“Speed Racer” Heads To The Big Screen
The green flag will be waved on May 9 next year. That would be a red date for me. Why? Because my favorite Speed Racer heads to the big screen. And it is enough reason for me to be happy.
It would be nice to follow the escapades of Speed, a young race car driver in his quest for success in his stunningly fast car – Mach 5.
According to Anime News Network, the movie is a Warner Bros. Pictures presentation, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, of a Silver Pictures Production. The movie stars Emile Hirsch as Speed, Christina Ricci as girlfriend Trixie and Matthew Fox as Racer X, Speed’s older brother.
“We have been excited about ‘Speed Racer’ since we first announced the project. We see it as a movie with broad-based, worldwide appeal—from adults to teens to families—making it the perfect film to lead off our exciting 2008 Summer slate. We want to give ‘Speed Racer’ the maximum playability throughout the season, so moving it up to the earliest possible date made the most sense,” Dan Fellman, President of Domestic Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures.
Kwan-Rubinek, President of International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures, added: “Opening ‘Speed Racer’ day-and-date with the U.S. in most international markets will not only allow audiences to see the film early but will maximize business before the start of the European Soccer Championships.”
“Speed Racer” is being written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, marking the brothers’ first writing/directing collaboration since their groundbreaking “Matrix” movies. The film is being produced by Joel Silver under his Silver Pictures banner.
Hirsch was 6 years old when he saw his first episode of “Speed Racer” cartoon and caught a glimpse of the Mach 5. “It was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen,” Hirsch told The Army Times. “That’s when I started thinking it would be great to be on TV. And have one of those.”
Sixteen years after, Hirsch finally got behind the wheel of the Mach 5. “My first thought was, ‘Yeah, they got the car right,’ ” he says. “That’s one of the best things about the show, so it was always going to be one of the most important parts of the movie.”
Andy and Larry Wachowski, the brothers who are making their first directorial job since The Matrix trilogy, grew up on the famous 1960s Japanese cartoon about the adventures of a racing family — and a chimpanzee called Chim Chim. “They’re using a real monkey,” Hirsch says. “Just don’t call him that. He’s a chimpanzee. He gets upset if you call him a monkey.”
“The TV show was the brothers’ introduction to Japanese animation,” says Joel Silver, producer of Racer and the Matrix films. “They fell in love with the genre. They said they’d been making R-rated movies their whole lives and wanted to do something their nephews and nieces could watch.”
“Speed Racer will have a “retro future” look and will center on Speed (Hirsch) trying to make a name for himself in the racing world despite the efforts of corporate giants to foil his career,” concludes Silver. “Racer is going to be very bright, very family-friendly. And it will have great effects like TheMatrix, just with the car.”
