MUMBAI: Emile Hirsch will play the lead in Warner Bros Pictures’ and Village Roadshow Pictures’ new action film Speed Racer.

Hirsch has earned critical acclaim as the charismatic Johnny Truelove in the real-life crime drama Alpha Dog, and as skateboarding vanguard Jay Adams in Lords of Dogtown. He next stars as Christopher McCandless in Into the Wild, Sean Penn’s screen adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s bestseller, which is set for release this September.

Slated for release in the US on 9 May 2008, Speed Racer is being written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, and produced by Joel Silver under his Silver Pictures banner. The film not only marks a reunion for the Wachowski brothers and Silver, who previously worked together on the Matrix movies and V For Vendetta, but is the brothers’ first writing/directing collaboration since the Matrix movies.

Based on the classic series created by anime pioneer Tatsuo Yoshida, the live-action Speed Racer will follow the adventures of the young race car driver Speed in his quest for glory on and off the track in his thundering Mach 5.

“Emile Hirsch is one of today’s fastest rising young stars, which makes him the perfect choice to take the wheel of Speed’s 5 Mach. He continues to showcase his talents in a variety of challenging roles and we are thrilled to have him in the title role of Speed Racer,” says Warner Bros Pictures president of production Jeff Robinov.