Speed Racer

Genre: Action/Adventure/Superhero.

Studio: Warner Brothers.
Production Company: Unknown.

Project Phase: Development Hell.

Who's In It: No one confirmed as yet.
Who's Making It: Alfonso Cuaron (Director); Mark Levin, Jennifer Flackett (Screenwriters, rumored); Lauren Shuler-Donner (Producer); based on the classic Japanese animated series, which was based in turn on the Japanese comic strip, created by Tatsuo Yoshida.

Premise: Speed Racer is one of the top race car drivers in the world, seeking to win while also stopping evil-doers along the way.  He is assisted in his efforts by his family, the mysterious Racer X, and his above-the-top-of-the-line car, the legendary Mach 5.

Release Date: Unknown.

Comments: For a film called Speed Racer, this project's sure been moving pretty slowly towards being greenlighted...

Rumors: Unknown.

Scoop Feedback:

[Page draft submitted by 'Widgett'.]

December 15, 1997... Despite ideas that the project had been put scrapped, Warner Brothers recently announced that Cuaron would be receiving the director's chair. Rumors have indicated that Johnny Depp would be a front runner to play Speed (as opposed to Fear and Loathing, where he is taking speed) and also that Nicholas Cage would be the choice to play Rex/Racer X.

A possible tag line reported to have been mentioned by Donner: "The Fastest Movie Ever Made!" [Scoop provided by 'Widgett'.] October 11, 1998...A scooper from the front lines, "Jenni" gave us the word about this project, which has been heretofore quite mum. In Late 1997, when last word was received, Jenni tells us:

"...Speed Racer was basically THE topic of talk in the WB departments I was snooping around in. Someone in the special FX department had even read the screenplay (supposedly), and said it was a terrible wad of crap. Anyway, apparently Johnny Depp was going to meetings about playing Speed, Nick Cage was choice #1 for Rex, and some people said Winona Ryder was the choice for Trixie, but Cuaron, the director, seemed to think that all three of those actors were simply too old. Johnny and Winona (who are 30-something and 26, respecively) would have to play teenagers, and Cage's character was initially supposed to be around 25. At first they decided tryouts for unknowns would be good, but then they figured that would be too hard and scrapped the project. Again. I'd also heard snippets of Joseph Mazzello as Sparky, but when the concept of a Speed movie was around, he was just too young and that they decided to wait until he hit 15 (which he does this year) or so before thinking about making the movie. (That's another rumor I heard, but I think it's pretty dumb...I'm a fan of the TV show, and Sparky's not even in every episode.) Keep in mind these are ALL rumors...but I'm not sure. They might be true."

Thanks, Jenni, but remember--this whole website is a rumor, you can't prove we even exist. So it looks like the project may be in a never-ending pit stop at this point. [A big thankee to "Jenni" for updating everybody]

November 9, 1998... Scooper by the name of Chase called this one in: "This Speed Racer project has been in development for quite a few years now. In 1995, I attended a licensing show in NYC, and stopped by the Warner Bros. booth. There, on display, was a model of the Mach 5 to be used in the film. And how did it look? Quite different from the one in the cartoon. This one was sleek, all silver, and didn't even have the number '5' on it! I was told that it was designed by the folks who created the Batmobile for Batman Forever." Yeah, I think I remember seeing that. Doesn't the Mach 4 come out and then the Mach 5 launches out of it, ejecting the Mach 4 shell? Or am I confused? [Chase wasn't confused. He scooped it.]

January 3, 1999... It's not much but it's something: this scooper wrote that the project's current screenwriters wrote last year's Madeline. The scooper didn't say who specifically this man and woman duo were, but a quick boo at The Internet Movie Database lists a Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett as working together on Madeline. [Thanks to anonymous for the follow-up as well.]



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