Let’s face it, the only reason anyone cares at all about Speed Racer is because of the car. With the new movie coming soon, you have to be wondering what Speed’s Mach 5 is going to look like taken out of the cartoon and made live action on screen. The answer is… pretty good.
USA Today has been gifted with a first picture of the Mach 5 the Wachowski brothers plan to use in their movie version of the show. That’s it to your right.
Producer Joel Silver says the film will have a retro future look, and the car captures that rather admirably. The odd thing is that it probably won’t spend very much time with its wheels on the pavement. Instead, they’re hoisting it up on a crane and shooting pretty much everything on a blue screen. No real driving for star Emile Hirsch, which sort of takes some of the fun out of it. But this is a movie from the guys who made The Matrix, I guess lots of CGI is to be expected.
One weird note from USA Todays’ piece on the film: Chim Chim will be in the movie. I have no idea how that’s going to work in the context of a live action movie. I think we’d all assumed they’d have the good sense to leave him out, lets this turn into a high-speed episode of ‘BJ and the Bear’. But Chim Chim is in the movie, and he’ll be played by a real monkey. Don’t expected an R-Rated, dark movie like The Matrix. The Wachowskis have gone family friendly.
