Since Warner Bros. has been loading the TV with commercials and most of you have seen the trailer, I don’t think I need to give too much background on the film. The only thing I really want to say is how much I loved the movie. Yes, I loved the movie.

While I think it’s safe to assume some critics will dismiss the movie as nothing more than a special effects spectacle with no heart…I would absolutely disagree. The film is the closest thing I’ve ever seen to watching a live action cartoon and I think it completely captures what the animated show was all about. Plus, it’s a family film that’s completely safe for all age groups. Yup, the Wachowski’s have made a film that everyone can see…even little kids!

Anyway, to help promote the movie I recently participated in roundtable interviews with most of the people involved. I’ve already posted the interview with Matthew Fox and Christina Ricci, and up now is producer Joel Silver.

During the interview he talked about making the movie, working with Larry and Andy, and a lot more. If you’re curious about the making of “Speed Racer,” this is the person to listen to.

As always, you can either read the transcript below or download the audio as an MP3 by clicking here. And if you want to watch some movie clips from “Speed Racer,” click here. 

Again, “Speed Racer” opens this Friday and I really suggest checking it out.

Question: Now is it nice to be able to talk about the film now that everyone has seen it?

Joel Silver: Yeah, sure. I mean, I’m still kind of…I have a little fear until it comes out but I’m happy to talk about it, yeah.  I love it.

Question: We saw you at the theatre—you were there last night weren’t you?

Joel Silver: Yeah.

Q: What did you…did you watch it just to see the reaction of everyone.

Joel Silver: Look, I mean we had a screening down here in Long Beach about 2 weeks ago for a recruited screening and it was just a dream come true, I mean it was just a huge response and the numbers were just through the roof in the high 90’s. You don’t ever see that ever but it was a big family audience.  There were a lot of kids and a lot of parents—I didn’t have that last night.  There were some kids there but it wasn’t the kind of family audience that I think the movie will play the most, but I think it played great.  I was very happy to be there.

Q: Talk about the biggest challenges on the film-- technically, logistically.

Joel Silver: It was a technical nightmare to have the realization of what the boys wanted to do. I mean, the brothers had this…when it all came about I mean they knew I had the project for awhile and after “V” or some point after “V” they called me up one day and said, “what are you doing with that Speed Racer thing?” and I said, “well, I’m struggling” and they said, “we have an idea” and I said “well, go for it” so they had this notion of making what they considered live-action anime and that’s what it is—live-action anime.  And they said we want to show you what we want to do and if the studio likes it, we have a way of making a movie of this, and if they don’t, then we’ll do something else.

Q: How long did you have it?  You said you had it for a while.

Joel Silver: Almost 20 years.

Q: Well, what was initial idea for it?  Where you going to do it strictly as an animated movie?

Joel Silver: No, a lot of people had been involved.  There were a lot of scripts written, a lot of directors attached.  I mean, there were rumors of actors attached.  No one was ever really attached, I mean there was a lot of discussion about the movie but really it couldn’t have been made in this fashion until right now.

Q: Why?

Joel Silver: Because the technology didn’t really exist to do this.  I mean, yeah there was a version that they were scouting locations for race tracks and they were designing cars to be built and I remember one of the of the things—the cost of the car was $1 million to build this car that would all—you know chrome and it couldn’t be photographed from any angle—I don’t know what the hell they were doing, you know?  But the way that it was done where the cars could do things that you’ve never seen before could only be done in this fashion with the way these guys want to do it.

Q: When Larry and Andy say to you they have an idea, do you sort of turn away and just are smiling from ear to ear?

Joel Silver: Yes.

Q: And I’m also curious…

Joel Silver: I mean he said to me I’m going to make your day, he said to me, you know, he knew it.

Q: And I’m curious how enthusiastic…was the studio immediately enthusiastic when they found out they wanted to do it? How did that work?

Joel Silver: Well of course they were enthusiastic because we’d been struggling with the movie for a long time so a lot of people had been through the process.  I mean a lot of …JJ Abrams…a lot of people wrote scripts for this thing but again they were conventional type stories.  So the Wachowski Brothers went off and they made a 5 minutes kind of pre-viz—a pre-visualization of a race in this movie.  And there are actually some shots in that pre-viz that actually made it through to the finished movie.  I mean, that first pre-vis actually had images that went right through to the end.  But it was a race.  It had elements of all 3 races.  Elements of Thunderhead, elements of Casa Cristo, elements of the Grand Prix.  It was just a race which was shown to the studio in December I think of ’06, and we sat in a room at the studio and a bunch of people in the room and the lights went down and they showed this.

Q: And you said before that you’d made a lot of silly action films, but after “The Matrix” you walked away realizing that people wanted more, you know you knew what that was.  So what was that that you realized post-Matrix that you brought with you into this film?

Joel Silver: Well, I’ll just finish this quick and then I’ll go to that.  When the lights went up and everybody stood there quietly in the room and the studio said, “well, what is it?  Is it “Roger Rabbit”?  I mean, what is it?  Is it animation, is it live-action?” They said, “look this is what it is.” So they said, “Take a shot”, you know.  I think that this movie…this is a family movie which I’d been involved in a few movies that were family but not with the Wachowski Brothers and you know this is the first time they really intended to do something for the family—for everybody and they had nieces and nephews and friends and family and they wanted everybody to see their movie.  They hadn’t been able to do that with everything we’ve made up to now. So it was a story about the family.  It is a story about, you know, it has really kind of basic family structure, family story, family type values of this movie and it’s also just a movie about a quest and an ambition and dreams and all the things that seem to work in those kinds of movies. It’s brilliant in its execution but it’s simple in its tale, and I think the end of this movie, I mean cheaters never prosper, you know, be true to your family, stay together and you can prevail, you can win.  And I think that those elements are effective and I hope that the audience embraces it and enjoys it.

Q: What was it about the story that made you hold onto it for so long?

Joel Silver: When I first saw “Speed Racer” which I was a kid and I wasn’t as young as my son is 6 who has since has seen the original show and loves it, I wasn’t that age. I was older than that. But I always remembered it being fresh and unique and having you know, a cool quality and again the Brothers have said that it was the first time they ever saw anime, so that was fresh for them.  But I remember that I just liked it and when they brought it to me and they said, “Do you want the rights to this thing?” and I said, “Yeah, sure let’s take a shot” which was almost 20 years ago—I think it was ’89-90 I did that and we struggled with it.  We tried to make it but I just felt it had something about it that was fresh and I never let it go.

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