Speed Racer...Why?

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by PS3FAN

Why, why?

Seriously this looks horrible.

This week, in "Never ask movie buffs a question you don't want seriously answered in detail":

Fact is, the project's been tossed around since the 90's--
Back when Japanese anime first started making trendy US cult headlines, and to most dopey mainstream execs, "Anime" meant anything dubbed that aired on US TV in the 60's...
So, studios rush to cash in on the young kids' hip new trend with "cool" proposed movie versions of Speed Racer, Astroboy, Akira, Gigantor and Kimba the White Lion. Yep, that was the extent of their cultural IQ where "cutting-edge" Japanese anime was concerned.
(Even when Cartoon Network found anime shows were becoming popular, geez, how many Speed Racer jokes did their other shows drown us in a week??)

As for what happened to the others, you can guess what happened to the Kimba movie...And there may be evidence to prove it.
And...remember when Sandra Bullock says "Sit down, Gigantor!" to the one passenger in "Speed"? Yep--Fox thought they'd have the movie out the next year, and wanted the "viral" plug.
The Akira movie's been in and out of development heck for twenty years (we'll believe it when we see it, Leo!)...And Speed wouldn't have gotten out of its sixth-circle of heck if it hadn't been for that fakie Vince Vaughn rumor to give producers the idea.

(And as for why the Wachowskis, stalled projects that make their last stand ultimately end up getting either the all-out pet-project "artsy-director" version, like the Hulk movie, or the quickie hit-TV-upgrade version, like the DBZ movie...We just happened to luck out with the fancy-director version.)