After much speculation, Apple has finally sealed the deal on Brad Pitt’s untitled Formula 1 racing movie, Variety reports. Director Joseph Kosinski, who is currently riding high on the success of Tom Cruise's Top Gun: Maverick, is set to direct.
This year Apple became the first studio to bag the Best Picture Oscar for CODA and since has been making moves to ramp up its movie library. Pitt will play a veteran driver who comes out of retirement in a bid to aid a younger rookie driver and the titans of the sport. The 58-years-old actor is around three years older than the eldest F1 driver in history, Louis Chiron, who was 55 years old.
The racing project marks Apple’s second project with Pitt. The streamer and actor are also collaborating on another untitled project by MCU’s Spider-Man trilogy fame director Jon Watts. Pitt will be joined by friend and co-actor George Clooney, and they will be playing two lone-wolf fixers assigned to the same job.
Long ago, Kosinski and Pitt tried to make another racing movie together called Go Like Hell. Pitt would have played American automotive designer, Carroll Shelby. However, that plan never worked out. Nonetheless, a version of Shelby’s story was told in Netflix’s Ford V Ferrari, with Academy Award winning actor Matt Damon portraying Shelby and Christian Bale playing British driver Ken Miles.
Pitt and Kosinski’s untitled project reunites the director with many from the Maverick team. Writer Ehren Kruger is penning the screenplay. Chad Oman of Jerry Bruckheimer Films returns to produce alongside Kosinski while Copper CEO Penni Thow serves as executive producer.
Also joining the racing project is Sir Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time Formula 1 world champion who will produce along with Pitt’s Plan B banner. The world champion is no newbie to the movie business with credit like Cars 2, Cars 3, Zoolander 2, and even popped up as a video game character in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.
Recently, motorsport films and documentaries have proven to be profitable and huge successes on both the big and small screens. Amazon has announced its own exclusive series documenting the 2021 MotoGP season. Similarly, Netflix’s Drive to Survive documentary on Formula 1 is approaching its fourth series. Previously, Rush, starring Chris Hemsworth as James Hunt and Daniel Brühl as Niki Lauda, was a major hit grossing almost $100million at the box office.
There are no further details available for the untitled movie at the moment.