Is probably is Speed Racer. From EW: “But back to Speed Racer (No. 2), which banked less than half of what many in Hollywood had originally expected it would earn over the course of its premiere weekend. Leaked word that the film was tracking poorly coupled with particularly weak reviews made this outcome visible from way down the road.
The movie is a wreck on the level of recent memorable summer failures like Kingdom of Heaven (which opened with $19.6 mil) and Poseidon ($22.2 mil) — at the domestic box office, at least. Overseas, well, that’s another (possibly sadder) story. While would-be blockbusters that fail domestically usually have a chance to recoup their costs in foreign multiplexes (the aforementioned Kingdom of Heaven and Poseidon both did just that), there are reports that Speed Racer may have gotten a flat tire at the international box office as well; the dust still has to settle before we know the full story there.”
The movie has been getting mixed reviews and most of the bad reviews are along the lines of “I just don’t know what to make of the movie.” The reviewers I trust all seem to agree that the movie, while difficult to sit through, is certainly an interesting kids movie. One that we’ve never seen before or will seen nothing else like it for a long time. The opening weekend pretty much kills any notion of a sequel.
Truth be told, I think most people sitting on the fence just decided to wait for it on DVD. Like myself. Not even the first seven minutes of the movie made me interested enough to drop the money to see this thing. But it did make me excited to rent it in four months.
Thanks to Matt for the heads up. Nashville’s De Novo Dahl were approached by producers of Speed Racer to pen a version of the iconoclastic theme song for the upcoming Wachowski Siblings’s movie.
This version is about a million times better than the one the Wachowskis picked. Different, but still full of pep and the spirit of the original. Mostly, the song doesn’t suck. It actually sorta rocks.
Hard to believe after the two international trailers were dropped last weekend, but this new trailer actually makes The Wachowski Brother’s Speed Racer look like it could be good. This trailer is a bit more refined and much less hyper kinetic than all the other trailers. It’s a little easier to tell just what is going on and get a better feel for the action-adventure storyline.
Yeah, it’s still hard to realize that the directors have essentially made a live action cartoon, but that’s a pretty neat premise and takes some real courage to pull off. At the very least it’s way more interesting approach to this property than a straight adaptation.
Though people with epilepsy should probably steer clear of this flick.
Warner Brothers has released two new international trailers for the upcoming Speed Racer. My brain tells me yes, but my heart tells me know. It’s hard to understand exactly what Andy and Larry Wachowski are going for in this movie. It’s obviously trying to be a live action anime movie, which is so crazy of an idea. You almost wonder if they’ve ever seen an anime movie before. Those things are just plain weird when you really think about it.
This thing premiered on Entertainment Tonight and for the first time in a long while they got me to watch the show. Except they didn’t really premiere the trailer and they stupid hosts kept talking over the footage. Anyway, after seeing this thing, it’s evident the Wachowski’s are operating on a plain of existence separate from the rest of us. Speed Racer isn’t so much a live action cartoon as a trippy, dayglow fall into the rabbit hole.
I’m not even sure how to explain what I’ve just seen, but I think it looks cool. Some might think this looks stupid and too “videogame-ish” and I wouldn’t disagree, but I’ll reserve judgement until I see more. It’s almost refreshing to see a family-friendly G-Rated movie that doesn’t look like anything from Pixar, Disney, Dreamworks Animation, etc.
Entertainment Tonight was on the set of the Wachowski Brother’s new movie Speed Racer. A trailer for this family-friendly live action anime tale should be hitting screens real soon. In the meantime take a tour of the set and give a gander at some of the cars. Matthew Fox even appears at the end of the video in costume as the mysterious, well only mysterious for those that have never seen the cartoon, Racer X.
Dang it if the Wachowski Bros. didn’t just stick the landing on the design of the Mach 5. It looks exactly like you’d want it to look. I want to drive this thing right now!
USA Today got the scoop along with some interesting quotes from the film’s star, Emile Hirsch, who is currently in Germany gearing up for the shoot.
“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.”
A car that will not see much time on pavement. The Mach 5 will be placed on a crane and most effects will be computer-generated.
One real effect, though: 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.”
Producer Joel Silver also indicated that the Wachowski Bros. are keeping with Speed Racer’s free-thinking rubber burning rebel ways.
“The TV show was the brothers’ introduction to Japanese animation,” says Joel Silver, a friend of the press-shy Wachowskis and 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.”
The film, Silver says, 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. The film also stars Christina Ricci as girlfriend Trixie and Matthew Fox as Speed’s older brother, Racer X.
Great stuff all around. This is developing into yet another must movie in 2008.
Growing up we were suckers for the 60’s anime classic Speed Racer. It aired on MTV at 6:30 a.m. and paired up with Beavis and Butthead at 7 a.m., made rolling our asses out of bed well worth it.The show centered on a young car racer, his pet monkey, his father the mechanic,Trixie his girlfriend and his nemesis the shady Racer X. The show was just gripping enough in an oddly compelling, oddly humorous way in the half-hour cartoon format, but you could tell there was always the potential for a big screen adaptation. It seemed like a relic, something that landed from another planet. Which maybe for a young person growing up, that’s exactly what Japan is. Another planet with strange cartoons.
The Wachowski Brothers, cooling their heels after directing the Matrix Trilogy and producing V for Vendetta, have gotten back into directing and they’ve decided to sink their teeth into producer Joel Silver’s Speed Racer. They seem to be an odd choice for the G-rated family friendly affair. Right out of the gate it’s been rumored to be a green screen flick, similar to Sin City and 300. Which, we hope will be a wise choice, if not an interesting one. I wonder if they’ll go realistic or with a anime stylized look.
Now word comes that two actors have joined Emile Hirsch (Speed Racer), John Goodman (Pops Racer) and Susan Sarandon (Moms Racer) in the cast. Finding a repreive from the island, Lost’sMatthew Fox is stepping into the racing leathers of the mysterious Racer X. And after her sexy turn as nymphomaniac in Craig Brewer’s Black Snake Moan, one of our favorite hotties (despite her rather ginormous forehead), Christina Ricci will be playing Speed’s girlfriend Trixie.
Speed Racer is expected to start lensing this summer in Berlin for a 2008 release. We’re hoping they keep the old theme song, or if they have to update only do so minimally. Enjoy the interview with star Emile Hirsch, in which he describes the look of the film as Blade Runner meets Andy Warhol pop art. Hmmmm….
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