Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today announced that it will launch a video game based on the upcoming filmed adaptation of the classic Speed Racer anime series. The game will be available in 2008 for the Wii(TM) and Nintendo DS(TM) systems, released in conjunction with the debut of the movie. It will then be released on PlayStation 2 with the DVD launch.
Developed by New Zealand-based Sidhe Interactive, the Wii and PlayStation 2 console games will have players get behind the wheel of each signature vehicle of the characters in the movie. The ‘car-fu’ style of action within the game will closely represent the action style being designed by the Wachowski brothers, who are writing and directing the film. The Matrix creators will lend direction and assets to the game’s development team directly from their Berlin set. John Gaeta, a long-time Wachowski collaborator and co-vfx supervisor on the Speed Racer film, is also working with Sidhe and Warner Bros Interactive to assist in maintaining a close film-to-game aesthetic connection.
‘We are very excited about this natural extension from the Speed Racer film to the video game,’ says producer Joel Silver, who has collaborated with the Wachowski brothers on all three of the Matrix movies and V for Vendetta. ‘Larry and Andy are video game fans themselves, so they believe that an interactive game is a key component to the entire Speed Racer experience,’
Based on the beloved series created by anime pioneer Tatsuo Yoshida, the Speed Racer movie will follow a young race car driver named Speed in his quest for glory on and off the track in his thundering Mach 5. Emile Hirsch (Alpha Dog) is taking on the title role and Christina Ricci (Black Snake Moan) will play pal Trixie. Matthew Fox from the hit ABC series Lost will be the mysterious Racer X, and Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking) and John Goodman (Evan Almighty) will show up as Mom and Pops Racer. Presented by Warner Bros. in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, the Silver Pictures production promises to offer the kind of revolutionary visual effects and cutting-edge storytelling that have become the benchmarks of the Wachowski brothers’ films.
