Tech giant Apple is closing in to secure the rights for a speculated $130-140 million dollar racing film on the subject of Formula One. The untitled film has already roped in the likes of Brad Pitt and seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton will make an appearance in the film according to entertainment site Deadline.
"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. For Pitt, this marks the second movie package megadeal in the past few months, after Apple acquired an untitled film that Spider-Man director Jon Watts will direct, with Pitt and George Clooney starring as two lone wolf "fixers" assigned to the same job, Deadline reported.
The movie is possibly the most ambitious project since 2013's critically acclaimed "Rush", directed by Ron Howard and starring Daniel Brühle and Chris Hemsworth as World Champions Niki Lauda and James Hunt who had a fierce rivalry.
The Formula One film is rumoured to feature Pitt in the role of an older driver who comes out of retirement in order to mentor a rookie and take one final shot at winning a Driver's Championship as his teammate. Fan theories have identified the relationship of seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg in Mercedes as a possible inspiration for the plot.
Pitt and Kosinski earlier attempted to make a racing film titled "Go Like Hell" which did not succeed, with the theme and inspiration eventually being reproduced in James Mangold's 2019 film "Ford vs Ferrari" which is based on the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1966.
It is not exactly clear whether Hamilton will appear in the film as a character or be working on it in some advisory position. While Formula One's official American partner Liberty Media is not directly involved, it is possible that Hollywood bas decided to capitalise on the exploding popularity of the racing sport as it has become widely popular in recent years thanks to the serialised Netflix documentary "Drive to Survive".