The animal rights group PETA, People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals, have sent a letter to “Speed Racer” producer Joel Silver over reports that the chimpanzee being used for the movie is in trouble. According to a rumor, the chimp bit an unnamed actor working on “Speed Racer” and was punished by being beaten. Citing “several troubling complains”, the PETA letter further states “No humane representative is closely monitoring those animals while off-set or during pre-production training, the very places where abuse is most likely to occur.”

A representative from the movie company making the picture, Warner Bros., downplayed the seriousness of the incident but did confirm that one of the actors was indeed bit by the simian. The movie studio said that the chimpanzee was not beaten but that it was given a “rest”, and that the American Humane Society had assured PETA that no animals were being harmed on the movie’s set. PETA refused to back down adding “the assurances you [Warner Bros.] offer are meaningless.”

“Speed Racer” is filming in Germany right now. It stars Emile Hirshe, Christina Ricci, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon and Matthew Fox and is being directed by the Wachowkis brothers (“The Matrix” trilogy.) The chimpanzee is playing the part of Chim-Chim, the mascot of the Mach 5 racing team.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 4th, 2007 at 9:42 pm and is filed under Speed Racer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.