Speed Racer to Close Tribeca Film Festival

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on April 2, 2008

Until now, I really haven’t found much to be excited about when it comes to this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. Last year’s festival opened with the premiere of Spider-Man 3, while this year’s festival is set to open with the Chiwetel Ejiofor mix martial arts actioner Redbelt — and while Redbelt will probably be a better film than Spidey 3, I don’t see that as a reason to make the trip all the way out to New York.

Today we got some cool news from the Tribeca Press office that the festival, which was founded in 2001 by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff, will close with The Wachowski’s tripped out, CGI-infused cartoon adaptation Speed Racer. This will be mark the world premiere of the Warner Brothers film, which is scheduled to hit theaters nationwide on May 9th. Now, if you are in New York and can weasel your way into tickets, you may be able to see the film 6 days early, on May 3rd.

“Warner Bros. has been a big part of the Festival many times over the years and we are thrilled that the Wachowskis and producer Joel Silver are bringing Speed Racer to us this year to close the Festival,” said Jane Rosenthal, co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival in a press release sent out this morning.

So while this announcement isn’t going to have me scouring the internet for a cheap flight to NYC, it is pretty cool. As well, we will not be without coverage of the event, as our own Robin Ruinsky is taking to the streets of the Tribeca district to cover the festival when it gets underway on April 23.

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