Speed Racer is a 2008 sports action comedy film written and directed by the Wachowskis, based on the manga series of the same name created by Tatsuo Yoshida. The film, an international co-production between the United States and Germany, stars Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, Matthew Fox, Roger Allam, Benno Fürmann, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rain, and Richard Roundtree. The plot revolves around Speed Racer, an 18-year-old automobile racer who follows his apparently deceased brother's career, choosing to remain loyal to his family and their company Racer Motors, which causes difficulties after he refuses a contract that E.P. Arnold Royalton, owner of Royalton Industries, offers him.

Benjamin "Benno" Fürmann is a German film and television actor. He is known for his lead role in the 2008 film The North Face, where he plays Toni Kurz based on the 1936 Eiger climbing disaster in Switzerland, the lead actor in Christian Petzold's Jerichow, Agnieszka Holland's In Darkness, and as the voice actor for Puss in Boots of the Shrek franchise in the German Dub.