After The Matrix (1999) and V For Vendetta (2005), the Wachowskis were ready to turn from darkness into the bright, bright candy-colored light. The result was Speed Racer (2008), an eyepopping postmodern explosion that honored the gravity-defying spirit of old-school anime…and which audiences couldn’t quite figure out.
Host Rico Gagliano talks with Speed Racer star Roger Allam (The Thick of It), legendary special-effects artist John Gaeta (The Matrix), and others about how the movie was made, why it tanked, and why a growing army of acolytes start their days by watching its final action sequence.
The latest season of the MUBI Podcast, Box Office Poison, dives into six visionary films...that were also notorious flops. Inspired by the new book of the same name by Tim Robey, film critic for The Telegraph, each episode takes a wild ride through a great movie’s rise, fall, and rise.
Listen to episode six below or wherever you get your podcasts: