SpeedRacer Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Following in the footsteps of Speed Racer – albeit in animated rather than live-action form – another iconic figure in the history of Japanese animation, Astro Boy, is being updated and reimagined for the silver screen. David Bowers, who previously helmed the Dreamworks animated film Flushed Away, introduced clips and offered a glimpse of the film to a small group of journalists several weeks ago at Imagi's Los Angeles-based production offices.

Astro Boy is based on Osamu Tekuza's 1952 manga, which was developed into a television series in 1963 and subsequently enjoyed multiple incarnations and reinventions in print and on film. The 2009 feature film promises to stay largely faithful to the sleek and simple design of the character, but with a few updates to his look and his mythology. As the second film from burgeoning animation studio Imagi after 2007's TMNT, Bowers said that he wanted to make sure that the story was both fun and substantive.

Somehow I missed this on Thursday, but apparently so did everyone else, since I didn't see it linked anywhere. Roger Ebert was hanging out at a post-production studio in Chicago, watching the restored new print of The Godfather, when he was unexpectedly joined by Larry and Andy Wachowski, the famously inaccessible duo behind The Matrix, Speed Racer, and (people forget) Bound. Afterward, he got a chance to chat with them -- not in a conventional interview setting, complete with a hovering publicist (the brothers don't do that, remember?), but over a beer.

Ebert was impressed with the "zillionaires": "Nice people. Friendly. No Hollywood attitude." He writes that "[t]he blogosphere paints them as mysterious recluses, which may add to the legend but doesn't match the reality." But their being nice and friendly doesn't make them any less mysterious and reclusive: I'd wager that Ebert only ran the piece because of their reputation for not giving interviews or talking to anyone in the press.

Anyway, it's really interesting to "hear" them speak, though they mostly talk about the difficulties of keeping a moving 35 mm shot in focus and the brilliance of Coppola's Godfather shot selection. It's funny how keeping silent for a while will make such brief, mundane snippets into objects of arcane fascination. (Though since I think the Wachowskis are pretty formidable visual artists themselves, I find their perspective on that sort of thing interesting in its own right.)

No photo, of course; all you get is that old shot of the two admiring a Matrix comic book.

There's a slew of new releases hitting shelves this week. Some are flashy, some are sweet, and some you should be ashamed if you spend your hard-earned money on them. As Peter said last week, we're still working out kinks in the new format, so weigh in below with your thoughts.

MAIN PICKS AND MISSES
Speed Racer (Pick)
Made of Honor (Miss)
The Love Guru (Miss)
The Babysitters (Miss)

INDIES ON DVD
Young@Heart, Finding Amanda, Harold, Snow Angels

BLU-RAY
Speed Racer, Hulk (2003), The Mist

COLLECTOR'S CORNER
High School Flashback Collection, Risky Business Deluxe Edition, and more!

What do you do after Speed Racer fails to bring in the Matrix-like crowds of fan freaks, auto nuts and Ricci stalkers? Well, apparently, if you're the Wachowski siblings, you reunite with Keanu Reeves and bring Plastic Man to the big screen. According to CHUD (who received a tip they're skeptical on, so take this all with a grain of salt), a scooper from Berlin says Joel Silver announced the aforementioned news during an interview on German radio. Now since the Wachowskis had already written a Plastic Man script prior to their Matrix films, that's becoming the foundation for what we imagine will be a hot-to-trot PG-13 flick featuring Keanu Reeves saying "Whoa" every time his arms or legs stretch out. "Whoa, my arms are like plastic. Whoa."

This certainly seems like the logical place to go for the Wachowski individuals, especially since it's a comic property (hot), a script is already written (even hotter) and they can market the whole Matrix reunion with Reeves (hotter than the hottest hot you've even touched). Personally, I'm not a big fan of Reeves and I don't think he has the personality to play someone like Plastic Man, but maybe he'll have fun with it, we'll have fun with it and they'll make seven sequels. Joel Silver will be at Comic Con next week, so if nothing is announced before then, look for several folks to hound him until the man gives.

Apparently teens have short attention spans, evidenced by this year's nominees for the 2008 Teen Choice Awards, which were announced this morning. Looking at the first two movie categories, Best Action Adventure Movie and Best Actor: Action Adventure, all the contenders (including Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Forbidden Kingdom) are from either May or late April of this year. I guess this summer's other movies, like The Dark Knight, The Incredible Hulk and Hancock will just be ignored, since they're too late for this year and won't be remembered next year.

Another related thing that was revealed: actresses were not too prominent in action movies of that same period, because the category for Best Actress: Action Adventure looks back a little farther to Abigail Breslin in Nim's Island, Rachel Bilson in Jumper and (whoah, December? that was so long ago) Diane Kruger in National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

After the disappointing box office of both Speed Racer and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian last month, it's apparent that May was too busy a month for all its blockbusters to succeed. Last week, Eric D. Snider initiated a discussion about Caspian's release date and many of our readers agreed that it should have been released in December, or any other month, for that matter. Couldn't it have been a success in February or October, too? As part of an initially popular franchise, you'd think it could stand to be released anytime of the year.

Earlier today, I responded to an interview in which two cinema industry honchos argued that big movies should be released 12 months in the year. Or, at least, the summer movie season should begin earlier, in April. Imagine, the first blockbuster of the year being released on Easter weekend. Or, when Easter is in March, April Fool's Day weekend. Unfortunately, the month doesn't have any Monday holidays with which to capitalize on a three-day-weekend release, but a two-day weekend didn't seem to hurt Iron Man's enormous opening.

One commenter on my earlier post noted that moving the summer season up to April will only make that month the busiest release month, just as May is currently. But there's a good chance Hollywood will recognize, after May 2008, the benefits of staying spread out. Plus, Memorial Day weekend will continue to be prime real estate, so tentpoles might be better spread out, as they should be according to their name (imagine going camping and placing all your literal tentpoles in one corner).

What do you think? Should the summer movie season begin earlier? Or is it just fine as is? Or did you think it actually began on April 18 with the release of the fantasy martial arts flick The Forbidden Kingdom?

Ever since the numbers were released yesterday, anyone and everyone (as well as anyone who is everyone) has been talking Speed Racer -- specifically, how a $120 million Hollywood blockbuster could open with only $20 million at the box office. You can blame Iron Man, you can blame the marketing, you can blame the blogs for trashing the film all year long, you can blame Christina Ricci's weird haircut, or you can blame that judge on Project Runway for saying, "You can never have too much color!" Fact is, it missed the mark.

But what could've helped Speed Racer make more money in its opening weekend? The running time has been mentioned a lot in the past 24 hours, but a running time doesn't exactly woo audiences into the theater. Is the film's marketing 100% to blame? Should the trailers have been cut differently? Should they have stressed that this was a film for kids? Should they have added a little viral action into the mix? Or what about overall? From the beginning, were the Wachowski Brothers the right folks for the job? Should they have gone the animated route instead -- or maybe the animated 3-D route? Should they have made this a film for older kids; slap on a PG-13 rating?

In your opinion, what could've helped Speed Racer -- both in its opening weekend and in its development as a feature film?

According to early estimates from Box Office Mojo, this summer's second big-budgeted extravaganza failed to pick up more than $20 million at the box office this weekend, with the poorly-reviewed comedy What Happens in Vegas finishing right behind in third. Of course, Iron Man took the top spot for a second week in a row with roughly $50 million, while Speed Racer -- which some projected to take home at least $30-40 million -- came in second with $20.2 million, as What Happens in Vegas slid into third with $20 million. Rounding out the top five were Made of Honor ($7.6 million) and Baby Mama ($5.7 million).

So what happened to Speed Racer? Part of the reason had to do with its targeted audience, which, supposedly, was kids, though kids weren't very familiar with the cartoon the film was based on. That, and the flick clocked in at over two hours -- a running time that's been mentioned a lot this weekend, as well as one that's way too long for a PG-rated kiddie adventure. That said, its PG-rating scared away those adults who grew up with the cartoon; people who, most likely, were looking for something a bit more skewed toward adults (especially when Iron Man came out the weekend before and kicked a whole lot of ass). Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure we can rule out that Speed Racer franchise at this point.

Coupla questions for ya: Why do you think Speed Racer failed to power across the finish line in spectacular fashion? Also, what happens to the Wachowski Brothers now? Will folks think twice before giving them $150 million and free reign?

Kids rule the multiplex. That's why they're the most targeted audience and the most targeted consumers as far as Hollywood and concession suppliers are respectively concerned. But where would the kids be without their parents? Perhaps they'd still be watching movies, but maybe not at the cinema. To see a movie at the multiplex, they need a ride from their mom, or they require the companionship of their blockbuster-loving dad. Sure, things may be a little different today, but my experience of being a moviegoing child entailed a lot of assistance and encouragement from my mom and dad.

It's hard to decide which parent had greater influence on my cinephilia, especially since I only recently recognized my mother's contributions. My father was the one who usually took my brothers and me to the movies every other weekend, and each time we stayed with him we seemed to rent more videos than could be watched in a 48-hour period. Meanwhile my mother let us watch cable, including as much R-rated fare as HBO would broadcast. At a very, very young age I was already familiar with a lot of horror, violence, swearing, nudity and other "restricted" content that the MPAA was only OK with me seeing if it was OK with my "accompanying parent or adult guardian."

There's been much buzzing around the Cinematical virtual office over the past few days about Speed Racer. James pretty much liked it (for a kids' movie), Scott pretty much hated it, and Eugene seems, well, a bit disappointed. We just got back from taking the crew to see Speed Racer.

Last week at the same time, we were at Iron Man, and the theater was almost completely packed, with only front row seats left by the time the previews started. This week, same time, exact same theater, even, and there were maybe 20 people total. And I have to say, if the Wachowskis are aiming for the kiddie market with this film, as many seem to think, I think they've largely missed their mark. Aside from the largely empty matinee theater, there were a couple of signs during the screening that this movie wasn't playing well to the kiddie set.