Brad Pitt’s new F1 movie trailer will be out in a matter of hours, and fans are excited to catch some of the plot details in the new trailer. The earlier teaser of the movie promised that the film would be technically brilliant. We might get a high-octane action movie on tracks with F1, but the movie still has a long way to go to achieve the success of another Formula One-based movie.
A decade ago, Daniel Brühl and Chris Hemsworth starred in one of the most underrated racing movies of all time, Rush. While Rush brought the thrill of the real-life competition between two racers on the screen, F1 will be about a veteran racer returning to the tracks to mentor a rookie driver.
Brad Pitt’s F1 will face its biggest challenge in beating Chris Hemsworth’s Rush
Brad Pitt’s new film Formula 1, stylized as F1, is set to hit the theaters on June 25, 2025. The film is being helmed by Top Gun: Maverick director Joe Kosinski. In this film, Kosinski reunites with his Top Gun producer Jerry Bruckheimer and screenwriter Ehren Kruger. The filming took place on real-life racing tracks, and racing star Lewis Hamilton serves as a producer on the film.
The story follows a former Formula One driver, Sonny Hayes, played by Pitt, who’s brought back to mentor rookie driver Joshua Pearce, played by Damson Idris. The film also stars Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies, Javier Bardem, and Sarah Niles. The film has been a talking point in the racing community after the film worked closely with them over the last two racing seasons.
However, the film still has a long way to go in beating one of the best Formula One films ever made. Rush becomes a must-watch in this genre due to the story it chose to tell in the film. The famous rivalry between British Formula One driver James Hunt and Austrian driver Niki Lauda itself had all the elements of a cinematic story.
In the 1976 motor racing season, the two drivers managed to keep F1 fans on the edge of their seats. Marvel stars Daniel Brühl and Chris Hemsworth played the roles of Lauda and Hunt. The film was written by Peter Morgan and directed by Ron Howard.
Brühl was brilliant in portraying the different sides of Lauda: his cool, calculating nature; his fear of vulnerabilities after marriage, and his struggles after the horrible accident. Hemsworth played the brash, confident Hunt pretty easily while also showing Hunt’s guilt-ridden side.
Unlike Pitt’s film, Rush didn’t have all-access to Formula One cars. When the film began production, Hemsworth and Brühl couldn’t drive real F1 cars. It was reported that they drove Formula 3 vehicles, which were disguised as Formula 1 cars in the film. The film sure had some historical inaccuracies in it, but the overall dramatization added to the viewer’s enjoyment (via Empire).
The film grossed $98.2 million against a budget of $38 million (via The Numbers). Besides Rush, other films based on Formula 1 include Grand Prix (1963), Senna (2010), Ford v Ferrari (2019), Ferrari (2003), Williams (2017), and documentaries like 1 (2013) and Weekend of a Champion (1972).
Brad Pitt’s F1 reportedly has a huge budget, and it is a challenge
Director Joe Kosinski wanted the film to be shot on real-life racing tracks to keep as much originality as possible. Speaking to Deadline, both Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer admitted to the challenges of filming in real locations. Kosinski shared that the huge logistical undertakings of Formula One races were unlike anything he had done earlier.
Pitt and Idris actually drove the cars during the scenes in front of a live audience of thousands of Formula One fans. They also had to drive it at the speeds that actual F1 drivers were going. The real-life locations of the film included:
- Silverstone Circuit
- Hungaroring
- Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
- Monza Circuit
- Circuit Zandvoort
- Suzuka International Racing Course
- Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez
- Las Vegas Strip Circuit
- Yas Marina Circuit
According to Variety, Pitt drove a modified Formula 2 car with an added Formula One aero package. According to F1i.com, the production team used Mercedes-developed cars, and the operation was overseen by Carlin Motorsport. The filming crew had their own paddock and pitlane at several venues, with a proper motorhome, garage, and pit gantry.
The real-life locations meant that the film worked on a massive production budget to begin with. Kosinski, Pitt, and the F1 team also faced a production delay due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, further driving the costs up. Matthew Belloni of Puck News reported that the budget of the film has crossed the $300 million mark.
While Bruckheimer and Kosinski refuted the budget claim, the film may have still cost them a good fortune. If the reports are true about the $300 million budget, the film will need to make $600 million minimum to break even and almost $750-900 million to call it a profitable film, according to Hollywood calculations. It is definitely an uphill task for the film.
F1 will hit theaters on June 25, 2025. Rush is now available for rent on Apple TV.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
