Movies: 1135
Comments: 67725
Members: 718
Online: 0 Guests: 320
Speedy Gonzales movie starts running ahead
Posted by Patrick Sauriol on Wednesday, February 24, 2010
When two Alvin and the Chipmunks movies make over $200 million dollars at the box office, every studio in town will want to look at what cartoon characters they own and figure out a way to bring them to the big screen. Using that strategy, the execs at New Line Pictures are taking the Looney Tunes character of Speedy Gonzales -- the fastest mouse in all of Mexico -- and making a live-action/CG Speedy Gonzales movie. Andale! Arriba!
Speedy is the cartoon world's version of The Flash, a quick-footed mouse of Mexican descent. Wearing a red kerchief and wide-brimmed Mexican hat, Speedy dashes from certain death every time his life is on the line (which is usually by other talking cartoon animals.)
New Line has pegged comedian George Lopez to provide the voice for the diminutive rodent and hired the Garfield screenwriting duo of Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen to develop the script.
There's an obvious danger in the portrayal of Speedy: since part of the mouse's identity is wrapped heavily in Mexican stereotype, the producers will need to walk a fine line between not offending Latino audiences while not dismissing all of Speedy's unique identity. "We wanted to make sure that it was not the Speedy of the 1950s -- the racist Speedy," Anne Lopez told The Hollywood Reporter. "Speedy's going to be a misunderstood boy who comes from a family that works in a very meticulous setting, and he's a little too fast for what they do. He makes a mess of that. So he has to go out in the world to find what he's good at."
Producing the movie are Jerry Weintraub from the Ocean's Eleven series, Lopez and his wife Anne, Lynette Ramirez, Tracy Ryerson and Jill Arthur. No other cast members have been identified as of yet.
Do you think Speedy's cousin, Slowpoke Rodriguez, will make an appearance in the movie?
There are currently no comments