Speed Racer (2008 film)

Speed Racer is a live action film adaptation of the 1960s Japanese animated series Speed Racer.

Plot
Speed Racer is a young man with natural racing instincts whose goal is to win The Crucible, a cross-country car racing rally that took the life of his older brother, Rex Racer. Speed is loyal to the family business, run by his parents Pops and Mom. Pops designed Speed's car, the Mach 5. The owner of Royalton Industries makes Speed a lucrative offer, but Speed rejects the offer, angering the owner. Speed also uncovers a secret that top corporate interests, including Royalton, are fixing races and cheating to gain profit. With the offer to Speed denied, Royalton wants to ensure that Speed will not win races. Speed finds support from his parents and his girlfriend Trixie and enters The Crucible in a partnership with his one-time rival, Racer X, seeking to rescue his family's business and the racing sport itself.

Behind the Scenes
The film is written and directed by The Wachowski Brothers who also serve as co-producers. It has been in development since 1992, changing writers and directors. Finally, producer Joel Silver and The Wachowski Brothers collaborated to begin production on Speed Racer as a family film so the directors could reach a wider audience.

Speed Racer was produced in Germany at Babelsberg Studios, where filming took place entirely against greenscreen. The Wachowski brothers also filmed in high-definition video for the first time, using a layering method to put both the foreground and the background of scenes in focus to have a real-life anime appearance. Marketers have prepared toys and video games to coincide with the film's release. Speed Racer will premiere on May 3, 2008 as the closing film at the Tribeca Film Festival, and will go on general release on May 9, 2008.

Cast

 * Emile Hirsch: Speed Racer
 * Susan Sarandon: Mom Racer
 * John Goodman: Pops Racer
 * Scott Porter: Rex Racer
 * Matthew Fox: Racer X
 * Christina Ricci: Trixie
 * Richard Roundtree: Ben Burns
 * Kenzie and Willy: Chim Chim
 * Benno Fürmann: Inspector Detector
 * Peter Fernandez: Local announcer
 * Nayo Wallace: Minx
 * Hiroyuki Sanada: Mr. Musha
 * Melvil Poupaud: Race commentator
 * Roger Allam: Royalton
 * Werner Daehn: Sempre Fi-Ber leader
 * Christian Oliver: Snake Oiler
 * Kick Gurry: Sparky
 * Paulie Litt: Spritle
 * Rain: Taejo Togokhan
 * Yu Nan: Horuko Togokhan
 * Karl Yune: Togokhan security head
 * Joon Park: Yakuza driver
 * Nicholas Elia: Young Speed