Latest news with #JosephKosinski
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Brad Pitt in the paddock: how F1 the Movie went deep to keep fans coming
After the British Grand Prix last year the drivers took their places in the media zone to conduct interviews, with Formula One world champions Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso among them. Yet it was all but impossible not to cast a glance sideways as Brad Pitt nonchalantly strolled out to face the microphones and cameras of his own, entirely staged, media scrum. None of us in the media pack openly goggled at the fact that Hollywood's A-list had joined the sweaty throng, because Pitt was there filming what would become F1 the Movie. And we, as with everyone else, were under strict instructions to behave normally. Indeed, as farcical as it might sound, by this point we had become almost inured to the presence of the stars and their crew after several years of being part and parcel of the F1 circus. Almost but not quite. I mean, it was Brad Pitt … The resulting film, released next Wednesday by Apple Studios, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Top Gun: Maverick's Joseph Kosinski, stars Pitt as the veteran driver Sonny Hayes, who makes a comeback to the sport after a 30-year absence to rescue the ailing and also fictional APX team. The film, which has had largely positive reviews so far – including from the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw – came about through an unusually proactive collaboration between the filmmakers and the sport. F1 bent over backwards to ensure it went well. The production filmed at circuits on real race weekends for over two years. The APX team enjoyed their own pit garage, their own hospitality and their own uniforms. With Pitt being filmed alongside real drivers and indeed the media around the grid and the 'paddock' (the working area of an F1 team), the filmmakers were effectively embedded within the sport as its 11th team – perhaps as deeply as it is possible for an entity to go without actually being a real team. They have also used real cars, albeit less-powerful Formula 2 models modified to look as close as possible to F1 cars by the Mercedes F1 team. Pitt and his co-star Damson Idris have filmed in cars, with Pitt doing all his own driving. He's been praised by Hamilton for picking up the skills quickly. Hamilton is both one of the producers and a special adviser to ensure the picture is as authentic as possible. For the producers, the collaboration is relatively straightforward. They wanted to make as authoritative, exciting and immersive a film as possible. And for the sport the movie is a key part of its global strategy. For many years F1 enjoyed a strong but undoubtedly niche-based support, largely centred on Europe and with a notably ageing, white-male demographic. But since Liberty Media took over the sport in 2017 from its former chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, who had been in charge for nearly 40 years, it has undergone a rapid and dramatic transformation. Liberty has expanded its reach, notably using social media and promotion to actively target a younger, more diverse audience. The enormously successful Netflix series Drive to Survive followed, its dramatic and sharply edited retelling of each season proving a huge hit with a market previously indifferent to F1. Drive to Survive is now in its seventh season since 2019. Suddenly the sport had an entirely new, enthusiastic fanbase; younger, excited and building momentum across the world – notably in the market every non US-based sport craves, North America. F1 has moved from one moderately well-attended race in Texas to three sellouts a year, now also including Miami and a night-race promoted by F1 itself on the streets of Las Vegas. Tyler Epp, the Miami GP president, noted that their audience is 'growing most aggressively in the 20- and 30-year-old buyer. Our data does not tell us that this is an audience of 30- to 60-year-old white men'. Instead, Epp says, there is a 60-40 male-female split – an 'eclectic, diverse group'. Recently, both golf and tennis have tried, with a lesser degree of success, to emulate the enormous surge of interest F1 has enjoyed. Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion F1's willingness to accommodate Hollywood is shaped by this prism, the film a chance to sell the sport to a potentially huge audience who just might be converted. Sylvester Stallone tried to make an F1 film in the late 1990s but, given a lack of cooperation from Ecclestone, ultimately switched the story to the US-based CART series and the commercial and critical flop Driven was the result. Stefano Domenicali, a former team principal at Ferrari and president of the Italian car manufacturer Lamborghini, is the chief executive of F1, an accomplished operator with an easy-going persona. He is relaxed with F1 teams and Hollywood moguls and has been at the heart of the resurgence. 'I think that if Netflix was big, that the movie will be massive,' he said this year. 'We're going to hit a target that is not yet present.' Purists will sniff at some of the picture's deviations from certain aspects of F1's realities, and its concessions to dramatic and narrative convention to propel it as entertainment. But it was meant to be a blockbuster not a documentary and that's what matters to F1 and the producers. After the film's screenings in the US, Apple's senior vice-president, Eddy Cue, said that 'very few' of those attending had previously seen an F1 race but their reactions were instructive. 'When we finish and we ask how many of you would like to go see a race now, literally every single hand goes up,' he said. 'We think there's a huge, huge opportunity to grow the sport all over the world with this movie and I think it will do that.'
Sydney Morning Herald
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Brad Pitt goes full movie star in skilfully made but monotonous motor-racing drama
F1 ★★★ (M), 155 minutes 'Thrilling' and 'lulling' can be oddly close together, and that's how it feels watching the cars speed round and round the track in the skilfully made if somewhat monotonous F1, which is the victory lap for its director Joseph Kosinski following his box-office triumph with Top Gun: Maverick three years ago. Both films involve a seated hero moving at high speed in a confined space, although where Top Gun: Maverick verged on being a war movie, F1 is strictly a sports movie, which lowers the stakes even if Formula One driving is riskier than, say, tennis. Tom Cruise, the star of Top Gun, has also been swapped out for Brad Pitt, which probably makes just as much difference. Both are movie stars in the full sense, unabashedly there to be looked at, and both have retained a boyish mystique into late middle age. But Cruise has never once in his whole career played a character who could be called relaxed, whereas cultivated laziness is what Pitt is all about. As Sonny Hayes, the hero of F1, he does a lot of sleepy-eyed smirking, though we're meant to understand that his mind is going a mile a minute under the surface. Sonny is the Rip Van Winkle of the Formula One world, induced to make a comeback as a driver long after his promising career was cut short, as if he'd just woken up from a 30-year nap. In fact, he's been up to a range of things in the meantime, including supporting himself as a New York cab driver and as a professional gambler, besides having several failed marriages under his belt. A gambler is what he remains, the kind who's studied the odds and believes he knows how to beat the house. On the track, he has a range of tricky strategies that test the limits of the rules, which the commentators outline for us in voiceover. These typically involve starting from behind and using this to his advantage, roughly his approach to life in general.
The Age
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Brad Pitt goes full movie star in skilfully made but monotonous motor-racing drama
F1 ★★★ (M), 155 minutes 'Thrilling' and 'lulling' can be oddly close together, and that's how it feels watching the cars speed round and round the track in the skilfully made if somewhat monotonous F1, which is the victory lap for its director Joseph Kosinski following his box-office triumph with Top Gun: Maverick three years ago. Both films involve a seated hero moving at high speed in a confined space, although where Top Gun: Maverick verged on being a war movie, F1 is strictly a sports movie, which lowers the stakes even if Formula One driving is riskier than, say, tennis. Tom Cruise, the star of Top Gun, has also been swapped out for Brad Pitt, which probably makes just as much difference. Both are movie stars in the full sense, unabashedly there to be looked at, and both have retained a boyish mystique into late middle age. But Cruise has never once in his whole career played a character who could be called relaxed, whereas cultivated laziness is what Pitt is all about. As Sonny Hayes, the hero of F1, he does a lot of sleepy-eyed smirking, though we're meant to understand that his mind is going a mile a minute under the surface. Sonny is the Rip Van Winkle of the Formula One world, induced to make a comeback as a driver long after his promising career was cut short, as if he'd just woken up from a 30-year nap. In fact, he's been up to a range of things in the meantime, including supporting himself as a New York cab driver and as a professional gambler, besides having several failed marriages under his belt. A gambler is what he remains, the kind who's studied the odds and believes he knows how to beat the house. On the track, he has a range of tricky strategies that test the limits of the rules, which the commentators outline for us in voiceover. These typically involve starting from behind and using this to his advantage, roughly his approach to life in general.
NBC News
14 hours ago
- Automotive
- NBC News
Brad Pitt's new ‘F1' movie puts audiences in the driver's seat at Formula 1 races
NBC News' Savannah Sellers sits down with the cast of 'F1: The Movie' to talk about the new immersive film bringing Formula 1 thrills to the big screen later this month. Director Joseph Kosinski had the idea of putting real actors in real race cars and embedding them into the Formula 1 season. Stars Brad Pitt and Damson Idris talk about learning how to drive at speeds up to 180 miles per 19, 2025
News.com.au
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Is F1: The Movie any good?
Formula 1 fans have so much access to the sport that a fictional production can't match the real highs of racing. The real thing feels far less predictable than Hollywood's drive to milk corporate sponsors and cash in on F1's popularity. All the parts were in place to make F1: The Movie unforgettable. There were superstar actors in Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem, ably supported by Kerry Condon and Damson Idris. A blockbuster director in Joseph Kosinski, fresh from the success of Top Gun: Maverick. Guidance from racing legend Lewis Hamilton and F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali to make sure it didn't run off course. And unprecedented access to the drivers, cars, circuits and trackside action that make Formula 1 the pinnacle of motorsport. The last bit is where F1 fans might feel short-changed. F1 used to be elusive and exclusive. Former boss Bernie Ecclestone was a magician who wowed onlookers without revealing his tricks, putting on a show while keeping the audience at a distance. But the sport has thrown open its doors to live broadcasts, social media, Netflix, podcasts and more that take us deep into the world of Grand Prix racing. We've gone from a couple of hours of racing every other week to an unprecedented level of access to racing's cast and crew. Racing fans can consume countless hours of content each week. That's where F1: The Movie differs from Top Gun: Maverick. There's a lot of mystery surrounding fighter pilots, their jets and missions. Top Gun pulls viewers into a world off-limits to civilians. But F1 offers a fictionalised spin on a world its fans are intimately familiar with. Racing fans are spoiled. It's everywhere you look. And its real stories are better than what Hollywood scripted. F1: The Movie is about a struggling team owner (Ruben Cervantes, played by Javier Bardem) who turns to a retired racing star of the 1990s (Sonny Hayes, played by Brad Pitt) in a desperate ploy to win a race. There's friction from young teammate Joshua (played by Damson Idris) and team technical director Kate (played by Kerry Condon), before everyone works together to get their trophy. It's a poor substitute for the real drama of F1. Fans will never forget the career-defining battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, culminating in the controversy of Abu Dhabi's season finale in 2021. Look at that pair. There's rich material in Verstappen's well-documented struggle with an abusive father, or the way Hamilton's raw talent drove him through adversity. There's Michael Schumacher's tragic skiing accident and his son Mick's ultimately futile drive to follow his path. Or Jack Doohan striving for F1 for his entire life only to be thrown on the scrap heap after half a dozen races. Robert Kubica last week completed a fairytale story by winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans – arguably the world's biggest race – in a Ferrari, years after a near-fatal rally crash prevented him from driving for Ferrari in Formula 1. Hours later, the battle between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris boiled over in Canada. Piastri, ice-cold, unflappable and inscrutable, went wheel to wheel with a Norris plagued by a lack of confidence in his clearly immense ability. My invitation to the Australian premiere of F1: The Movie included a drive of a $400,000 Mercedes-AMG sports car that features in the film, the opportunity to wear the same $45,000 IWC watch shown on screen, and all the alcohol-free Heineken I could drink. Which isn't much. The best racing movies are underpinned by real stories. Rush (2013) faithfully tells the gripping story of James Hunt and Niki Lauda, pitched in a do-or-die battle with brutal consequences. Ford v Ferrari (2019) has Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles beating the odds to win Le Mans, and the biographical Senna (2010) is told with more care than Kosinski managed. I'd even argue Will Ferrell's silly NASCAR flick Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) has more heart, humour and audience appeal than a none-too-convincing Brad Pitt trying to climb onto the podium. Sure, the film might give F1 a further bump in popularity. But fans won't find much beyond what they already see on Grand Prix Sundays.
