Speed Racer is an upcoming 2008 film that is a live action film adaptation of the 1960s Japanese anime series Speed Racer. The film is written and directed by the Wachowski brothers who also serve as co-producers.
The film had been in development since 1992, changing writers and directors until producer Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers collaborated to begin production on Speed Racer as a family film so the directors could reach a wider audience. Actor Emile Hirsch was cast as Speed, the hero of the animated series, and Christina Ricci portrays Speed’s girlfriend, Trixie.
Speed Racer was produced in Germany at Babelsberg Studios, where filming took place entirely against greenscreen. The Wachowski brothers also filmed in high-definition video for the first time, using a layering method to put both the foreground and the background of scenes in focus to have a real-life anime appearance.
Marketers have prepared toys and video games to coincide with the film’s release. Speed Racer will premiere on May 3, 2008 as the closing film at the Tribeca Film Festival, and will go on general release on May 9, 2008.
The Synopsis
Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is a young man with natural racing instincts whose goal is to win The Crucible, a cross-country car racing rally that took the life of his older brother, Rex Racer (Scott Porter). Speed is loyal to the family business, run by his parents Pops (John Goodman) and Mom (Susan Sarandon).
Pops designed Speed’s car, the Mach 5. The owner of Royalton Industries (Roger Allam) makes Speed a lucrative offer, but Speed rejects the offer, angering the owner. Speed also uncovers a secret that top corporate interests, including Royalton, are fixing races and cheating to gain profit.
With the offer to Speed denied, Royalton wants to ensure that Speed will not win races. Speed finds support from his parents and his girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci) and enters The Crucible in a partnership with his one-time rival, Racer X (Matthew Fox), seeking to rescue his family’s business and the racing sport itself.
Speed Racer Movie Project History
In September 1992, Warner Bros. Pictures announced that it held the option to create a live action film adaptation of Speed Racer, in development at Silver Pictures.[18] In October 1994, singer Henry Rollins was offered the role of Racer X in the film. In June 1995, actor Johnny Depp was cast into the lead role for Speed Racer, with production slated to begin the coming October, with filming to take place in California and Arizona. The following August, Depp requested time off to the studio for personal business, delaying production. However, due to a high budget, the same August, director Julien Temple, who was attached to direct Speed Racer, left the project. Depp, without a director, also departed from the project. The studio considered director Gus Van Sant as a replacement for Temple, though it would not grant writing privileges to Van Sant. In December 1997, the studio briefly hired director Alfonso Cuarón for Speed Racer. In the various incarnations of the project, screenwriters Marc Levin, Jennifer Flackett, J. J. Abrams, and Patrick Read Johnson had been hired to write scripts.
In September 2000, Warner Bros. Pictures and producer Lauren Shuler Donner hired writer-director Hype Williams to take the helm of Speed Racer. In October 2001, the studio hired screenwriters Christian Gudegast and Paul Scheuring for $1.2 million split between them to write a script for the film. Eventually, without production going underway, the director and the writers left the project. In June 2004, actor Vince Vaughn spearheaded a revival of the project by presenting a take for the film that would develop the characters more strongly. Vaughn was cast as Racer X and was also attached to the project as an executive producer. With production never becoming active, Vaughn was eventually detached from the project
In October 2006, directors Larry and Andy Wachowski were brought on board by the studio to write and direct Speed Racer. Producer Joel Silver, who had collaborated with the Wachowski brothers for V for Vendetta and The Matrix Trilogy, explained that the brothers were hoping to reach a broader audience with a film that would not be rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. Visual effects designer John Gaeta, who won an Academy Award for Visual Effects for the Wachowski brothers’ The Matrix, was brought in to help conceive making Speed Racer into a live-action adaptation. Production was set to begin in summer 2007 in European locations for a summer 2008 release. In November 2006, the release date for Speed Racer was set for May 23, 2008. Producer Joel Silver described Speed Racer as a family film in line with the Wachowski brothers’ goal to reach a wider audience.
In February 2007, the Wachowski brothers selected Babelsberg Studios in Germany to film Speed Racer. In the following March, Warner Bros. moved the release date of Speed Racer two weeks earlier to May 9, 2008. The studio received a grant of $12.3 million from Germany’s new Federal Film Fund, the largest yet from the organization, for production of Speed Racer in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. The amount was later increased to $13 million. Filming commenced on June 5, 2007 in Berlin, and was shot entirely against greenscreen, lasting 60 days. The Wachowski brothers filmed in high-definition video for the first time. With the camera, the Wachowskis used a layering approach that would put both the foreground and the background in focus to give it the appearance of real-life anime. The film will have a “retro future” look, according to Silver. The Mach 5, the vehicle driven by the protagonist Speed, was an actual vehicle. Filming completed by August 25, 2007. The Wachowskis purchased the rights to the sound effects and theme song of the television series for use in the film
The Cast of Speed Racer
* Emile Hirsch as Speed Racer. Actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Shia LaBeouf were previously considered for the role. To prepare for the role, Hirsch watched every Speed Racer episode and visited Lowe’s Motor Speedway, where he met with driver Jimmie Johnson.
* John Goodman as Pops Racer, Speed’s father.
* Susan Sarandon as Mom Racer, Speed’s mother.
* Christina Ricci as Trixie, Speed’s girlfriend. Ricci was chosen over Elisha Cuthbert and Kate Mara.
* Scott Porter as Rex Racer, Speed’s older brother.
* Matthew Fox as Racer X, Speed’s rival & speeds brother Rex Racer who was disowned by the family for crashing a car in a race. Keanu Reeves turned down the role.
* Nayo Wallace as Minx, Racer X’s girlfriend.
* Hiroyuki Sanada as Mr. Musha, a businessman.
* Rain as Taejo Togokhan, a rookie racer. Rain is a South Korean pop singer who is making his first appearance in a Hollywood film with Speed Racer.
* Yu Nan as the sister of Taejo Togokhan.
* Richard Roundtree as Ben Burns, a commentator who was formerly a racer.
* Benno Fürmann as Inspector Detector.
* Roger Allam as Royalton, the corrupt owner of Royalton Industries.
* Kick Gurry as Sparky, Speed’s mechanic.
* Paulie Litt as Spritle, Speed’s younger brother.
* A chimpanzee as Chim Chim, Spritle’s pet. Two chimpanzees were used to portray Chim Chim: Kenzie and Willy. In July 2007, PETA contacted Speed Racer producer Joel Silver about reports that the chimpanzee had been beaten and had also bitten one of the actors and encouraged production to switch to animatronics. A studio spokesperson confirmed that an actor had been bitten, but the actor was treated and the chimpanzee was given a rest. The studio denied to PETA that the chimpanzee had been mistreated, saying that the decision would remain to use live animals in production.
* Melvil Poupaud as a race commentator.
* Christian Oliver as Snake Oiler.
* Milka Duno as Gearbox.
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