hall of famer sponsored by Royalton Industries Yu Nan as Horuko Togokahn, Taejo Togokhan's sister Nayo Wallace as Minx, a scientist and Racer X's girlfriend Melvil Poupaud as Johnny 'Goodboy' Jones, a race commentator Chim Chim, Spritle's pet chimpanzee and best friend is portrayed by two chimpanzees: "Kenzie" and "Willy". Togo Igawa as Tetsua Togokahn, Taejo and Horuko's father, and a corporate rival to both Royalton and Musha Joon Park as Kakkoi Teppodama, a Japanese racer for Musha Motors tasked with taking out Speed at the Grand Prix for a million dollars. He is credited as "Yakuza Driver" in the end credits. Series original English dubbing artists Peter Fernandez and Corinne Orr appear as race announcers. Andres Cantor also makes a cameo as a Spanish language race announcer. Venezuelan professional racer Milka Duno also makes a cameo appearance as Kellie "Gearbox" Kalinkov, a Grand Prix racer who is tasked with eliminating Speed in exchange of collecting a bounty of a million dollars by Royalton. Production Development In September 1992, Joe Pytka announced that Warner Bros. held the option to create a live-action film adaptation of the 1960s Japanese anime and manga series Speed Racer, in development at Silver Pictures. In October 1994, singer Henry Rollins was offered the role of Racer X. In June 1995, Johnny Depp was cast into the lead role for Speed Racer, with production slated to begin the coming October, with filming to take place in California and Arizona. The following August, Depp requested time off to the studio for personal business, delaying production. However, due to an overly high budget, the same August, director Julien Temple left the project. Depp, without a director, also departed from the project. The studio considered director Gus Van Sant as a replacement for Temple, though it would not grant writing privileges to Van Sant. In December 1997, the studio briefly hired Alfonso Cuarón as director. In the various incarnations of the project, screenwriters Marc Levin, Jennifer Flackett, J. J. Abrams, and Patrick Read Johnson had been hired to write scripts. In September 2000, Warner Bros. and producer Lauren Shuler Donner hired music video director Hype Williams to take the helm of the project. In October 2001, the studio hired screenwriters Christian Gudegast and Paul Scheuring for $1.2 million split between them to write a script for the film. Eventually, without production getting under way, the director and the writers