It’s not printed or published yet but Warner Bros. think the upcoming Oni Press graphic novel about a hitman seeking redemption titled Billy Smoke is going to be a big hit.

Variety say the studio have put the wheels in motion for an adaptation well before any of the public can see it and that they are in talks with Matthew Fox to star.

Story centers on an elite hit man who’s nearly killed during a botched job and realizes that his only way to find redemption is to rid the world of all assassins.

Rid the world of assassins?

What on Earth does that mean?

Sadly we have no artwork from the comic series yet, it’s so far away from release. Fox who has recently made the move into film with roles in Speed Racer and Vantage Point - currently has nothing on his schedule that we know of except more seasons of Lost.

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Written & Directed by: The Wachowski Brothers

Based on the Speed Racer animated series created by Tatsuo Yoshida

Starring: Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, Matthew Fox, Benno Furmann, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rain, Richard Roundtree, Kick Gurry, Roger Allam, Scott Porter, Anatole Taubman, Nicholas Elia

Distributed by Warner Brothers

Film will be released in the U.K. and U.S. on May 9th 2008

Review by James Rawson

Here he comes, here comes Speed Racer, he’s a demon on wheels… Born as a manga series in the 60s, and then adapted for television in the much loved and oft-repeated anime series, kidults everywhere will be glad to know that Speed Racer is well and truly back. This time Speed and the gang have been resurrected by sci-fi gods the Wachowski Brothers, who write and direct the first ever live action version: bringing the joys of technicoloured automobiles and Japanimation to a whole new generation.

The Racer family, if you hadn’t guessed already, enjoy their cars. Eldest son Rex (Scott Porter) was destined to become one history’s great drivers, but left the Racer Motors Team to compete for rival teams on the WRL (World Racing League) circuit. With his career mired in controversy and scandal, Rex dies mysteriously during the notoriously dangerous Casa Cristo 5000. Accelerate a few years and Rex’s eponymous younger brother Speed (Emile Hirsch) has followed in his brother’s footsteps, and promises to be every bit the racer that Rex was. But unlike his brother, Speed stays true to the family team and his car the Mach 5 (no, not the razer). Unsurprisingly the rich and powerful E.P. Arnold Royalton (Roger Allam) spots his talent and tries to lure him away with promises of glory and riches, but a family boy at heart, Speed refuses, much to Royalton’s chagrin.

Not taking no for an answer, Royalton warns our young hero that, with his vast power and influence, he will ruin Racer Motors Team, and Speed’s career with it. With the intention of proving him wrong, and exposing the Murdoch-esque bad guy, Speed teams up with the enigmatic Racer X (Matthew Fox in a gimp suit) and Taejo Togokahn (Asian popstar Rain) to defeat Royalton’s team in the race that cut short the life of his brother: the Casa Christo 5000. With feisty girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci), and the rest of the Racer family at his side (most notably Susan Sarandon and John Goodman as Mom and Pops Racer) can Speed restore honour to a sport that has become ruined with corruption?

After the mixed reviews that surrounded the Wachowski written V for Vendetta and the positively abysmal response to the second and third Matrix films, the Wachowski brothers have stripped themselves of any philosophical pretensions and made an out and out good fun kids movie. And my God have they succeeded.

In a post-Shrek age, when every film marketed at under 13s feels compelled to provide older audiences with knowing winks, Speed Racer’s purity and sincerity are its most refreshing elements. As classic Disney has shown us: if you make a children’s film well, it will appeal to the child in all of us. A big heart, strong morals, family values and a fat kid teamed up with a mischief causing chimp make Speed Racer a winner. It’s much more effective than any of Shrek 3’s tongue-in-cheek Justin Timberlake jokes.

And to carry the story is the Wachowski’s ever-present knack for breath-taking visuals. The art direction might look tacky in movie stills or trailers, but taken as a whole it is practically a character in and of itself: when Speed passes the finishing line in the film’s final showdown, the expressionist bursts of colour and confetti are so euphoric they’re verging on the orgasmic. In a good way.

But as with any vehicle, there are a few minor glitches along the way, but all totally forgivable: Christina Ricci seems completely incongrous throughout (in interviews she has as all but admitted that she only got involved to make her more appealing to big studios), Royalton really isn’t well developed enough as a character, and the final narrative twist is pretty cringe worthy, and predictable.

So, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I state, in conclusion: Go Speed Racer! Go Speed Racer! Go Speed Racer GooOOoo!

Directed by: Pete Travis

Written by: Barry Levy

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Bruce McGill, Edgar Ramirez, Said Taghmaoui, Ayelet Zurer, Zoe Saldana, Eduardo Noriega

Distributed by Sony Pictures
Film is out NOW in the U.S. and on March 7th in the U.K.
Review by Oliver Pfeiffer

Talk about best laid plans. Vantage Point marks British director Pete Travis’ overblown Hollywood thriller follow up to his critically acclaimed probing political drama Omagh, (which centered on the aftermath of the IRA bombing). Ambitiously billed by the director as a throw back to Akira Kurosawa’s seminal masterpiece Rashomon - in terms of its unveiling of multiple character projections of the same narrative event - Vantage Point falls magnificently flat even as a half descent, unflinching nail-biting thriller in the mould of other dumbed down claustrophobic multi-media enthused thrillers such as Panic Room, Phone Booth or Cellular.

The fact that the director has managed to summon an impressive award-winning cast that encapsulates the talents of Oscar winner Forest Whitaker (as a mild mannered observer with convenient camera device), weathered character actor William Hurt (as a wholesome president), veteran Dennis Quaid (as a jittery veteran Secret Service Agent), former alien queen Sigourney Weaver (playing a tough TV news producer) and a slew of glossy multicultural TV stars that include the likes of Matthew Fox from Lost, speaks volumes about the potential quality of the proposed concept, notwithstanding the director’s past dues as a gritty documentary style feature filmmaker.

The trouble is in the plots’ pretension: The narrative revolves around the attempted assassination of the American President, (played with oozing warm-natured charm by Hurt) during an international ‘war on terror’ summit at the Plaza Mayor in Salamanca, Spain. This event is then replayed from the various perspectives of surrounding characters, in order for the audience to grasp a ‘deeper knowledge and understanding’ of the motivations and perpetrators behind the pivotal attack: encouraging them to piece the intricate parts of the puzzle together. This may sound like a potentially provocative proposal, but in practice can’t be pulled off effectively enough unless you have an innovative solution to sustain an audiences’ interest during narrative repetition. Unfortunately Vantage Point doesn’t have much up its cinematic sleeves, instead opting for a lazy retread of the opening 23 minutes from various different geographical perspectives, interrupted by the obligatory freeze-frame and then followed by the fast-rewind that is already over familiar from its rather superficial use in Roger Avery’s youth flick The Rules of Attraction and (in fast forward) the MTV style murder sequences witnessed in the repetitive Saw series.

This might not have mattered if the aesthetic vitals had the audacious virtuoso mastery of a Brian De Palma for instance. It would at least make for persuasive voyeuristic indulgence, (imagine what they could have done had they employed 24 style split-screen?). But instead it’s done in such a strained, monotonous fast-cutting way that you’re just screaming to take control of the remote.

If this wasn’t bad enough we also get a dumbed down political agenda, (strange for a director of political triumphs), patronizing dialogue and blasé and cliché ridden narrative consequences that appear closer suited to a 1970s disaster movie. The character ‘reveals’ also serve to demean audiences’ intelligence making this appear more reminiscent of a compacted season of 24 than a stand alone feature in its own right, with the squirming American machismo more suited to a Rambo sequel.

The sole distinguishing factor that distances itself from all this sub-24 style shenanigans is an exhilarating car chase that involves Dennis Quaid’s Secret Service agent endlessly pursing the possible perpetrators in a Vauxhall Astra through the town’s narrow streets and walkways. The editing during this extended sequence (courtesy of Casino Royale’s Stuart Baird) is persuasively adrenaline-inducing and fast-cut to such a pace as to prove appropriately disorientating.

It’s the only notable highlight in an otherwise lukewarm forgettable conspiracy thriller, which proves that Hollywood doesn’t have the confidence to branch out into new territory – just retooling and rehearsing burnt-out ideas in an attempt to match previous box office potential. Rashomon this is not.