Christina Ricci is joining Larry and Andy Wachowski’s live-action adaptation of the 1960s cartoon “Speed Racer” for Warner Bros. Pictures and producer Joel Silver.

Emile Hirsch, Susan Sarandon and John Goodman already have boarded the high-octane project, which is based on the anime series created by Tatsuo Yoshida for Japanese audiences and later imported to the U.S.

“Speed” centers on a young race car driver, Speed (Hirsch), and his quest for glory in his thundering, gadget-laden vehicle Mach 5. Ricci will star as Speed’s girlfriend Trixie, his formidable ally on and off the track.

The show revolved around Speed’s family. In the big-screen adaptation, Goodman will play Pops, a race car owner and builder. Sarandon is on board as Pops’ wife, the backbone of the family as well as the Mach 5 Go Racing Team.

The Wachowskis, who are writing and directing, are eyeing a summer shoot in Berlin with a summer 2008 release.

The film will be a Warners presentation in association with Village Roadshow Pictures of a Silver Pictures production.

The casting is a change in direction for Ricci, who has tended to star in such indie-oriented fare as “Monster,” “Penelope” and the recent “Black Snake Moan.” She also appeared on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” a turn that earned her an Emmy nomination last year. Ricci is repped by ICM, Brillstein-Grey and attorney Melanie Cook.

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Christina Ricci, the model for Samsonite Black Label’s new Fashionaire luggage collection, arrived at the Gramercy Park Hotel looking gorgeous Thursday in a backless dress. A fearsome lion tattoo peered out from her back.

“It’s Aslan, the lion God of Narnia, from ‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,’” she told us. 

So why Aslan? 

“It was a symbol of my hellish childhood,” she said. “I struggled through my oppressive teenage years, and when I turned 18, I escaped. Like Aslan, I was finally free.” 

So, what happened in her childhood? 

“That’s not party talk.”

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Update: Apparently it’s not a new tattoo… so sue me.

Gorgeous!

Playing a chained-up, half-naked nymphomaniac in her new movie Black Snake Moan helped Christina Ricci overcome her prudish nature, because now she parades around in her underwear all the time.

The former child star had to face her fears of baring almost all for the film and decided the best way to get comfortable with revealing scenes was to wear nothing but lingerie at all times – even after cameras stopped rolling.

She admits the ruse worked and made cast and crew think nothing of her revealing scenes when director Craig Brewer came to shoot them. And her new naked ambition lasted long after the movie wrapped.

Ricci says, “I’m a prude and I do not like walking around naked and I was in my bathroom about two months after the movie finished and I was brushing my teeth and I was in my underwear and I looked down and was like, ‘Oh, God, put something on.’

“Then I just stopped and thought, ‘Oh my god, I was half naked for two months and my a*s was on camera.’ “I called my sister and I was like, ‘Is it OK to wear nothing around the house? I’m freaking out.’”

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