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.

Speed Racer has found his girlfriend. Raven-haired Christina Ricci has been cast in the part of Trixie, the love interest of the hero in the live action adaptation of the classic Japanese cartoon series. As she was portrayed in the cartoon Trixie is an independent young woman who helps Speed as a part of the Mach 5 racing team as well as holds the key to his heart. Ricci joins the previously announced Emile Hirsch as Speed Racer, John Goodman as Pops Racer and Susan Sarandon as Mom Racer.

Christina Ricci is a young actress of extraordinary range, who has become a favorite of both critics and audiences in a wide variety of movies, from mainstream features to acclaimed indie films. She is an amazing talent and we think she is going to do a great job with the role of Trixie,” said Jeff Robinov, President of Production for the movie company that is releasing “Speed Racer”.

The 27-year-old actress was most recently seen starring opposite Samuel L. Jackson in “Black Snake Moan”. Ricci also appeared in two recent episodes of the small screen hit series “Grey’s Anatomy”. She is probably still best remembered as gloomy daughter Wednesday Addams in the two “Addams Family” movies from the 1990’s.

The directors of the mega-franchise “The Matrix” are hard at work on their next blockbuster. “Speed Racer” will be a $100 million dollar adaptation of a cult Japanese cartoon from the 1960s about a young driver known only as Speed who drives a high performance racing car called the Mach 5. Speed and his gang of friends compete in a world-spanning race circuit for cash and the glory in beating his rival, the evil Racer X.

The Wachowski brothers have selected 22-year-old Emile Hirsch as their Speed, the star of “The Girl Next Door” and “Alpha Dog“. This will be the biggest movie to date for Hirsch and it will also kick off the summer 2008 movie season when it opens in theaters on May 8, 2008. “It’s something that you’ve never really seen before,” said Hirsch in an interview discussing the movie’s vision. “It’s like ‘Blade Runner’ meets Andy Warhol, kind of pop art in this colorful world.”

The producer of the movie, Joel Silver, also said that the special effects for the racing scenes will be of a similar mind-bending nature as the bullet time sequences were in the first “Matrix” film. If the guys responsible for “The Matrix” can make a huge leap forward again in special effects watching real NASCAR racing may never be the same again!