a little misleading.
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They'll give her like, a million dollars to shut up.
Chump change for these guys.
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So yes, I'll resurrect a 17 year old thread instead of starting a new one:
The Matrix Resurrection Trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzEGBAG8x5U)
A lot's happened since 2004. The Wachowski Brothers are now the Wachowski Sisters. I'm glad this is streaming on HBO Max...The Wachowskis owe me money for seeing Revolutions in the theater.
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I'm glad this is streaming on HBO Max...The Wachowskis owe me money for seeing Revolutions in the theater.
;D