‘Speed Racer’ Website Gaining on You, so You Better Look Alive!

Author: admin

17 Mar

… Although, at this point, it’s still kind of revving in the starter’s gate. The Wachowski-crafted adaptation of the well-loved anime series is fully cast, but the just-unveiled official site for the film mostly has a plethora of audio, video, and photo material … all from the May 31st Berlin press conference featuring producer Joel Silver, star Emile Hirsch, co-star Christina Ricci, the film’s bad guy Matthew Fox and other members of the cast (and, notably, not the actual Wachowskis themselves, which is actually typical for the press-shy Larry and Andy Wachowski.) The site’s got some pretty sweet photos of the Mach 5, though — and bear in mind, for a film that won’t be hitting theaters until May 2008, any information is impressive.

Whether you’re a hard-core Speed Racer fan or you have a more casual level of interest in the project — like, the idea of the Wachowskis directing a racing film where things go really fast seems appealing — there’s plenty of information at the site nonetheless. You get extensive information on the international co-financing of the production, the suggestion that a lot of the action will happen virtually as opposed to on-set and confirmation of the fact that coolest man alive Richard Roundtree is in the cast. There’s still no word on who’ll get to perform the iconic theme song (which, to me, is the best thing about Speed Racer) but if anyone from the production’s reading, Matthew Sweet’s 1995 take on the theme (on a fairly rare EP) still holds up (although we’ll probably get Maroon 5 or Nickelback or some other worst-case scenario …)