So I’ve got a rough playlist of music to try out. I won’t just be replacing the featured pieces; I’m considering pieces where to replace the existing score in places too.

“On the Run”, by Pink Floyd, for the rooftop chase, as mentioned
“Mammagamma”, by the Alan Parsons Project, to replace “Dissolved Girl”
“The Dark Side”, by Muse, in the fetish club
“Zer0 Gravity”, by Code Elektro, for the car ride to meet Morpheus
“Afterlife”, by Wendy Carlos, for Neo’s awakening in the Real World
“Escape from Midwich Valley”, by Carpenter Brut, to replace “Clubbed to Death”
“Speedboat Night Sweat”, by Swimware, to replace “Prime Audio Soup”
“Torment (Interlude)”, by Alex feat. Tokyo Rose, for Morpheus’ interrogation
“Adrenaline Burst”, by Midnight Danger, to replace “Spybreak!”
“The Dark Side (Alternate Reality Version)”, for Neo’s resurrection as the One
“Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me”, by the Mute Gods, for the last scene and end credits.

All of the above are on Spotify, so you can have a listen to this playlist and let me know what you think.

Some of them seem to work extraordinarily well. “The Dark Side” has repeated chords at the end that can blend very well into Neo’s alarm clock, similar to the original. “Adrenaline Burst” is in the same key as “Torment (Interlude)”, and based around a very similar riff, so follows it very organically. I haven’t tried them all out in terms of syncing to picture yet, but I have high hopes. None have key or tempo changes of the kind that would make cutting them up to fit a problem.

On the other hand, I probably won’t be using “Algorithm” in the movie itself. It’s a brilliant song and very fitting, but too much of a show-stopper. It already sounds like trailer music, so I just might use it as that.

As for actual edits, to the film, here’s what I have in mind so far:

Moving Morpheus’ line “Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself,” to later, after the first scene in the Construct, when he comes to apologise to Neo in his bunk. The idea could be either that it’s impossible to tell the truth inside the Matrix without the Agents finding you, or that the Matrix itself prevents the mind from accepting it. Either way, I prefer it to the idea that they only free kids, and it makes Morpheus’ initial dramatic vagueness more explicable.
Altering the first Construct scene to depict the Machines as using human brains for computing.
Deleting Cypher’s dinner date with Smith. He explains his motives adequately during his Bond-villain monologue, so we don’t need to flag it in advance.
Moving the scene where Cypher and Neo share a drink to earlier, before Neo’s training.
Removing most or all exterior shots of the Nebuchadnezzar and Sentinels. The effects haven’t aged too badly, and the grading I’m doing doesn’t hurt in that regard, but it ought to make the Real World segments feel more claustrophobic, especially at the end when the Sentinels find them.
Deleting Smith exploding. I know it’s kind of an odd choice, but it comes out of nowhere (unlike the rest of that scene, which is all heavily foreshadowed) and the effect has not aged well. I like the idea of the Agents all just running away at the end, and if I do end up doing a sequel edit, it avoids the problem that his second death is basically just his first multiplied by several hundred.
Trimming a few pieces of redundant or “prompting” dialogue here and there.

This isn’t an exhaustive list. I haven’t started the cutting process yet, and more edits will no doubt suggest themselves, but I thought I’d give you an update on where things are at, while we wait for Scott Pilgrim.