For those of you who were curious on how the Wachowski brothers would be approaching Speed Racer, it turns out that somebody has seen the script and is quite happy with what they had read.
Monkey Trouble on the Set of Speed Racer
The good people at AICN have posted a script review of Speed Racer that, though points out some minor complaints, claims the film is running on 96 octane:
I guess this is where I tell you that the script of the Wachowski Brothers' SPEED RACER is indicative of what I just described, but you'd be wrong. Simply put, for the most part, SPEED RACER kicks unholy ass. In this draft I've read, there's some mistakes that cut the flow of the action sequences, and it's too long, but what they got right, they got spectacularly right.
When I read this early draft, it took me right back. The enigmatic Racer X? Check. Spridel and Chim-Chim hiding in the trunk? Check. The Mach-5 jumping over cars to avoid certain death? Check. Trixie spotting the race from her pink helicopter? Check. Those insane car races with everything and the kitchen sink thrown in? Check. This film, as described by the script, comes straight out of the television show. This isn't some "re-imagining." It's not dark for the sake of being dark. It's the cartoon, in live-action, very much oriented towards family audiences. No long pieces of dialogue dripping with quantum philosophy here. For a 160+ page script (too long, but I'll get to that in a bit) it's mostly very tight.
It begins with young Speed Racer in school...
The review, while highlighting the story's achievements, does give away some plot elements, so tread carefully.
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