Apple is expected to gain the rights to produce a huge Formula One film featuring Hollywood actor Brad Pitt.
According to Deadline, Apple is in exclusive talks for the Formula One-themed film, having outbid competitors such as Paramount, MGM, Sony, Universal, Disney, Netflix, and Amazon in a bidding battle.
Pitt, a two-time Academy Award winner, will play a driver who comes out of retirement to train a rookie racer and attempt one final bid for on-track glory as the younger driver’s partner in the untitled film.
According to Deadline, the film package is worth between $130 and $140 million before above-the-line compensation.
Joseph Kosinski, the director of Top Gun: Maverick and Tron: Legacy, is rumored to be in charge of the project. Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer of Top Gun and the co-producer of Tom Cruise’s NASCAR action film Days of Thunder, is believed to be producing with Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment company.
The initiative has also attracted the attention of Lewis Hamilton. The seven-time Formula One world champion has previously appeared in the Cars franchise and Zoolander 2.
Hamilton admitted to wanting to be a part of a Hollywood movie in a 2019 interview with ESPN, after revealing that he had to turn down a position in the delayed Top Gun sequel because to his busy F1 schedule.
“I don’t know if I’m going to be good at acting,” Hamilton said at the time. “I don’t know if I am ever going to be good at movies, but I’ll give it a try. You look at a lot of people that do it and they are not really good … and I know how hard it is for any craft, because it’s taken me years to master what I do.
“I know in anything, whatever it may be, to master a craft it takes so much time and effort. But because I have experienced it in Formula 1, I understand that and appreciate that.
“So I know if I do movies, I have to put so much work in and have so much ground to cover. I don’t know if I will ever have time for that because the fashion stuff is also going to take a lot of my time.”
F1’s excursion onto the big screen would not be its first. Rush, directed by Ron Howard and starring Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl, told the story of the 1976 Formula One season and the epic rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda.
The uniforms of FORMULA 1 racing drivers are currently available at the following websites for a reasonable price:
