Speed Racer is a 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 has 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. Actor Emile Hirsch was cast as Speed, the hero of the animated series, and Christina Ricci portrays Speed’s girlfriend, Trixie. Speed Racer was shot between June and November 2007 in Potsdam and Berlin, Germany at an estimated budget of $120,000,000.[2] Speed Racer premiered on May 3, 2008 as the closing film at the Tribeca Film Festival,[3] and was released on May 9, 2008.
Cast
- Emile Hirsch as Speed Racer. Actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zac Efron, and Shia LaBeouf were previously considered for the role.[5] To prepare for the role, Hirsch watched every Speed Racer episode and visited Lowe’s Motor Speedway, where he met with driver Jimmie Johnson.[6]
- Nicholas Elia as young Speed Racer.
- John Goodman as Pops Racer, Speed’s father.[7]
- Susan Sarandon as Mom Racer, Speed’s mother.[7]
- Christina Ricci as Trixie, Speed’s girlfriend. Ricci was chosen over Elisha Cuthbert and Kate Mara.[5]
- Ariel Winter as young Trixie.
- Paulie Litt as Spritle, Speed’s younger brother.[7]
- Matthew Fox as Racer X [7] Keanu Reeves turned down the role.[8]
- Nayo Wallace as Minx, Racer X’s girlfriend.[9]
- Hiroyuki Sanada as Mr. Musha, a businessman.[7]
- Rain as Taejo Togokhan,[7] a rookie racer. Rain made his first appearance in a Hollywood film with Speed Racer.[10]
- Yu Nan as the sister of Taejo Togokhan.[11]
- Richard Roundtree as Ben Burns, a commentator who was formerly a racer.[12]
- Benno Fürmann as Inspector Detector.[7]
- Roger Allam as Royalton, the corrupt owner of Royalton Industries.[4]
- Kick Gurry as Sparky, Speed’s mechanic.[7]
- Scott Porter as Rex Racer, Speed’s older brother.[13]
- A chimpanzee as Chim Chim, Spritle’s pet.[14] Two chimpanzees were used to portray Chim Chim: Kenzie and Willy.[15]
- Melvil Poupaud as a race commentator.[16]
- Christian Oliver as Snake Oiler.[17]
- Milka Duno as Gearbox.[18]
- Peter Fernandez as a race commentator. (Cameo, original voice of Speed)
Production
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.[31] In November 2006, the release date for Speed Racer was set for May 23, 2008.[32] Producer Joel Silver described Speed Racer as a family film in line with the Wachowski brothers’ goal to reach a wider audience.[33]
In February 2007, the Wachowski brothers selected Babelsberg Studios in Germany to film Speed Racer.[34] In the following March, Warner Bros. moved the release date of Speed Racer two weeks earlier to May 9, 2008.[35] 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.[36] The amount was later increased to $13 million.[37] Filming commenced on June 5, 2007 in Berlin,[33] and was shot entirely against greenscreen,[38] lasting 60 days.[15] The Wachowski brothers filmed in high-definition video for the first time.[39] 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.[40] 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.[14] Filming completed by August 25, 2007.[41] The Wachowskis purchased the rights to the sound effects and theme song of the television series for use in the film.[40]
Animal abuse on set
Animal rights group PETA claimed that a whistleblower on the set of Speed Racer reported that a chimpanzee used in the production was beaten after biting an actor.[42] The incident was confirmed by the American Humane Animal Safety Representative on the set, who reported that the stand-in for the Spritle character was bitten without provocation. The AHA representative also reported that “toward the end of filming, during a training session in the presence of the American Humane Representative, the trainer, in an uncontrolled impulse, hit the chimpanzee.” The AHA Film Unit referred to this abuse as “completely inexcusable and unacceptable behavior in the use of any animal.” The AHA has rated Speed Racer “Unacceptable.”[43]
