Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer of the upcoming film 'F1', held a press conference with Greg Maffei, the current CEO of Formula 1 who will leave his post at the end of the year. He gave information on the development of the film with Brad Pitt and Damson Idris.
The man who long ago worked on Days of Thunder, the NASCAR film starring Tom Cruise, is now producer of 'F1', and he praised the role of Lewis Hamilton, advisor to the film's team, to bring realism to the film, thanks to his experience of Formula 1.
“Lewis Hamilton saw part of the film and gave us a review of how the drivers do different things” explained Bruckheimer, before explaining the advice given by Hamilton.
“The level of precision he gave us, like at Silverstone in turn 3, you're in second gear, and he could hear with his ear that Brad Pitt was in third gear. So that's the kind of thing that he gave us. 'he brings to the film.'
“And he said that when he finishes a race, especially in Singapore, where it's very hot, he can barely get out of the car, they lose 5 kilos. And it's not just him, it's everyone of them. They are completely exhausted and we are going to show what it takes to be an F1 driver.
The famous producer welcomes Hamilton's comments, even if it led to unexpected additional expenses: “Everything he brought to this film, I can’t even express our thanks to him and all the people in F1 who made it all possible.”
“But for the authenticity he brings, we just can't imagine what goes into what a driver does and what the sport brings to the public. Sometimes we don't like to hear what he says , because it costs us more money to fix things, but we're all involved, we want it to be great and he helps us.”
Red Bull feared the role of the “bad guys”
The fact that Mercedes and Hamilton were partners in the film had a worrying effect on the rest of the teams, particularly Red Bull: “What's interesting is that ever since we partnered with Mercedes, the other teams have said 'wait a second, this movie is going to be about Mercedes and we're going to look bad'.
“Red Bull said 'we're going to be the bad guys'. It took us three years to convince them that they weren't going to be the bad guys and we finally got to a point where all the teams are really leaning on us to help us.”
Asked about the simplicity of the title, which we imagine to be a commercial agreement with Formula 1 since the logo will appear on the poster, Bruckheimer assures that it is to echo other monuments of cinema on motorsport: “Because the biggest racing films were Le Mans and Grand Prix, and now there will be F1.”
Bruckheimer and Maffei haven't agreed on how the release will be celebrated, but the producer has some ideas: “I think we'll show it to the F1 drivers and teams in Monaco, and then we'll have previews in New York, London and a number of other cities.”
“Brad is really invested in this film. He doesn't like to do press, but I think we'll take him on a world tour where he'll be happy to show off his efforts as a driver and actor in this film. “
