While Hollywood has been keen to find any and every classic cartoon character they can get their hands on and turn then a live action/CG movie, one that’s been missing from the list is the fastest mouse in the west, Speedy Gonzales. The reason for that is that for quite a while he’s been rather politically sensitive, with many accusing the character of being a racist collection of outdated Mexican stereotypes.
However it appears New Line reckon they can get around that, as THR reports the studio has hired Garfield scribes Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen to handle the screenplay for a CG/live-action Speedy Gonzales movie. And just to try and head off tutting from Mexican-American groups at the very idea of the film, they’ve already attached George Lopez to voice the character, who’s well known for having turned down roles in the past (such as in Desperado) that he considers depict Latinos in a negative way.
Lopez will also produce the film through his ‘George Lopez Presents’ banner, with his production partner (and wife), Ann Lopez saying that the new film will have a modern sensibility made under George’s “Latino seal of approval” (who knew one comedian/actor got to say what is and isn’t racist for an entire community, but there you go). Ann Lopez was also keen to point out that “We wanted to make sure that it was not the Speedy of the 1950s – the racist Speedy – Speedy’s going to be a misunderstood boy who comes from a family that works in a very meticulous setting, and he’s a little too fast for what they do. He makes a mess of that. So he has to go out in the world to find what he’s good at.” Apparently that path becomes clearer when he meets a gun-shy race-car driver.
They’re certainly getting into a bit of a minefield with this one, as Speedy Gonzales has been utterly loathed by many Mexican-Americans for decades (they weren’t that keen on him when he first appeared in the 1950s, but opposition grew to the point where he’s rarely seen on TV at all nowadays). New Line seems to be betting that the presence of George Lopez, one of the US’s top Latino stars, will be enough to clear any hurdles, but we’ll have to wait and see.