Apple set to land huge F1 movie project starring Brad Pitt

Film industry insiders have tipped Apple to have won the race to produce an upcoming Formula 1-themed movie starring Brad Pitt, following a furious bidding war between major film studios and streaming services.

Apple set to land huge F1 movie project starring Brad Pitt

Deadline reports that Apple Original Films is now in exclusive negotiations to seal a deal for the planned, and as-yet-untitled, Hollywood blockbuster feature film.

It is understood that Pitt will play a veteran racing star who comes out of retirement to mentor a young driver, while taking his own last chance at on-track glory. 

Rivals in the contention for this project were believed to be Amazon, Disney and Netflix, along with MGM, Paramount, Sony and Universal. 

Apple has already secured a movie package for Pitt to play alongside his Ocean’s Eleven and Burn After Reading co-star George Clooney in an upcoming thriller, written by Jon Watts – best-known for his recent productions of the Spider-Man franchise. 

Legendary Top Gun producer Jerry Bruckheimer is leading the F1 project, with Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski and scriptwriter Ehren Kruger also on board. Bruckheimer’s last motor racing-themed movie was Days of Thunder, the NASCAR blockbuster starring Tom Cruise in 1990. 

Pitt is a huge motorsports fan and had previously been part of a project with Kosinski for a Carroll Shelby-based film entitled Go Like Hell, which – after years of failing to raise the requisite budget – eventually morphed into the 2019 Matt Damon and Christian Bale Ford v Ferrari movie that grossed over $225million. 

Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt

Photo by: Adam Warner / LAT

Pitt also narrated Mark Neale’s 2015 MotoGP movie Hitting The Apex – saying he “holds the sport near and dear” – and was the honorary starter of the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours.

The budget for the new production is reckoned to be in the $130million-$140m range. Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton has already been connected with a role in the film, having previously starred in the Cars animated franchise and being one of many star names to have a cameo in Zoolander 2

In a 2019 interview with ESPN, Hamilton claimed he “had an opportunity” to appear in Top Gun: Maverick, which is set for a much-delayed film release in May, and also revealed that he’d auditioned for a part in a Hollywood film. 

He said: “I don't know if I am ever going to be good at movies, but I'll give it a try.” 

Hamilton has maintained a low public profile since the 2021 F1 finale in Abu Dhabi, in which he lost his shot at a record-breaking eighth title on the final lap, apart from collecting his knighthood at Windsor Castle and briefly appearing at Mercedes’ Brackley base for Valtteri Bottas’s farewell celebration.  

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