Warners talks ‘Speed,’ ‘Knight’
LAS VEGAS — Warner Bros. unleashed candy-colored, neon-bright footage from a supercharged “Speed Racer,” promised an epic crime story in its latest Batman movie, “The Dark Knight,” and welcomed George Lucas back to the studio after a nearly 40-year absence as it previewed its summer line-up at ShoWest on Thursday.
Alan Horn, Warner Bros. president and COO, presiding over the show-and-tell, drew applause from exhibitors when he announced “Warner Bros. is committed to theatrical distribution in the theaters, period,” as he reviewed recent developments at the Burbank studio.
Acknowledging that Warners will take over distribution of the New Line slate, he said Time Warners’ decision to fold New Line into Warners was so recent that “we’re sort of figuring it out.” He added, though, that “New Line will remain a freestanding company, with its own label and own set of films.”
Producer Joel Silver was drafted to introduce a fast-paced four minutes and 10 seconds from “Speed Racer,” the Wachowski Brothers’ big-screen adaptation of the TV toon set for a May 9 release.
Silver explained that the Wachowskis took on the project because they wanted to make a PG-rated movie their nephews and nieces could see and also because they viewed it as a formal challenge, in which they proposed always keeping foreground, middle ground and background in focus.
The high-octance footage left the movie’s three stars — Emile Hirsch, Matthew Fox and Christina Ricci, who were then called to the stage at Paris Hotel’s Theatre des Artists — repeating virtually the same words. Each admitted to being “blown away.”
Hollywood Reporter