Information URL: http://www.geocities.com/cobweb_films/computerboy.html


Metro has often been appalled by the bloated budgets of Hollywood blockbusters. Now an 18-year-old film-maker from Newtown has laid bare Tinsel Town's shameless profligacy by making his own version of The Matrix - which was rumoured to have cost more than $100 million - for $2,500(AUS)!
Forsythe, who has seen The Matrix three times, was inspired by spoofs of The Blair Witch Project and his own irritation at Matrix audiences who ooh-ed and aah-ed when they recognised chunks of their own city on the silver screen.

He admits he had to cut a few corners to bring Computer Boy in under budget. Besides writing and directing, he took on the role of Agent Smith, the character played by Hugo Weaving in the original.

"I played him as a mixture of Hugh Grant, Dr Evil and Sean Connery," says Forsythe.

Morpheus, the mysterious cyber-guerilla played by Laurence Fishburne, is portrayed by Marcus Pointon. Forsythe says the resemblance is eerie. "He looks just like Fishburne except he's white and from New Zealand."

Not content with paying homage to The Matrix, Forsythe has confidently enhanced the plot. Why the original Matrix doesn't have a chase sequence involving a Wilderness Society koala or action filmed covertly in McDonlads is anyone's guess; Computer Boy has them both.