According to The Hollywood Reporter (THR), there will be another live-action remake of Speed Racer, this time powered by Apple. Instead of a big-budget blockbuster, the latest version of Speed Racer will be a TV series directed by J.J Abrams.
Speed Racer was created by Tatsuo Yoshida and first hit TV screens in the 1960s. More than 50 episodes were made, but Hollywood has struggled to recreate that initial success for years. Nickelodeon tried and failed in 2002, and the Wachowski sisters' 2008 remake was a huge box office flop. It has developed a bit of a cult following since then, but, to be brutally honest, we can't see why. Not even John Goodman's glorious mustache could save it.
It wasn't Fast 9 bad, but pretty close to 2 Fast 2 Furious bad.
But Hollywood is nothing if not tenacious and unoriginal, so now it's having another go.
According to THR, the new Speed Racer series is part of a $250 million deal Abrams signed with Warner Brothers. This includes several other projects in addition to Speed Racer, which means Warner isn't quite ready to dump as much money into Speed Racer as it did when the Wachowski sisters were running the show.
Don't expect it to debut anytime soon, as Abrams is currently busy with the pre-production of the new Star Trek movie. Fans of the original anime series can expect a waiting period of roughly two years. Until then, you can always watch Top Gear reruns to satisfy that car craving.
As we said, the 2008 film was not well received by critics. It was widely panned as a headache-inducing special effects nightmare with a substandard plot. The cars looked like crazier versions of the Ferrari Monza SP1.
Nerds (we use this term affectionately) disagreed with the assessment. Various nerd outlets lauded the Wachowskis for creating a real-life anime successfully.
Abrams is a well-established nerd responsible for breathing new life into the Star Wars and Star Trek universes. Few people likely understand the source materials as well as he does, and we're reasonably confident he'll take both the criticism and compliments into account while developing the new series.