By Bassam Tarazi | Image property of respective holders, Hollywood Reporter.
Speed Racer
“Here he comes. Here comes speed racer. He’s a demon on wheels.” I can hear it already!
After being stuck in neutral for far too long, the live-action version of Speed Racer is finally coming to the big screen with Larry and Andy Wachowski behind the wheel for their first directorial work since Matrix Revolutions.
Speed Racer Coming to Big Screen
In case you’ve been living in a cave in Bora Bora for the past decade, the Wachowski brothers are the minds that brought you The Matrix and the following two movies that made up the Matrix trilogy but aren’t worth repeating ever again. The Wachowski Brothers will write and direct Speed Racer and team up with Matrix producer, Joel Silver once again. The pillaging didn’t stop with Silver, however. Matrix alums Grant Hill and John Gaeta will also be joining the creative team on Speed Racer. The former was the executive producer on the “Matrix” series and the latter, the Oscar winning visual effects supervisor.
The movie will of course be based on the animated classic created by the great Tatsuo Yoshida. Along with the exploits of Speed Racer himself and his “I-have-more-gadgets-than-Bond’s-Aston-Martin-DB7”, Mach 5, we will be joined by other members of the original show including Speed’s family and the ever dark, Racer X. No news yet on if we’ll get to see Speed’s pet chimp, “Chim Chim” and who might play the little bugger. I hear that Vern Troyer might need some work, though.
This movie has been talked about since practically the time Clinton first took office but never could really take shape. Back in 2004, even Vince Vaughn tried to pitch the role of Racer X to Silver but to no avail. It wasn’t until Silver worked with the Wachowski’s on V for Vendetta did the project finally take flight and now seems to be set for a summer 2008 release. If we know anything about the Wachowski brothers, we know that they like to be innovative. In order to undertake this role they felt that they would need to take the racing scenes to a new stratosphere, figuratively speaking of course.
However, if you were looking for another metal wielding, murder infested, R-rated jaunt along the likes of the Matrix Trilogy or V for Vendetta you are going to be sorely disappointed for Speed Racer will be a family movie, according to Silver.
Add to Heffee!
