I have to say that I really like the look of the car. When I heard they were revealing how the car looked in the movie I was waiting for a surprise. The only surprise is how accurate the Mach 5 looks to the original.
“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.
Like the Matrix films and the Wachowski-produced V for Vendetta, Racer “has a lot to say about remaining independent and thinking for yourself,” Hirsch says. “The brothers weren’t just looking to do the TV show on film.”
Unlike those darker movies, Racer “is going to be very bright, very family-friendly,” Silver says. “And it will have great effects like TheMatrix, just with the car.”
So the assumption that this Speed Racer incarnation would be a wild futuristic gritty dark take just went out the window.
Half of me is glad. That wouldnt be very true to the original cartoon, and frankly I like that the Brothers Wachowski are not going to pigeonhole themselves into a specific style of movies.
The other half of me is kinda wishing we could have seen a wild super ride of futuristic racers. Perhaps there is still a chance that there will be some redemption to the Fast and Furious franchise and we will see F&F: Wachowski Drift.
