A three-way collaboration between IndyCar, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) and DreamWorks Animation in a movie-themed partnership.
The US open wheel racing brands have teamed up with the Hollywood studio DreamWorks Animation to combine on the new DreamWorks cartoon film ‘Turbo’. Turbo, scheduled for release in July 2013, tells the story of a garden snail who dreams of winning the Indy 500.
IndyCar Entertainment, the California-based division of the US motor sport’s sanctioning body, will work with the film makers to make the racing scenes as accurate as possible. The three companies will also work together on public relations and marketing for the movie.
Sarah Nettinga, senior vice president of INDYCAR Entertainment, also says that IndyCar sponsors are involved in the project too. “We’ve given them [DreamWorks] some creative ideas and last year was spent refining the script, working through the legal and introducing them to our sponsors who would be integrated into the movie as that part is authentic to the racetrack.”
The partnership aims to ensure that the IndyCar environment and the racing itself is as authentic as possible.
A fourth partner, two-time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti, has also been signed up a technical consultant on the project.
Franchetti has been answering questions about everything racing: from the size and shape of the tyre rubber marbles that fly past a driver’s helmet during racing (which will appear to Turbo as enormous black rubber marshmallows) to how the driver responds to the dangers of the Indy 500 high speed corners.
“DreamWorks Animation’s alliance with the IndyCar team represents an authentic tie-in between a real-life race and an imagined adventure that is certain to culminate in a thrilling ride for the whole family next summer,” explains DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Ryan Reynolds will lead an all-star voiceover cast that also includes Paul Giamatti, Samuel L Jackson, Snoop Dogg and Michelle Rodriguez.
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The objective for IndyCar and the Indy 500 teams working on this project is that they’re expertise will add to the film’s success and that this in turn will help introduce a new, wider audience for open wheel racing.
This is especially true for a younger generation of animated movie watcher.
Although Dreamwork’s animation’s also deliberately targets the ‘kid-in-the-adult’, so Turbo is likely to be a family film.
“We believe new and existing fans of all ages will be captivated by the animated depiction of Indianapolis Motor Speedway as well as the wonderful characters that inhabit the universe of DreamWorks Animation’s Turbo,” says IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard.
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