In the late 90s and early 2000s, after the phenomenon that was The Matrix, the Wachowski sisters were looked at as visionary movie gods. But nobody idolized the sisters more than Warner Bros., which is hardly surprising considering the hundreds of millions of dollars that the sisters made for the studio.
Because of this, the studio and the sisters were working together on so many projects, but so few of them actually came to fruition despite sounding so intriguing. There are so many other far more fascinating projects that the sisters could have worked on instead of the newly released and polarizing The Matrix Resurrections.
Plastic Man
Way before The Matrix, and even before they made Bound, the Wachowski sisters had written an adaptation of the comic book Plastic Man. It's one of many superhero properties the sisters took a huge interest in, and it's the first that came very close to being made.
The script has leaked online for fans of the sisters that want to read it, and it's a surprisingly captivating take on a character that nobody would ordinarily have any interest in. It's unknown as to why the movie never got made, but given the neverending rise in popularity of comic book movies, it's even more surprising that Warner Bros. hasn't resurrected the project.
Carnivore
As the Wachowskis' directorial debut was Bound, a gritty thriller about a criminal underworld, their potential follow-up, Carnivore, would have been more in keeping with that style than what followed.
Carnivore was the first screenplay that the Wachowskis wrote, and it sounded like it could have been a classic low-budget horror movie. The story follows a group of cannibals going around eating billionaires, and ever since it was written, it has been in and out of talks of being produced.
Hood
It's almost like a rite of passage in Hollywood that to be considered a true, established filmmaker, they have to be attached to a Robin Hood movie at one point or another. And the Wachowskis are no different, as they were working on Hood, their own modern take on the source material, in 2010. They even got as far as potential casting, as they were considering Will Smith to play the main role.
It might be worth studios throwing in the towel when it comes to Robin Hood, as the past two attempts at adapting it have been miserable failures. And as one of them was directed by Ridley Scott, it doesn't seem to matter how good of a director it is at the helm.
Hard Boiled
It wasn't long after the release of The Matrix that the Wachowskis were eyeing up a Frank Miller's graphic novel for a movie adaptation. But surprisingly, after having revolutionized action movies, the sisters wanted to make Hard Boiled completely animated.
There have been so many great movies based on Miller's graphic novels, and Hard Boiled could have been one of them. The comic book has a fascinating premise, as it follows an insurance investigator who finds out he's actually a homicidal cyborg. Unfortunately, Miller had the project canceled because he didn't want to see an animated version of his story.
King Conan: Crown Of Iron
Though Conan The Barbarian is a classic 80s Schwarzenegger movie, the same can't be said for its 1984 sequel, and that's why Warner Bros. was looking to take the franchise in a new direction in the 2000s. It seems like Warner Bros. wanted the Wachowskis to spearhead all of their IPs in the 2000s. Along with Batman: Year One, in the same year, the studio was working with the sisters to reboot Conan.
The sisters attempted to work on the reboot and the two Matrix sequels at the same time, which is a workload no director would envy. They got as far as naming the movie King Conan: Crown of Iron, but then seemingly lost interest in the project.
Batman: Year One
There have been so many directors who almost helmed a Batman movie, whether it's the Coen brothers or Ben Affleck, and the Wachowskis came incredibly close too. The Wachowskis are clearly huge fans of Frank Miller's work, as not only did they want to bring Hard Boiled to the big screen, but they also wanted to adapt Miller's Batman: Year One.
There are rumors that it was actually Warner Bros. who lured the sisters into the project and that they had full control. Though filmmaker Darren Aronofsky was working on adapting the comic book, the studio thought it'd be more successful with the Matrix creators at the helm. However, they eventually parted ways with the project to focus on turning The Matrix into a franchise.
Shaolin Cowboy And The Tomb Of Doom
Being big fans of comic books, in 2008, the Wachowskis set their sights on Shaolin Cowboy, which is about a Shaolin monk who is well versed in martial arts and has a hit on his head. The movie adaptation was again set to be animated and the sisters had titled the film Shaolin Cowboy and the Tomb of Doom, which almost sounds like a martial arts-themed Indiana Jones movie.
However, according to Comic Book Resources, the movie was eventually canned due to a lack of funding. But that comes as a surprise, as Warner Bros. seemingly throws hundreds of millions at the sisters for any of their ideas.
Speed Racer 2
Speed Racer was the first movie the sisters directed after they closed the doors on the Matrix series, and it could have been the beginning of another massive franchise. Before the release of the movie, there were talks between the studio and the Wachowskis about making a sequel. And it makes sense, as there are still questions fans have about certain scenes that could have been answered in another movie.
But in the end, it's no surprise there wasn't a follow-up, as Speed Racer flopped and it lost Warner Bros. a lot of money. However, though Speed Racer was a box office bomb and wasn't so well received by critics, the 2008 movie does have a surprisingly large fanbase, and many would love to see a sequel.
Cobalt Neural 9
In 2009, Arianna Huffington, of all people, got fans excited by tweeting that she was on the set of a Wachowskis movie that was "about Iraq from the perspective of the future." That movie was Cobalt Neural 9, which would apparently start in the future and play in reverse until it ends in the present day. It was also planned to be centered around a homosexual relationship between a US soldier and an Iraqi, but it was again canceled due to problems with funding.
Out of all their unrealized projects, Cobalt Neural 9 is one of the few that's an original idea and not based on a comic book or existing property. But even more interestingly, it sounds more fascinating than any of the sisters' other original ideas outside of The Matrix, unrealized or otherwise.