The Wachowskis have been working on some new films and have narrowed their next project down to two, one of which is the cryptically titled Cobalt Neural 9, which we now find out is an Iraqi War Gay Lovestory.
Vulture dishes the spoilers You have been warned!
First, if you don’t understand the title, don’t worry: Our spies who read the screenplay tell us it’s gibberish designed to inspire debate as to its meaning; it appears nowhere in the actual script.
Secondly, part of the film takes place in the future all right — nearly a hundred from now. But its main story is told in Cloverfield-esque flashbacks by digital archeologists sorting through “found footage” from CNN and chips from old digital cameras from the US occupation of Iraq. The heroes are indeed a gay American soldier named (with little irony) “Butch” and an Iraqi soldier turned militant. Butch is endearing, young, and a ravishingly handsome Marine. Our spies tell us that he, “just wants to fuck and kill everything” in Iraq — until, that is, he falls in love with the Iraqi.
The two meet while Butch is on a combat patrol in Iraq during the second Gulf War, and soon enough, the two are engaged in graphically-described sex (actual line from the script: “They rut like animals behind this fence”) albeit while disguised in burqas. The two soldiers’ relationship blossoms, and Butch begins to get to know his lover’s family. But after he inadvertently draws attention to their ancestral home, disaster strikes. This tragedy radicalizes the pair and they become convinced that the only way to rid the world of evil is to kill the architect of the invasion, the then-President of the United States, George W. Bush. And so, during one of the president’s secret sorties to Iraq, they attempt to assassinate him.
The Wachowski’s have always walked to the beat of their own drummer, so not surprised they made this a gay story instead of just a cross cultural story. But I would have to see how it plays out with people from 100 years in the future looking back “found footage” style.
This is likely their next film unless the adaptation of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas gets financing first. Atlas already has a number of leads on standby like Halle Berry, Tom Hanks, and Natalie Portman, who are all attached, and James McAvoy, who has an offer outstanding.
