Fan Casting The Matrix (2012)

The world is a simulation. To a young person living in the shadow of the Great Recession, that kind of horror resonates. Of course, some things would have to be be changed. After all, what was relevant in 1999 isn't necessarily salient in 2012! The Wachowskis, with all due respect to their fantastic Matrix films, one through four, were Generation X to the core, and with a new millennial vision, the series would be more relevant to a social media-adept youth. For one, in high contrast to the hollow optimism promised under 1990s capitalism, the early 2010s saw despair in the wake of America's once-thought-to-be secure financial institutions collapse, leaving a broken youth in its aftermath. Instead, the focus is completely shifted; for one, it's a romance now. Absurd, I know, but consider this: Neo, a lost-and-confused young college graduate, meets Trinity, who seems to know all about the wild dangerous truth of reality and accepts that things WON'T get better. Still, Neo's youthful desire to change things for the better attracts and impresses her, in this epic of two young lovers trying to liberate humanity from the Matrix.