Wachowskis' Speed Racer Getting the IMAX Treatment

IMAX features apparently not subject to the Harding Test.

by | March 6, 2008 | Comments

If you’ve seen the trailer for the Wachowski brothers’ upcoming Speed Racer, you know it’s packed to the gills with eye-popping colors and special effects — the kind of stuff that IMAX screens were made for.

Which works out well, because according to IGN Movies (via FirstShowing), Speed Racer is scheduled to be one of this summer’s major IMAX releases. (The others, as listed in the FirstShowing article, are Kung Fu Panda and The Dark Knight.)

The news makes sense, but it’s still a little terrifying — as IGN‘s Orlando Parfitt puts it, “we watched it on our tiny computer monitors and it still gave us a headache, so imagine what affect 90-plus minutes of manga-inspired ocular overload on a ruddy great IMAX screen would have on our sensitive little eyes.” FirstShowing‘s Alex Billington notes that it’s a little surprising that Warners hasn’t officially announced Racer‘s IMAX release, but says it’s possible the studio is waiting to see if the Wachowskis “actually finish the movie on time,” since IMAX prints require 6-8 weeks of lead time.

Six to eight weeks, incidentally, is roughly what stands between us and Speed Racer‘s May 9 release, so that official announcement would seem to be either just around the corner or not happening at all. A synopsis of the film, for those of you with short memories:

Emile Hirsch jumps into the Mach 5 car as Speed Racer, while John Goodman and Susan Sarandon play his parents. Christina Ricci costars as Speed’s girlfriend Trixie, and Matthew Fox is Racer X, his biggest competitor.

Source: IGN Movies
Source: FirstShowing