WÃ¤hrend Hugo "Agent Smith" Weaving dem bÃ¶sen Robotor Megatron in Michael Bays Verfilmung "Transformers" seine Stimme leihen wird, wurde mittlerweile auch in Sachen "Speed Racer" weiter gearbeitet. Jungstar Emile Hirsch (derzeit in "Alpha Dog" in den Kinos zu sehen) wird die Hauptrolle in der Leinwandadaption der japanischen Zeichentrickserie Ã¼bernehmen und bezeichnet die Vision der Wachowskis in Interviews als "Blade Runner meets Andy Warhol meets Pop Art".
Produzent Joel Silver wiederum definiert "Speed Racer" als groÃŸen Familienfilm und plant bereits mit mindestens einem Sequel davon. Auf Anfragen von Reportern, warum sich die "Matrix"-Macher und "V for Vendetta"-Schreiber gerade mit so etwas beschÃ¤ftigen, antwortete er:
"First of all, they approach everything from a stand point of story and script. Theyâ€™re writers first. So the script they wrote is really spectacular and itâ€™s a really great story and incredible characters. And they were impressed by 'Speed Racer' because it was the first Japanese animation they saw when they were kids. It was the first time they were aware of a different kind of animation, it made them learn about Japanese animation, so itâ€™s kind of seminal, and they always like the idea of the material, so theyâ€™ve always known about it. ... They love Capra movies, they wanted to make a movie that could have real sentiment. And they feel that a lot of the adult films they see or are aware of are very cynical. But they feel that when they come to the family movies, some of the animated movies that we see are, have a great sense of â€“ they feel they return to a kind of filmmaking that they love, so they feel like they can do that in this movie. It doesnâ€™t have to be a cynical story, it can be a movie that is as human and as accessible, and is sentimental. So youâ€™re going to see a kind of real story, and then technologically, youâ€™re going to see things that youâ€™ve never even dreamed of, or youâ€™ve seen before."
Man kann also trotz aller Familientauglichkeit wieder einmal anspruchsvolle Visuelle Effekte und Kameraideen von den Wachowskis erwarten. Der Mach-5 Rennwagen aus der Serie soll im Film jedenfalls schon mal komplett aus dem Rechner entstehen. Es wird damit also dann auch einiges mÃ¶glich sein. Laut Joel Silver seien die Bosse bei Warner Bros. bereits hellauf begeistert von den ersten Test-Bildern:
"I keep showing the studio tests and they sit in their room, and I put the lights down, I show them the test. Everybody just looks at me and they say, â€˜Can you show that to us again?â€™ They canâ€™t believe what theyâ€™re seeing. Itâ€™s just the way theyâ€™re working with images and how theyâ€™re putting it together. Itâ€™s going to be the first HD movie theyâ€™ve ever shot."