F1: Brad Pitt film to take F1 to ‘another dimension’
A movie produced and starring Brad Pitt will take Formula 1 to “another dimension”, according to F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali.
Formula 1 is booming right now. Just ask any one of the 440,000 people who flooded through the gates to watch the United States Grand Prix at the weekend.
And next year COTA boss Bobby Epstein says they are shooting for a weekend attendance of 500,000.
Maybe it’s all Drive to Survive. Perhaps it’s the lingering adrenaline from last year’s very close title decide. Perhaps it’s all just a post-pandemic spike in getting outside.
Whatever the reason, people can’t get enough of F1.
The sport is ready to capitalize in new and interesting ways. Luckily enough, one such new and interesting idea appears to have landed in its lap.
It’s long been known that Brad Pitt is behind a project to bring Formula 1 to the silver screen in a new film, with Lewis Hamilton the co-producer. He now appears to have the sport itself on board in a big way, opening some massive and unprecedented doors for access.
Pitt is engaged in the early stages of producing a movie based on the F1 championship, in which he will also star. The film will be helmed by director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who most recently collaborated on Top Gun: Maverick. Lewis Hamilton will also co-produce the movie.
Pitt, a dual Academy Award winner, was in the paddock during the United States Grand Prix weekend to have meetings with Formula 1 boss and team principals about standing up the project, and Domenicali has revealed that the sport will be more closely involved with the film than just advising or licensing its intellectual property.
“I think it‘s serious stuff,” Domenicali told Autosport.
“This is another step in the growth. We truly believe that it will enable F1 to be in another dimension that was not explored so deeply and so well until today.”
Domenicali said that production would take place during race weekends, with the actual teams and drivers being invited to participate.
“You will see a lot of things will happen next year on the preparation, and it‘s exciting because all the teams will be involved, the drivers, everyone,” he said.
“They will be there, the real [cars], that will be involved in the movie.
“We are already planning all the activity and the activation that needs to be done in a real race weekend, we‘re going to start in the second half of [2023] for the production.”
“Movies will be part of what we‘re going to build for the future to attract a new audience and also to invest in extra revenue that will come,” he said. In part from FOX Sports