Where did Tank go?
05-18-03, 11:46 AM
#51
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Watching the movie I thought it was a funny snub how they never even mentioned Tank's name. They specifically mention Dozer and a reference to "Two brothers" but never actually say his name. Would they have had to pay the actor if they mentioned his character or where they simply rubbing it in.
05-18-03, 03:30 PM
#52
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I thought that Tank's name is mentioned when in Zion. when the new operator is talking with his wife Lee. She is worried of him going back out to war and then the new operator says something like "You know I made a promise to Tank, and some promises you just can't break" or something to that extent.. but I could be wrong since I have only seen the movie once so far.
05-18-03, 04:22 PM
#54
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Originally posted by Groucho
They mentioned Tank's name, but only in passing.
They mentioned Tank's name, but only in passing.
05-18-03, 04:32 PM
#55
I was listening for any mention of Tank, and I did hear it mentioned at one point with Link and the sister, but it sounded rather muted. I'll also double-check when I see it again.
05-18-03, 04:56 PM
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I'm with deputy dave on this one. I'm almost positive that the only reference was to Dozer and "the two brothers". The promise made by the new operator was specifically to Dozer IIRC. Niether of them ever refer to Tank by name.
05-19-03, 07:58 PM
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They should have written in some silly and pointless death for him just to "stick it to him."
Morpheus: "It's too bad Tank had to die of auto-erotic asphyxiation. He would have liked to have been here."
Trinity: "I'm just sorry that I'm the one who found him. I had no idea he was so... small..."
Morpheus: "It's too bad Tank had to die of auto-erotic asphyxiation. He would have liked to have been here."
Trinity: "I'm just sorry that I'm the one who found him. I had no idea he was so... small..."
05-19-03, 10:42 PM
#61
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Tank vs. "Matrix" Machine
By Joal Ryan
At least that's the message delivered in a lawsuit filed by the actor who helped save Keanu Reeves' holy butt in the first Matrix movie.
In the suit, Marcus Chong, best known to sci-fi fans as the driving force that was Tank, claims he was "blackball[ed]" and branded a "terrorist" by producers after his character was derailed from the sequels, according Los Angeles' City News Service.
Warner Bros. and the writing-directing Wachowski Brothers' Eon Productions are among the named defendants, per the wire service.
Chong's lawsuit, alleging breach of contract, slander and fraud, seeks the six figures he says he would have banked from the two new flicks, plus interest and other unspecified damages.
The Tank-less Matrix Reloaded drove home with $91.8 million last weekend, the second biggest three-day opening ever. The Matrix Revolutions, the trilogy's concluding chapter, is scheduled to start turning in November. Like its predecessor, Revolutions will not feature Tank, or Chong.
In Reloaded, newbie Zee (Nona Gay), Tank's sister, explains Tank's absence by saying he died during a mission on the Nebuchadnezzar. Link (Harold Perrineau), intro'd as Zee's hubby/Tank's brother-in-law, is at the controls of Morpheus' ship for the sequels.
In the original 1999 flick, Tank's Chong stood alongside Reeves' Neo, Carrie-Anne Moss' Trinity and Morpheus' Laurence Fishburne as the only humans to outlast, outplay and outwit their machine nemeses.
It's not clear why the actor, the 35-year-old adopted son of recently smoked-out comedian Tommy Chong, did not return for the sequels. In previous reports about the Link-for-Tank move, neither Warners nor Chong commented on his absence.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Chong copped to crashing a press junket, snatching food from production offices and crank-yanking the Wachowskis. All of this bad behavior, though, came after Chong had already been unloaded from Reloaded.
As to what got him unloaded in the first place? Warners isn't commenting on the lawsuit. Calls to Chong's attorney and the Wachowskis' Eon Entertainment were not immediately returned Monday.
In documents posted on the fan site, the Marcus Chong as Tank Coalition (boycottthematrix.com), a grassroots Web campaign protesting the actor's franchise freeze out, the dispute is shown to have centered on money. The site credits yet another pro-Chong site, the We Want Tank Coalition (www.geocities.com/wwtcoalition), with originally obtaining the material.
In an undated letter reputedly from Chong to Andy and Larry Wachowski, a string of deep-sounding, but vague thoughts ("Why suggest that either my faiths of anarchy must be chosen or my goals for profit."), give way to a bottom line: An offer of $250,000 for the two sequels is unacceptable. Either the studio will meet his price ($500,000, plus bonuses and guarantees he'll be invited to press junkets and premieres)...or he'll do the movies for free.
"I will do it for free because I love our project and want to protect the role and the integrity of the brothers' vision," Chong reputedly wrote.
In an October 2000 letter reputedly from the Wachowskis to Chong, the siblings, hailed as "mighty knights [who] shall truly break into Valhalla," in the Chong missive, say they understand the actor's stance, but think "it is in the best interest of all parties to move on."
In the aftermath, Chong's lawsuit claims producers "conspired to blackball [Chong] from further professional acting work in Hollywood and took efforts to defame [him]," City News Service reported.
An actor since childhood, Chong recently began work on his first post-Matrix flick, The Crow: Wicked Prayer.
The efforts of the two-year-old Marcus Chong as Tank Coalition, meanwhile, continue--even if both sequels are shot, in the can, and, in the case of Reloaded, in theaters. Webmaster Kira Jones says the group's letter-writing campaign will endure at least through the release of Revolutions.
"Aside from the fact that he's really cute, one of the things we really like about Tank is that we could really identify with him...We're all geeks, for lack of a better word," says Jones, a programmer. "I think Tank kind of represents [us]--he was the one who made things happen."
By Joal Ryan
At least that's the message delivered in a lawsuit filed by the actor who helped save Keanu Reeves' holy butt in the first Matrix movie.
In the suit, Marcus Chong, best known to sci-fi fans as the driving force that was Tank, claims he was "blackball[ed]" and branded a "terrorist" by producers after his character was derailed from the sequels, according Los Angeles' City News Service.
Warner Bros. and the writing-directing Wachowski Brothers' Eon Productions are among the named defendants, per the wire service.
Chong's lawsuit, alleging breach of contract, slander and fraud, seeks the six figures he says he would have banked from the two new flicks, plus interest and other unspecified damages.
The Tank-less Matrix Reloaded drove home with $91.8 million last weekend, the second biggest three-day opening ever. The Matrix Revolutions, the trilogy's concluding chapter, is scheduled to start turning in November. Like its predecessor, Revolutions will not feature Tank, or Chong.
In Reloaded, newbie Zee (Nona Gay), Tank's sister, explains Tank's absence by saying he died during a mission on the Nebuchadnezzar. Link (Harold Perrineau), intro'd as Zee's hubby/Tank's brother-in-law, is at the controls of Morpheus' ship for the sequels.
In the original 1999 flick, Tank's Chong stood alongside Reeves' Neo, Carrie-Anne Moss' Trinity and Morpheus' Laurence Fishburne as the only humans to outlast, outplay and outwit their machine nemeses.
It's not clear why the actor, the 35-year-old adopted son of recently smoked-out comedian Tommy Chong, did not return for the sequels. In previous reports about the Link-for-Tank move, neither Warners nor Chong commented on his absence.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Chong copped to crashing a press junket, snatching food from production offices and crank-yanking the Wachowskis. All of this bad behavior, though, came after Chong had already been unloaded from Reloaded.
As to what got him unloaded in the first place? Warners isn't commenting on the lawsuit. Calls to Chong's attorney and the Wachowskis' Eon Entertainment were not immediately returned Monday.
In documents posted on the fan site, the Marcus Chong as Tank Coalition (boycottthematrix.com), a grassroots Web campaign protesting the actor's franchise freeze out, the dispute is shown to have centered on money. The site credits yet another pro-Chong site, the We Want Tank Coalition (www.geocities.com/wwtcoalition), with originally obtaining the material.
In an undated letter reputedly from Chong to Andy and Larry Wachowski, a string of deep-sounding, but vague thoughts ("Why suggest that either my faiths of anarchy must be chosen or my goals for profit."), give way to a bottom line: An offer of $250,000 for the two sequels is unacceptable. Either the studio will meet his price ($500,000, plus bonuses and guarantees he'll be invited to press junkets and premieres)...or he'll do the movies for free.
"I will do it for free because I love our project and want to protect the role and the integrity of the brothers' vision," Chong reputedly wrote.
In an October 2000 letter reputedly from the Wachowskis to Chong, the siblings, hailed as "mighty knights [who] shall truly break into Valhalla," in the Chong missive, say they understand the actor's stance, but think "it is in the best interest of all parties to move on."
In the aftermath, Chong's lawsuit claims producers "conspired to blackball [Chong] from further professional acting work in Hollywood and took efforts to defame [him]," City News Service reported.
An actor since childhood, Chong recently began work on his first post-Matrix flick, The Crow: Wicked Prayer.
The efforts of the two-year-old Marcus Chong as Tank Coalition, meanwhile, continue--even if both sequels are shot, in the can, and, in the case of Reloaded, in theaters. Webmaster Kira Jones says the group's letter-writing campaign will endure at least through the release of Revolutions.
"Aside from the fact that he's really cute, one of the things we really like about Tank is that we could really identify with him...We're all geeks, for lack of a better word," says Jones, a programmer. "I think Tank kind of represents [us]--he was the one who made things happen."
05-20-03, 11:22 AM
#62
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Yahoo! News _ Mon, May 19, 2003
'Matrix' Actor Marcus Chong Sues Over Tank Role
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Marcus Chong has sued the makers of "The Matrix" for allegedly reneging on a promise to recast him as a freedom fighter in the 1999 sci-fi thriller's two sequels.
The lawsuit, filed on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, accuses Warner Bros. and parent company AOL Time Warner and the film's producers of breaching their 1998 oral agreement and a 2000 contract to revive his character, Tank, in the two sequels, and of slandering him.
Chong, 35, also accused the filmmakers of "intentionally publishing numerous false statements ... that he was a terrorist," and of conspiring to blackball him in Hollywood.
A bail receipt document posted on a fan Web site shows that Chong was arrested on Oct. 18, 2000 for allegedly making threats -- five days after his salary negotiations with the studio collapsed.
Film industry sources said the actor made repeated phone calls of a harassing nature to the filmmakers after his salary demands were not met. Tank was subsequently written out of the sequels and replaced with a character named Link.
A Warner Bros. spokesman and a spokeswoman for writer-directors Andy and Larry Wachowski declined to comment on the pending litigation.
Chong's attorney could not be reached for comment.
Released last week, "The Matrix Reloaded" enjoyed first weekend box office sales of $93.3 million -- higher than any R-rated film in U.S. history and No. 2 among all releases.
"The Matrix Reloaded" stars Keanu Reeves as a resistance fighter who battles an army of machines that seek to take control of the last human city, Zion. It will be followed in November by a third movie, "The Matrix Revolutions.""
'Matrix' Actor Marcus Chong Sues Over Tank Role
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Marcus Chong has sued the makers of "The Matrix" for allegedly reneging on a promise to recast him as a freedom fighter in the 1999 sci-fi thriller's two sequels.
The lawsuit, filed on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, accuses Warner Bros. and parent company AOL Time Warner and the film's producers of breaching their 1998 oral agreement and a 2000 contract to revive his character, Tank, in the two sequels, and of slandering him.
Chong, 35, also accused the filmmakers of "intentionally publishing numerous false statements ... that he was a terrorist," and of conspiring to blackball him in Hollywood.
A bail receipt document posted on a fan Web site shows that Chong was arrested on Oct. 18, 2000 for allegedly making threats -- five days after his salary negotiations with the studio collapsed.
Film industry sources said the actor made repeated phone calls of a harassing nature to the filmmakers after his salary demands were not met. Tank was subsequently written out of the sequels and replaced with a character named Link.
A Warner Bros. spokesman and a spokeswoman for writer-directors Andy and Larry Wachowski declined to comment on the pending litigation.
Chong's attorney could not be reached for comment.
Released last week, "The Matrix Reloaded" enjoyed first weekend box office sales of $93.3 million -- higher than any R-rated film in U.S. history and No. 2 among all releases.
"The Matrix Reloaded" stars Keanu Reeves as a resistance fighter who battles an army of machines that seek to take control of the last human city, Zion. It will be followed in November by a third movie, "The Matrix Revolutions.""
05-21-03, 05:11 PM
#64
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Originally posted by vivarey
Are we to assume Tank died as a result of his wounds in M1?
Are we to assume Tank died as a result of his wounds in M1?
05-21-03, 07:00 PM
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it's unlikely that Tank dies and Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus live if the ship is attacked
05-21-03, 11:35 PM
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Originally posted by Michael Corvin
I read about the lawsuit today. Funny. This guy is seriously wacko. Or is that the Matrix telling us what to think?
On an up note. A new Crow movie. Sweet!
I read about the lawsuit today. Funny. This guy is seriously wacko. Or is that the Matrix telling us what to think?
On an up note. A new Crow movie. Sweet!
Oh yeah--Chong is crazy.
05-22-03, 10:07 AM
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Damn how rich does Silver and the Wachowski need to be. I'm tired of seeing Actors get shafted by the Studios. It's not fair.
The Matrix Reloaded was missing Tanks Fire and Emotion. He was a definite loss here. Look at the reviews. They screwed the pooch on this one.
The Matrix Reloaded was missing Tanks Fire and Emotion. He was a definite loss here. Look at the reviews. They screwed the pooch on this one.
05-22-03, 11:10 PM
#72
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After reading that letter and seeing the lawsuit, Chong is starting to remind me a lot of a wrestler known as The Ultimate Warrior. He too overestimated his importance to an organization and now posts incoherent ramblings on a website.
05-22-03, 11:40 PM
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Originally posted by hmurchison
Damn how rich does Silver and the Wachowski need to be. I'm tired of seeing Actors get shafted by the Studios. It's not fair.
The Matrix Reloaded was missing Tanks Fire and Emotion. He was a definite loss here. Look at the reviews. They screwed the pooch on this one.
Damn how rich does Silver and the Wachowski need to be. I'm tired of seeing Actors get shafted by the Studios. It's not fair.
The Matrix Reloaded was missing Tanks Fire and Emotion. He was a definite loss here. Look at the reviews. They screwed the pooch on this one.
the guy could have been smart about it and talked to them without making an ass out of himself. His demands were too much and his importance was very little.
