By Alan Baldwin
(Reuters) – Brad Pitt’s speed is real and Hollywood’s F1 movie will be the most authentic racing film ever seen when it hits cinema screens in June, according to seven times Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton.
The Ferrari driver said the Apple Original Films production had got the lot — “Brad Pitt, speed, thrills, an epic underdog story, drama, humour and a little bit of romance” — and would deliver on every level.
A two-minute trailer for ‘F1’, to be released internationally by Warner Bros Pictures on June 25 with Hamilton credited as a co-producer, provided a taste of the action on Thursday.
“Watching Brad drive around at speeds over 180 miles an hour was really impressive to see because it’s not something you can just learn overnight,” said Hamilton, whose season starts in Australia this weekend, in recorded comments at a launch event.
“The dedication and the focus that Brad put into this process has been amazing to witness.”
Directed by Joseph Kosinski of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ fame, the movie also stars Javier Bardem as owner of a team on the verge of failure.
British actor Damson Idris is hotshot Joshua Pearce alongside ageing redemption-seeking racer Sonny Hayes, played by Pitt who is 61 in real life.
Shot at grand prix weekends, Pitt and Idris drove F2 cars adapted by Mercedes and kitted out with cameras and recording equipment.
The fictitious APX team had their own garage and pitwall with cars positioned at the back of the grid before the races started.
They had 10-15 minute slots for laps between practice and qualifying sessions, drivers ready to go with tyres warmed and cameras rolling as soon as the track action ended.
Hundreds of thousands of fans remained unaware that a helmeted Hollywood superstar was lapping in front of them.
Kosinski said Hamilton, 40, had shaped the narrative and also wanted to be sure, early on, that Pitt could really drive.
“If Brad can’t drive, this whole film wasn’t going to work, and what Lewis was very happy to discover was that, you know, Brad had a lot of just natural ability right from the start,” he explained.
“I don’t know where he got that… he rides motorcycles which I think has something to do with it but he’s just a very talented, naturally gifted driver which gave Lewis a lot of confidence that we might have a shot at pulling this off.”
Kosinski said filming, with remotely-operated on-car cameras slimmed to a quarter of the size of those used on Top Gun, was “like a live stage play… shooting at 180 miles an hour literally. It was an adrenaline rush every weekend.”
Pitt and Idris had months of training.
“When you see Brad driving, that’s not acting. He’s really concentrating on keeping that car on the track and out of the wall during all those scenes so that’s something that you just can’t fake,” said Kosinski.
Formula One sees the film building on the hit Netflix docu-series ‘Drive to Survive’ that Kosinski first watched during the COVID-19 pandemic and is now in its seventh season.
“I loved how the first season of the show focused on the last placed teams, the underdogs, rather than the Ferraris, the Mercedes, the Red Bulls, the teams that you see at the front of the pack,” he said.
“I thought that there was an interesting story to be told about an underdog team… just trying to win one race against these titans of the sport.”
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Toby Davis)
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