As secretive as they generally are about both their personal lives and their work, the Wachowski siblings have made a lot of vague news over the past few years as they figured out their next step after the disappointing Speed Racer. First Arianna Huffington spilled the beans that she was working with them on some kind of futuristic documentary, then word got out that they wanted to make a modern-day Robin Hood story. Then, as it turned out, their actual next film became Cloud Atlas, an adaptation of the massive novel that they are now co-directing with Tom Tykwer.

Cloud Atlas is already hotly anticipated, and with its literary trappings and fantastic cast, it has the potential to bring the Wachowskis back from the genre rut they hit with the two disappointing Matrix sequels and the messy Speed Racer. Now they're using those high expectations to put together the film they'll work on after this one. Deadline reports that Andy and Lana Wachowski are now planning work on Jupiter Ascending, a new sci-fi film and franchise hopeful that apparently has Warner Bros. already thinking on a Matrix-sized scale. We first heard about them developing the project over the summer when they were calling it Jupiter Rising and, typically weren't telling us any details about the project.

Apparently the Wachowskis want to cast an A-list star in the lead role, and though their Cloud Atlas cast is dynamite, including Tom Hanks, Hugo Weaving, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant and Susan Sarandon, they're probably thinking along even bigger lines. Actors probably are too-- Keanu Reeves is set for life thanks to the money he brought in from The Matrix. Regardless of how Cloud Atlas turns out, Warner Bros. seems enthusiastic about Jupiter Ascending, and anyone still optimistic about what the Wachowskis can bring to sci-fi ought to be as well.