The Mach 5 Lives!

I grew up in the 1970s, and back then it was easy to list the three coolest people in the universe: Spider-Man, Ultraman, and Speed Racer. I wanted to be all three. You could often find me climbing the staircase in my parents' house, pretending I was Peter Parker on my way to kick the living shit out of Electro or Mysterio. I used to balance on the edge of our living room couch to pretend that I was flying across the Tokyo skies like Ultraman. And quite often I'd arrange cardboard boxes and a weird assortment of toys to recreate Speed Racer's famous Mach 5.

Today shooting began on a live action version of Speed Racer, which will be directed by the Wachowski Brothers. I'm already itching to see it. Yes, Hollywood routinely fucks up our dreams, but c'mon. Look at that hunk of white streamlined sweetness (from USA Today). They fuckin' nailed the Mach 5. This is exactly what I imagined my cardboard boxes and weird assortment of toys looked like when I was six years old.

Raimi's done Spidey. The Wachowskis (Polish brothers in arms) are doin' Speed. All that's left is Ultraman, which will be difficult. I mean, how do you reinvent something as perfect as this: