Apple TV + is preparing Speed Racer, a high-profile live action series of Bad Robot by JJ Abrams and Warner Bros. Television where the company has an agreement.
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The details are incomplete, but I have heard that the project, written by Hiram Martinez (Snowpiercer) and Ron Fitzgerald (Westworld), returns to the original material and is a live version of the classic manga series of the 60’s.
I’ve heard that the series now occupies a writers ’room, with Martinez and Fitzgerald as executive producers / co-showrunners.
Speed Racer, a Japanese media franchise on car racing, was first released as a manga series titled Mach GoGoGo by Tatsuo Yoshida in 1966. Trans-Lux acquired the rights to syndicate and Speed Racer was adapted into anime by Tatsunoko Productions, which aired on Fuji TV in Japan from 1967-68 and aired in the US in syndication at about the same time.
The show’s main success in the United States spawned an ongoing Speed Racer franchise from the 1990s, ranging from comics, video releases, merchandise, a live action movie, and series.
On television, The New Adventures of Speed Racer, a U.S. remake of the original series, premiered in 1993 and aired for a 13-episode season. It was followed in 2008 by Speed Racer: The Next Generation which was released on Nicktoons and then revived on MTV, Cartoon Network and Boomerang.
The Wachowskis wrote and directed a live-action film adaptation of Speed Racer, which premiered in 2008. The Apple series has nothing to do with it, I hear.
Bad Robot has a long relationship with Apple where the company has produced several series so far, the adaptation of Stephen King Lisey’s Story, starring Julianne Moore; The little voice of Sara Bareilles; and the upcoming My Glory Was I Had Such Friends, led by Jennifer Garner.
Denise Petski contributed to this report.