June 01 - After much hype and talk, the car from the Wachowski brothers’ new film Speed Racer has been shown to the public in Potsdam, at a news conference with star attendance.

But the latest film from the Wachowski brothers, best known for the ‘Matrix’ movies, won’t be shot in Hollywood but in Potsdam, Germany at the Babelsberg film studios. And it is not an action movie but an hommage to the Japanese comic strip Speed Racer.

The film is based on the classic 1960’s Japanese animated series chronicling the aspirations of a young race car driver as he attempts to obtain glory, with the help of his family and the advanced car created by his father.

But without doubt the real star of the film will be the car, named Mach 5.

Video Here via reuters

Emile Hirsch was 6 years old when he saw his first episode of the cartoon Speed Racer and, more important, caught a glimpse of the Mach 5.

“It was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen,” Hirsch says by phone from Germany, where filming will begin next week on the movie adaptation. “That’s when I started thinking it would be great to be on TV. And have one of those.”

Sixteen years later, he finally got behind the wheel of the speedster, which gets its first look here and will be at the heart of the film, due May 9, 2008.

“My first thought was, ‘Yeah, they got the car right,’ ” he says. “That’s one of the best things about the show, so it was always going to be one of the most important parts of the movie.”

That and the return of Andy and Larry Wachowski, the brothers who are making their first directorial effort since The Matrix trilogy. Read the rest of this entry »