Yokohama Pumped Up for Big Screen Role

Yokohama has announced it has concluded a product placement agreement for the latest Hollywood film by Matrix directors the Wachowski brothers. The film, written and directed by the brothers, is titled Speed Racer and is scheduled for release in major international markets in May 2008.

Under the agreement, Yokohama will supply tyres for the technological star of the film, a car named “Mach 5,” and upon the film’s release the tyremaker also carry out extensive promotional activities in some 40 countries where it operates overseas subsidiaries and affiliates. Yokohama reports that it looks forward to the opportunity to further enhance global recognition of the ‘Yokohama’ brand name through association with this film.

The Wachowski brothers and the producers chose Yokohama to be its partner after favourably evaluating the company’s tyres in several key areas, reports Yokohama, including brand image, the tyremaker’s global promotional strategy, as well as the tyres themselves. The Yokohama shod “Mach 5” was first shown to international media at a press conference on May 31, 2007, to announce production in Berlin.

Speed Racer is a live-action film based on the Japanese animation series “Mach Go Go Go,” popular in the US when it aired there in the 1960s. The production team from the Matrix movies has been working on the film, which stars Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci and Matthew Fox, star of the television series ‘Lost’.