Speed Racer (2008) on Netflix
Speed Racer drives the Mach 5, the car his father Pops designed for the family business, Racer Motors. Royalton Industries offers him a contract, and his refusal angers the company's owner.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb6.1/1085,074 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes41%
Trailer
Plot summary
Speed Racer is a young man who lives to race. Pops and Mom, his parents, run the family business, Racer Motors. Around the household are Speed's younger brother Spritle, Spritle's pet chimpanzee Chim Chim, the mechanic Sparky, and Speed's girlfriend Trixie. The Mach 5, the car Speed drives, was designed by Pops, and Speed also has his own T-180, the Mach 6. He idolizes Rex, his older brother, who died in a cross-country rally, the Casa Cristo 5000. E.P. Arnold Royalton, who heads Royalton Industries, offers Speed a luxurious life if he races for his company. Speed turns him down, held by his father's distrust of corporations. Angered, Royalton tells him that major races are fixed by corporate interests, his own among them.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Speed Racer (2008)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The project circled Hollywood for years: Henry Rollins was offered Racer X in October 1994, and in June 1995 Johnny Depp was cast as Speed, with shooting due to start that October in California and Arizona.
- Vince Vaughn revived the stalled film in June 2004 by pitching a version with stronger characters, and was cast as Racer X as well as attached as executive producer, but production never started and he drifted away again.
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shia LaBeouf and Zac Efron were all considered for Speed before Emile Hirsch won it; Elisha Cuthbert, Kate Mara and Rose McGowan were considered for Trixie before Christina Ricci; and Keanu Reeves was offered Racer X and declined, leaving the part to Matthew Fox.
- Warner Bros. thought it was getting a safe family picture. Lana Wachowski recalled executives being gleeful about the property, then watching a work-in-progress and asking, "Are you insane? What are you doing? This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen."
- Shooting in Germany paid off handsomely: the Berlin-Brandenburg production drew a $12.3 million grant from Germany's new Federal Film Fund, the largest the fund had yet given, and the sum was later raised to $13 million.
- The whole film was shot against greenscreen in Berlin over 60 days, and it was the Wachowskis' first time working in high-definition video. A week of tests against 35mm and rival digital cameras ended with them choosing a prototype of the newly unveiled Sony CineAlta F23.
- PETA accused the production of animal cruelty, and the American Humane Association representative on set confirmed that a trainer struck one of the two chimpanzees after it bit a child stand-in. The AHA called the act inexcusable and put Speed Racer on its "Unacceptable" list.
- The merchandising campaign was enormous: the Los Angeles Times reckoned Warner Bros. licensed close to 5,000 Speed Racer products, and partners including General Mills, McDonald's, Lego and Mattel put more than $80 million of marketing behind the film.
