Brad Pitt and Damson Idris film at Silverstone in July 2023
Is Brad Pitt's Formula 1 movie late to the finish line? The untitled project was announced in late 2021 and has since intensified speculation with reports of delays, problems with distributors and a budget that topped the $300 million mark, which would make it one of the most expensive films ever. did. The Formula One-funded film, a collaboration between Apple Studios, hyped action producer Jerry Bruckheimer and seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton, is a bit of a risky endeavor. After all, racing movies don't do 100% at the box office.
Just as Tom Cruise swapped the cockpit from Top Gun to Days of Thunder, Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski is behind the wheel, showing off the 6K camera technology developed for the Top Gun sequel's fighter jets. “It's going to be really good,” Brad Pitt told former Formula One driver Martin Brundle in an interview last July. It looks like the film will truly be incredible; that is if it ever actually arrives.
The bad sign is that it doesn't even have a name yet. The Internet Movie Database lists the film as the rather unsexy “Untitled Formula One Racing Movie.” MotorSport, however, reports that one rumor is that the name is “Apex”, which sounds more like a macho, adrenaline-fuelled racing film – and is similar to the fictional Formula 1 team from the film, APX GP.
What we do know is that it follows in the footsteps of the John Frankenheimer-led Grand Prix (1966) and the Steve McQueen-starring Le Mans (1971), both of which used actual racing footage. Pitt himself was present to film the Silverstone circuit during last year's British Grand Prix. Some reports about the film have deviated greatly from reality. But it is true that production was stalled due to the SAG-AFTRA strike between July and November last year. By this point, filming seems to have dragged on longer than Mission: Impossible. So when will this come into view? And what do we know about the film so far?
We may not know the title of the film, but details of the story have been rumored for a while now – and it sounds like classic sports movie fodder.
Brad Pitt will play Sonny Hayes, an avid Formula 1 racer in the 1990s. But after a devastating accident, Hayes left Formula 1 and now competes in other competitions. (Some of the filming took place during this year's Daytona 24-hour race, where Pitt's character drove a Porsche 911 GTD, which gives us an idea of where Sonny is when the film begins.)
Like Rocky Balboa before him, Hayes is coaxed out of retirement – in this case by motorsport boss Javier Bardem, whose AXP GP team is lagging behind on the race track. Sonny returns to Formula One as a “sort of Hail Mary” (Pitt's words) to partner and mentor young prodigy Joshua Pearce, played by British actor Damson Idris.
Brad Pitt at the Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas, October 2022. Photo: Getty
As Pitt told Brundle, the real Formula 1 fully supports this project. Following the success of the Netflix documentary series Formula 1: Drive to Survive, Formula 1 management realized the power of cinematic advertising. Stefano Domenicali, Formula One's chief executive, told investors that Pitt's film would be beneficial for promoting their sport.
“It will be quite aggressive from a production standpoint,” he said. “It's something we need to control in a way, but it will be another way of showing that Formula 1 never stops.”
Some early reports suggested that Brad Pitt would race alongside real drivers at real Grands Prix as part of an “11th team”. According to racing website The Race, there was “some hysteria” over the rumors as fans complained about Formula One's refusal to allow a true 11th team to compete, part of the fan discontent with Liberty Media, which took over the assume responsibility for the Formula 1 group. “Some people will inevitably complain that opening up the live paddock and especially the starting grid to filmmakers was another sign of the erosion of the sports side under Liberty Media,” Scott Mitchell-Malm wrote for The Race. “And proof that the priority is now spectacle.”
This turned out to be an exaggeration. Indeed, when filming of the British Grand Prix began at Silverstone last July, The Race paid tribute to the crew for staying out of sight: “It was impressive how the crew avoided getting in everyone's way.”
As part of the trip to Silverstone, producers showed a sort of fictional APX GP car. It's actually a Formula 2 car modified by Mercedes to look like a Formula 1 racer. The cars are covered in cameras, including what camera experts say is the smallest mobile 6K camera ever created, to capture the racing action and put spectators in the cockpit along with the actors. “You've never seen speed… you've never seen g-forces like this,” Pitt told Martin Brundle. “It's really very interesting.”
A garage built for Pitt's character Sonny Hayes at Silverstone. Photo: Shutterstock
The car is painted gold and black. , which MotorSport compared to the Haas team cars in 2019, although X users also compared the APX GP car to a giant Duracell battery.
As filming took place in the run-up to the Grand Prix, the fictional APX GP team at Silverstone had a very realistic setting: two garages located along the pit lane – one each for drivers Pitt and Idris – with replica equipment and a hotel block. , telemetry equipment and signage. “Though the constant presence of multiple cameramen and film equipment always ensured that the mirage never fully took hold,” writes The Race.
The garages were located between the Mercedes and Ferrari teams, and they were trained by Trevor Carlin's team (Carlin is the founder of Carlin Motorsport).
Brad Pitt performed at Silverstone – but not at the Grand Prix, of course. He got behind the wheel for scenes filmed after the weekend qualifying event, which takes place the day before the race itself. Pitt, who had previous experience riding motorcycles but not cars, told Brundle that being around real Formula One drivers was “really humbling”. “I don’t know if you can call my circle hot,” he joked. “I call it a warm circle. I accidentally walked on the grass a few times.” (Reserve drivers saved Pitt from blushing and set up a wheelie race at Silverstone.) Pitt added: “As a civilian, I had no idea… I had no idea what it takes to be a driver – aggression and agility. . They are amazing athletes and I have a lot of respect for that.”
The 'Apex' The car driven by Brad Pitt in the new film. Photo: Getty
Pitt also attended the drivers' briefing and explained their filming plans. Lewis Hamilton called it “probably the best driver briefing we've ever had.”
Hamilton, who finished third at the British Grand Prix, is produced by his own production company, Dawn Apollo. The company is also producing a documentary about Hamilton's life and career. “I’ve always been into film,” Hamilton told Deadline when the company launched in 2022. “I watch a lot. I think this is a real escape.”
Hamilton also serves as a consulting consultant to ensure authenticity and respect. Pitt said Hamilton was “really committed to making sure we respected the sport and really showed it for what it is.” MotorSport reports that Hamilton, who drives for Mercedes, helped Kosinski choose the best camera positions at the British Grand Prix and controlled the frame rate “to make the cars look as fast as possible.” (Hamilton almost got the role of a pilot in Kosinski's Top Gun: Maverick, but it didn't work out.)
The closest Pitt gets to actual Grand Prix action is a few shots of him and Idris walking to their cars and lining up with the drivers during the national anthem. Pitt and Idris were well hidden on television thanks to clever camera work.
The APX GP cars did take a position behind the real drivers on the formation lap – the slower lap that takes place before the real start of the race – and were also not visible in the TV coverage. They started a few seconds later than the real racers. One of the APX GP cars quickly turned onto the exit road, while the other car, as noted by a Reddit user who was there, stalled, stalled and was hastily driven off the starting line. Pitt assured armchair experts that any branches and stalls were made “by design.”
Brad Pitt with director Joseph Kosinski Photo: Getty
The crew was scheduled to attend six other Grand Prix events in 2023, but filming was disrupted by the SAG-AFTRA strike. Filming did not properly resume until the Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in November. Although the filming took place at the Italian Grand Prix in September, where they filmed the pit stops. Mechanics were filmed pretending to change the tires on an APX GP car.
Formula 1 photographer Kim Illman wrote on Instagram that smaller units were able to capture some footage of other GPs, although without the main characters.
Filming has resumed and production will continue throughout the 2024 Formula 1 season. According to Illman, “large-scale filming” will take place in Silverstone, Hungary, and Spa, with smaller filming planned in Japan, Mexico, Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi. According to his estimates, crews of 300-400 people attend the races.
There appear to be even more obstacles in the way with reports that delays with the strike have led to continuity errors because the film's sponsorship deals have changed since the strike. Supposedly, millions of dollars worth of footage was found to be unusable and had to be re-shot. A Formula One spokesman denied the claims, saying that “the film remains on schedule and on track for its original 2025 release date” and that “all footage filmed [in 2023] is current.” The rep also confirmed that Pitt and Idris will be traveling to race tracks during the 2024 season to film racing scenes.
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Of course, all that gas and horsepower—not to mention star power—doesn't come cheap. Recent reports claim that the film has topped $300 million, which would place it among the most expensive films ever made, which would certainly push it closer to the top 10. And racing films are known for occupying pole position at the box office. Ford v Ferrari did reasonably well, although Michael Mann's Ferrari starring Adam Driver crashed last year. It made back just under half of its $95 million budget, and Pitt's film so far cost three times that amount. According to Koimoi, the Formula 1 film will need to gross a whopping $750 million to break even.
And while the film is apparently slated for release in 2025, it doesn't appear to have a distributor other than Apple TV, according to a Formula 1 spokesperson. It seems incredible that a film of this magnitude with such technical innovation would go straight to streaming.
Koimoi reports that “Warner Bros. and Sony are at the forefront of distribution, but the film's high budget and initial financial requirements are causing headaches even for major studios. Consequently, the release date of Brad Pitt's Formula 1 racing film is still undecided.”
If Kosinski is up to the task, this film could be a technical, adrenaline-pumping triumph – a film destined to stand on the winner's podium and get doused in champagne. Better this than a race to the bottom.
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