Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt will become a grand prix driver this weekend.
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton have nothing to worry about, as Pitt won’t actually be racing, but his presence at the British Grand Prix is proof of the search for realism in a racing movie. new sport named top.
It will be filmed this year and is expected to have a large-scale theatrical release sometime in 2024.
filming of top begins this weekend, when Pitt will be in the pit at Silverstone racetrack in a garage built specifically for the movie.
It will look and feel like a real grand prix garage, thanks to an agreement with Formula 1 management that allows for a movie set along with 10 race facilities for real grand prix teams.
F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali said: “This will be the first movie where they will basically be in the racing event. motorsport.com.
“It will be quite invasive in terms of production, which is something we need to control in a way, but it will be another way to show that F1 never stops.”
The top the project has been underway for more than four years and Hamilton, a seven-time world champion with the McLaren and Mercedes-AMG teams, soon signed on as the project’s F1 consultant.
The film crew also includes star producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Joseph Kosinski, whose most recent blockbuster is Top Gun: Maverick.
The production team met with F1 senior management last year, at the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, to work out preliminary details, and Pitt has visited several races since.
Filming will include the use of modified Formula 2 cars, which will be driven on real tracks – including Silverstone – by professional drivers.
The cars will be re-skinned, most likely using computer-generated imagery (CGI) to look like genuine Formula One cars.
In addition to Pitt, who will play Sonny Hayes, the cast also includes Damson Idris, who plays Joshua Pearce.
The predictable scenario features Pitt as a retired racer returning to the character of mentor Idris.
If that sounds familiar, it’s similar to the setup for the second Top Guns movie – when Tom Cruise trains a team of younger fighter pilots.
In addition to the plot, other takeaways from Maverick includes small 6G cameras that can be inserted into and inside cars.
The top the scenario is similar to exorable promote film from 2001, a project by Sylvester Stallone that was originally planned to enter F1 but ended up moving to IndyCar racing in the US.
the low light of promotealso has Burt Reynolds in the cast, as Stallone races with his young protégé on the streets of Chicago in their race cars.
The top The project comes after a giant leap in the Formula 1 sequel thanks to Drive to survive TV series on Netflix.
wick treea 2013 film that recreates the real-world rivalry between Niki Lauda and James Hunt in Formula 1, is also a box office hit with Chris Hemsworth playing the role of Hunt.
Other F1 inspired movies include Senna – documentary on the rivalry between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost – 2010; Lucky from 2022, which tells the life story of former F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone; and, this year, Villeneuve-Pironi about the toxic relationship between Ferrari teammates Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi in the early 1980s.
