Speed Racer

Chim Chim must be doing back flips. Warner Bros. is back on track with development of a live-action film adaptation of the popular Japanese-cartoon series "Speed Racer," the studio said Thursday. The "Speed" project, idling in Warner's slow lane for about a decade, shifted back into high gear after actor Vince Vaughn ("DodgeBall") sold the studio on his own concept for the movie, with Vaughn cast as the title character's mysterious big brother, Racer X, a studio spokeswoman said.

Bill Warner, who set the world record for fastest speed on a conventional motorcycle, died Sunday after losing control while again trying to top 300 mph at a former air base in northern Maine. He was 44. The speed racer and Florida fish farmer was clocked at 285 mph before he lost control. It was unclear how fast the motorcycle was traveling when it veered off a runway and crashed, according to Tim Kelly, race director for the Loring Timing Assn. , which hosts the annual timed speed event at Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, Maine.

The stakes in the industry's most competitive moviegoing season are high for all Hollywood studios, which spend heavily to sell their big-budget popcorn titles around the world. This summer, the risks are particularly steep for Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. studio, which has hundreds of millions of dollars riding on three major releases: “Speed Racer,” the Batman sequel “The Dark Knight” and “Get Smart,” a big-screen adaptation of the 1960s sitcom.

Peter Fernandez, who helped introduce the U.S. to Japanese animation in the 1960s by adapting the series "Speed Racer" for American audiences, has died. He was 83. Fernandez, a voice actor who was also a writer and producer, died July 15 of cancer at his home in Pomona, N.Y., said his wife, Noel. "He was a major pioneer of anime," said William Winckler, a Tarzana-based producer of English-language anime films. " 'Speed Racer' was once the most popular Japanese cartoon in America, and he did a wonderful job with it."

Mother's Day celebrations kick off on the Disney Channel at 8:30 a.m. with Amazing Animals Mothers, showing the maternal instincts of a wide range of animals. Also on tap is a trio of mother-themed movies, beginning with Rock 'N' Roll Mom (5:20 p.m.), starring Dyan Cannon as the mother of two teenagers who becomes a pop sensation with a local band. At 7 p.m., Sissy Spacek stars in Trading Mom as a single mother whose three children are unhappy with her working.

Champ Car driver Andrew Ranger was in a desperate spot late last week. He had brought enough sponsorship to the Mi-Jack Conquest Racing team that he could compete in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach and in three Canadian races for Procter & Gamble of Canada. After those events, he would have been without a ride. But the 19-year-old from Montreal may have been saved in the nick of time by his own talent and a TV cartoon hero, aptly named Speed Racer.

FOR MOST people, the worries associated with helmets involve their protective qualities and what they'll do to the wearer's hair once removed. Australian native Kym Barrett wraps her head around helmets for entirely other reasons.

In 1992, Mike Tatsugawa spearheaded a new and unusual convention devoted exclusively to Japanese animation. The weekend event in San Jose attracted more than 1,200 fans, a robust turnout considering the medium's underground status in the United States. "We knew there were a lot of people who wanted the show, which is why we did it," said Tatsugawa, who began planning the convention while a member of a Japanese animation club at UC Berkeley in the late '80s and early '90s.

"Speed Racer" was lapped in its opening weekend at the box office as "Iron Man" continued to fire its jets with $50.5 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. The anime-inspired race movie edged into the No. 2 spot with $20.2 million, slightly ahead of the 20th Century Fox comedy "What Happens in Vegas," which premiered at $20 million. "Our tracking was stalled toward the end," Dan Fellman, president of Warner Bros.

For “Iron Man,” the sequel is two years away. But the encore comes this weekend. After starting Hollywood's summer with a $98.6-million bang, the Marvel Studios' production should return to the top of the box-office heap with an additional $45 million or more in ticket sales this weekend. Until recently, Warner Bros.' family-friendly “Speed Racer” had been seen as a potential blockbuster, but the candy-colored, effects-driven adaptation of the 1960s Japanese cartoon show now looks more likely to become the summer's first major misfire.

Shares of Mattel Inc. rose 92 cents today after the company announced that its third-quarter profit dropped 3.5% as the global economic downturn hurt sales of its Barbie dolls and Fisher-Price toys. Investors pushed the stock to $20.50, up 4.7%, because of Mattel's wider profit margins, lower commodity prices and effective cost cutting, analysts said. "They've been able to successfully raise prices and aggressively shave operating expenses," said Chris White, an analyst with Wedbush Securities Inc. "So the thinking is, with these improvements in place, there's a lot of earnings leverage and earnings can grow."

The Earrings of Madame De . . . /La Ronde/Le Plaisir Criterion, $39.95 each Director Max Ophuls fled Europe just ahead of the Nazis and spent a few frustrating years in Hollywood before moving to France in 1950 and making four consecutive masterpieces. Three of those are now available in sterling Criterion editions: the scandalous 1950 romance "La Ronde," about a chain of men and women who fall in love with each other; the comic anthology "Le Plaisir," based on three Guy de Maupassant short stories; and the sophisticated drama "The Earrings of Madame De . . .," about a society dame who cheats on her husband.

Ah, May! The weather gets a little warmer, high school kids nervously attend their proms and the movie studios begin to release their would-be blockbusters, eager to start the summer box-office rush early. And do you know what that means? (Besides, of course, the promotional giveaway toys at Burger King and McDonald's.) That's right: the dreaded movie tie-in video games.

"Speed Racer" was lapped in its opening weekend at the box office as "Iron Man" continued to fire its jets with $50.5 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. The anime-inspired race movie edged into the No. 2 spot with $20.2 million, slightly ahead of the 20th Century Fox comedy "What Happens in Vegas," which premiered at $20 million. "Our tracking was stalled toward the end," Dan Fellman, president of Warner Bros.

FOR MOST people, the worries associated with helmets involve their protective qualities and what they'll do to the wearer's hair once removed. Australian native Kym Barrett wraps her head around helmets for entirely other reasons.

It's hard to imagine a movie better suited to the aesthetic tastes of an addled 8-year-old boy than "Speed Racer," or one worse suited to his attention span. Unless, of course, he enjoys speechifying. For a movie about speed and forward momentum, "Speed Racer" provides very little of either, though it does explode into spurts of frenetic, confusing and hard-to-follow action -- and that's just on the racetracks.

Talk about the fast and the furious. The Wachowski brothers are making a live action version of "Speed Racer," the '60s Japanese-animated series that gives a whole new meaning to the idea of "X-treme" motor sports. Like the cartoon, the action adventure is focused around an elite group of professional racers -- among them Speed, played by "Into the Wild's" Emile Hirsch -- who vie for primacy on the international circuit.

IN THE Wachowski brothers' new movie, "Speed Racer," the eponymous main character (Emile Hirsch) and his family seem to live in a modern ranch house in midcentury suburbia. The hallmarks of the era are there: graphic wallpaper, bold colors, bamboo accents and streamlined furniture upholstered in nubby fabric. But there's also a futuristic television and a spotless workshop where Speed's dad, Pops (John Goodman), makes battery-operated race cars that can defy gravity.

For “Iron Man,” the sequel is two years away. But the encore comes this weekend. After starting Hollywood's summer with a $98.6-million bang, the Marvel Studios' production should return to the top of the box-office heap with an additional $45 million or more in ticket sales this weekend. Until recently, Warner Bros.' family-friendly “Speed Racer” had been seen as a potential blockbuster, but the candy-colored, effects-driven adaptation of the 1960s Japanese cartoon show now looks more likely to become the summer's first major misfire.

The stakes in the industry's most competitive moviegoing season are high for all Hollywood studios, which spend heavily to sell their big-budget popcorn titles around the world. This summer, the risks are particularly steep for Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. studio, which has hundreds of millions of dollars riding on three major releases: “Speed Racer,” the Batman sequel “The Dark Knight” and “Get Smart,” a big-screen adaptation of the 1960s sitcom.