Speed Racer (2008 film)

Speed Racer is an American-Australian-German 2008 action film and the live-action film adaptation of the 1960's 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 named Arnold Royalton 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 Wachowskis who also serve as co-producers. It had been in development since 1992, changing writers and directors. Finally, they and producer Joel Silver 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 Wachowskis 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 premiered on May 3, 2008 as the closing film at the Tribeca Film Festival, and went 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: Arnold Royalton
 * John Benfield: Cruncher Block
 * Werner Daehn: Sempre Fi-Ber leader
 * Christian Oliver: Snake Oiler
 * Kick Gurry: Sparky
 * Paulie Litt: Spritle
 * Rain: Taejo Togokahn
 * Yu Nan: Horuko Togokahn
 * Karl Yune: Togokahn security head
 * Joon Park: Yakuza driver
 * Nicholas Elia: Young Speed