Category: Projects

Lewis Hamilton provides Brad Pitt F1 film update

Hamilton, who has also sought advice from Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer, explained: “We’re going through a process right now of selecting the character that will be alongside Brad, which is exciting.

“Basically that’s the process of watching [the auditions].

“We have recordings of them doing certain scenes and we got through it. I have sat in the office with Jerry and Joe and Brad, and we’ve been watching them and kind of given our inputs and what we think.”

“I want to make the movie, in terms of like having diversity and representation, I want it to be as Formula 1 should be in the future – or should be now, but will be in the future,” insisted seven-time F1 champion Hamilton.

“I want to see female mechanics. We would love to see a female driver. We haven’t gotten to that point just yet. But why not?

“Right now, we’ve still got the script. We’ve gone through quite a few different iterations of it. We’re still waiting for a new rewrite, and that’s the whole process. But I was doing that throughout Christmas.

“It’s exciting. I’m excited to get to the next end of the script. I was talking to Brad last night about the characters that we have coming.”

Read more.

F1 team bosses meet Brad Pitt as film project takes off

The film will be directed by Joseph Kosinski, who was responsible for Tron: Legacy, Oblivion, Only the Brave and the recent hit Top Gun: Maverick.

Like the last named film the F1 project will be produced by Bruckheimer, whose lengthy CV includes the original Top Gun, NASCAR movie Days of Thunder and the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

With a screenplay by Ehren Kruger, who also wrote Top Gun: Maverick, the story revolves around a veteran driver who mentors an up-and-coming youngster.

Lewis Hamilton is closely connected with the project as a producer, and his manager Penni Thow is also involved. Apple Screen is underwriting the project.

All team bosses were invited to the F1 hospitality building in Austin today to meet Pitt, Bruckheimer and Kosinski, with Stefano Domenicali among those also present.

Essentially the gathering was an opportunity for the Hollywood guys to give the teams an idea of what they plan to do.

The meeting focused on a demonstration of the technology used in Top Gun: Maverick, and specifically how CGI was successfully combined with real action footage.

The teams will have individual meetings with the film people over the remainder of the Austin weekend. It’s not yet clear whether they will be asked to supply current or near current cars for use in the production.

Kosinski stressed recently that shooting real cars in action will be a key part of the production.

Although details are still being discussed, F1 is expected to offer full co-operation, including sanctioning filming on race weekends.

Read more.


Director Joseph Kosinski Promises Similar ‘In-Camera Thrills’

Fresh from box office triumph with Top Gun: Maverick, director Joseph Kosinski promises similar “in-camera action” on his forthcoming racing car movie.

Kosinski says he will be using effects created solely by the camera — to make viewers feel like they are behind the wheel at 200mph, in the film with the working title of Formula One – to star Brad Pitt and co-produced by seven-time world champion racing driver Lewis Hamilton.

“Certainly seeing people react to an in-camera, authentically captured film like Top Gun makes us all feel good that our approach works and is appreciated by audiences,” he told The Wrap.

Read more.

Apple Confirms Deal For Brad Pitt Formula One Film From ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Director Joseph Kosinski

Apple Studios has locked in its deal to acquire Top Gun: Maverick helmer Joseph Kosinski’s Formula One racing film, starring Academy Award winner Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood). The streamer entered exclusive negotiations to pick up the project back in January, as we told you first.

The as-yet-untitled film will have Pitt playing a driver who comes out of retirement to compete alongside a rookie against the titans of his sport.

Read more.

Clooney On a New Movie With Brad Pitt

Except from an interview with Gerorge Clooney for Deadline.

As for the future, he will be working with another streamer again, this time Apple, on that aforementioned movie with frequent co-star Brad Pitt.

It will be written and directed by Spider-Man: No Way Home filmmaker Jon Watts.

“Yeah. Brad and I. It was an exciting time because it got to be one of those weird bidding wars which happen every once in a while, and it ended up being pretty extreme, and Apple came in with a really big number for Brad and I, and we said we’d like to take less as long as we can guarantee that we can have a theatrical release, and they said great. So, I do think that there’s a way that we can all co-exist”.

Read more.

Apple In Homestretch On Brad Pitt Formula One Racing Film

Apple is in exclusive negotiations and will close the first big film package of the new year. That’s the highly competitive race to acquire an untitled pitch package that will have Brad Pitt playing a racer who comes out of retirement to mentor a younger driver and take his final stab at glory on the track as the younger driver’s teammate.

Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski will helm, and Ehren Kruger is writing the script. Top Gun‘s Jerry Bruckheimer is producing alongside Plan B.

Read more.

Apple Studios Lands Coveted Jon Watts-Directed Thriller To Star George Clooney & Brad Pitt

EXCLUSIVE: Apple Studios has landed yet another high-caliber movie package, making a deal for an untitled film that Spider-Man director Jon Watts will write and direct, with George Clooney and Brad Pitt starring. The film will get a robust theatrical release as part of this.

The film will be produced by Watts, Clooney’s Smokehouse Pictures and Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment. Watts moved right from the Sundance indie drama Cop Car to the Marvel Spider-Man trilogy. Oscar winners Clooney and Pitt starred together in the Ocean’s Eleven franchise. Haven’t heard the pricetag, but I’m sure it falls in line with a lot of the recent deals for star packages. I have heard that between Clooney and Pitt, they left an eight-figure sum on the table to ensure the theatrical release component.

Read more.

George Clooney, Brad Pitt And Jon Watts Thriller Package Has Studios & Streamers Bidding

Deadline has confirmed that a Jon Watts-directed thriller starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt is being bid upon by an array of studios including Sony, Lionsgate, Annapurna, MGM, Universal and Warner Bros on the theatrical side and streamers Apple, Netflix and Amazon.

Watts is set to write, direct and produce with Clooney producing through Smokehouse Pictures and Pitt through his Plan B Entertainment.

The storyline, which is largely being kept secret, follows two lone-wolf fixers who are assigned to the same job. Big paydays in the eight-figure range for both stars, who appeared together in the Ocean’s 11 movies, are being reported.

Read more.

Brad Pitt Joins Sandra Bullock in Paramount’s ‘Lost City of D’ in Cameo Role

Brad Pitt is reuniting with Sandra Bullock for Lost City of D, Paramount’s romantic action-adventure comedy that also stars Channing Tatum.

The move is actually a friendly quid pro quo as it follows Bullock making a cameo appearance in Pitt’s action movie Bullet Train, which recently wrapped production with director David Leitch shooting for Sony. When Bullock, who is producing as well as starring in D, saw an opportunity for a fun casting, she reached out to her pal, who said yes.

Adam and Aaron Nee are directing D, which is described as an old-fashioned star vehicle as well as a screwball adventure featuring mismatched leads, witty repartee and of course, romance.

Per the studio, the story centers on a reclusive romance novelist who is sure nothing could be worse than getting stuck on a book tour with her cover model. That is, until a kidnapping attempt sweeps them both into a cutthroat jungle adventure, proving life can be so much stranger, and more romantic, than any of her paperback fictions.

Bullock is the author while Tatum is the model. Pitt’s role is being kept hidden in the temple ruins, but it is said to be a cameo.

 
Read more.

Brad Pitt once auditioned to star in a Phantasm film

Actor Michael Baldwin has played Mike Pearson, the hero of the Phantasm horror franchise, in four of the series’ five films. The exception was 1988’s Phantasm II, which starred a young James Le Gros, who would go on to appear in Drugstore Cowboy, Living in Oblivion, and Girls. But Mike was almost played by someone who became a much bigger star: Brad Pitt.

Director and Phantasm overlord Don Coscarelli related the tale when he appeared on this week’s installment of Entertainment Weirdly on EW’s Sirius XM channel to discuss his new memoir, True Indie: Life and Death in Filmmaking.

“The studio would not allow Michael Baldwin to have the role [in Phantasm II], so we had to search for other actors,” said Coscarelli. “I was interviewing every hunky male actor in Hollywood. When we did Phantasm III, 10 years later, I brought Michael Baldwin back to play the role, and he reminded me that he had been friends with Jennifer Aniston before she was successful. He said that he was with her and her new boyfriend, and it was Brad Pitt, and he came over to Michael and he said, ‘Hey, you’re the Phantasm guy! I tried out for that movie, and I didn’t get the role.’

Read more.

Lizzy Caplan Joins Brad Pitt & Marion Cotillard In Robert Zemeckis Thriller

Masters Of Sex star Lizzy Caplan is joining the cast of the untitled film that Robert Zemeckis will direct with Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard from a script by Steven Knight. The film is backed by Paramount Pictures, GK Films and New Regency.

The title and plot are shrouded in secrecy, but I’ve heard that Caplan will play Pitt’s character’s sister.
GK Films’ Graham King is producing the film with ImageMovers’ Zemeckis and Steve Starkey, with Jack Rapke, Knight, Patrick McCormick and Denis O’Sullivan exec producing.

Read more.

Jared Harris Joins Brad Pitt in Robert Zemeckis Thriller

Jared Harris has joined Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard in Robert Zemeckis’ untitled period spy thriller.

Zemeckis is directing the film from a script by Steven Knight.

Graham King, who first developed the project and brought it to Pitt, will produce alongside Zemeckis and Steve Starkey. The movie will be produced through King’s GK Films banner with New Regency. Executive producers are Knight, Jack Rapke, Patrick McCormick and Denis O’Sullivan.

The pic is set in 1942 and follows a spy (Pitt) who falls in love and marries a French agent (Cotillard) during a dangerous North African mission.

Production is set to start next week in Europe and the film is expected to bow on Nov. 23.

Read more.