It’s ShowWest time in Las Vegas, so that’s why we’re suddenly getting such a heavy influx of trailers for some of this summer’s most anticipated releases. And no studio is pushing as aggressively for a single film as Warner Brothers is for the Wachowskis’ Speed Racer, which is beginning to look like May’s toughest sell.
If the adaptation of the 1960s anime television show fails to catch on with audiences, it won’t be for lack of effort on the WB’s part; this is the third “new” trailer I’ve seen for Speed Racer in the last week. The first two were for the international market, and they were way too cluttered; this new spot breathes a little, and rekindles my enthusiasm for the project. Yeah, I’m seriously looking forward to this. Even if the film’s as inert as Dick Tracy, we’ll at least be getting a lovingly designed wank from a pair of filmmakers who know how to put a movie together (it’s the putting-a-script-together part that’s been kicking their ass for the last eight years).
And, if I may, Christina Ricci’s Kewpie doll features were made for a film this outlandishly stylized. Maybe it’s me being a guy, but there’s something about her that just pops in these previews. I’ll stop now.
By the way, can anyone hear this exchange (from early in the trailer)…
“No, he’s going to be the very best.”
… and not think of this? Hear the engines roll now, indeed.
Speed Racer opens wide May 9th.