Variety reports straight from Matrix producer Joel Silver’s office the revised filming schedule for the two sequels. Silver told the trade magazine that the potential actors and writers’ strikes have forced the production to now shoot stateside. Once the strike is over, production will then shift to Australia as was the original plan.
Variety lays out the plan-of-attack: the sequels will lens in Oakland, CA. for twelve weeks, starting mid-March. That would bring them up to about mid-June and the edge of the potential actors strike that could start July 1st. If the strike hits, the production then shifts to post-production work on the scenes they’ve got in the can (i.e special effects.) Then, if the strike lasts for a few months, filming will begin again by early fall down under.
That’s if the actors strike happens, and if it does, it goes on no longer than three months.