F1 comes speeding into Showcase Cinemas and we have some of the inside skinny!

Dubbed “the greatest that never was,” Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) was Formula 1’s most promising driver of the 1990s until an accident on the track nearly ended his career. 

Thirty years later, he is a nomadic racer-for-hire when he’s approached by his former teammate Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), owner of a struggling Formula 1 team that is on the verge of collapse. 

Ruben convinces Sonny to come back to Formula 1 for one last shot at saving the team and being the best in the world.

He’ll drive alongside Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), the team's hotshot rookie intent on setting his own pace. But as the engines roar, Sonny’s past catches up with him and he finds that in Formula 1, your teammate is your fiercest competition - and the road to redemption is not something you can travel alone.

F1The Movie also stars Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies and Kim Bodnia, and was shot during actual Grand Prix weekends as the team competed against the titans of the sport. 

“I still don’t know how we got away with it,” says Oscar winner Brad Pitt about how he, alongside producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Joseph Kosinski, made what Pitt calls “the most visceral driving experience that’s ever been put on film.” 

And what they got away with was putting Pitt and his fellow actor Idris into professional race cars and filming them at top speeds. “The forces in these cars - the high-speed corners - the physics of it all wants to rip your head from your shoulders. It’s shocking what these cars can do, and it’s a high unlike any high I’ve ever experienced before. We just couldn’t capture it any other way.”

Pitt says that the magic of the movie is the way it will appeal equally to longtime fans of the sport and to anyone who’s never even heard of Formula 1.

“Threading that needle was the biggest challenge, but I think we’ve done that—made it enlightening enough and understandable for newcomers without dumbing it down for ultra-fans. It's funny, it's aggressive, it's driving, and it's surprisingly heartwarming. I love all these characters. I think this film is so damn entertaining on so many levels.”

Before Pitt and Idris learned to drive at nearly 200 miles per hour, and before the film production fully integrated itself into multiple global races comprising one of the biggest travelling sports in the world, F1 The Movie began when Top Gun: Maverick (2022) director Joseph Kosinski approached legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer with the idea.

“What Joe wanted was authenticity. He wanted to make the best racing movie ever made,” says Bruckheimer. “In order to do that, you have to put your actors into the cars. It's exciting, and it's dangerous, but it’s the only way to make the movie. And he achieved that; when you see the film, you’ll see the explosiveness of their driving. You’re in the car. It’s such a visceral experience seeing these actors actually driving these powerful cars.”

It's one thing to have the idea to make a Formula 1 movie, and another thing to have the skill, the experience, and the nerve to make one. Bruckheimer says that Kosinski is one of the few people who could do it.

“He understands how to blend action, drama, and reality - and he likes to sprinkle in humour as well,” says the veteran blockbuster producer. “It’s a gift. With Joe, it’s authentic. You’ll want to rev up your car and hit the racetrack when you leave the theatre.”

For Kosinski, the idea was sparked by two ideas that came together for him. The first was his love of Drive to Survive, the hugely successful F1 docuseries.

 “What really struck me about the first season was that it focused not on the most famous names and teams, but the teams at the back of the pack. That was a story that was very ripe for a film - underdogs who are struggling to get into the top ten, or even survive as a team,” he says.

The second idea involved a driver a little further up the field.

“I happen to have the email of Lewis Hamilton,” he says. Hamilton, the seven-time world champion, a legendary figure who inspires on the track and off, had briefly considered taking a role in Top Gun: Maverick. “I sent an email to Lewis just saying, ‘I want to make a film in this world. I want it to be the most authentic racing film ever. Would you be interested in helping me to do that?’ And he said ‘yes’.”

That authenticity was what intrigued Hamilton. “From the beginning, Joe and Jerry talked about how important the authenticity is,” recalls Hamilton, “not only for the new fans that we’ll gain from this movie, but for old fans, like myself, who have grown up with it since we were walking. The focus has been to make sure that it is as authentic a racing movie has ever been.” With Hamilton’s yes, they were literally off to the races.

“We were on hallowed ground,” says Pitt. “It was very humbling, stepping into a sport that is so revered and treated like religion. We just wanted to make sure we didn’t get in anyone’s way, where we could tell our story and while they focused on what they needed to do.”

Kosinski says that Pitt brought everything to the table that the project needed in a lead actor. “Brad is an icon, and I wanted Sonny to be iconic as well,” says Kosinski. “Brad takes a role that was made for him and makes it so much more: he had a really strong sense of what he wanted from Sonny Hayes. He’s also a great producer, involved in every aspect of the script and putting the movie together. And on top of everything else, he’s a naturally talented driver who really loves the sport. If Brad didn’t have all of those qualities, I don’t know we would have ever been able to make this.”

There was another reason why F1 The Movie would be a natural fit for Pitt in particular. “Racing has been a mad passion of Brad’s,” says Dede Gardner, who, with Jeremy Kleiner, is Pitt’s partner in production company Plan B. “Ever since I’ve known him, he’s had cars and motorcycles in his life.”

Bruckheimer echoes the idea, saying that the choice of Pitt was not only about his acting skill in front of the camera - everyone knows he’s a phenomenal actor - but everything he brings to every project he touches.

“Brad, and his producing partners at Plan B, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner - they’re all about excellence,” says Bruckheimer. “You can see it in the movies they’ve made, all the awards they’ve won. They want quality, the best actors, the best writing, the best of everything.” And that starts, Bruckheimer notes, with himself, as Pitt leads by example and pushes himself toward quality.

With Pitt on board, he, alongside the producers, Kosinski, and Krueger began to create the character who would be at the centre of the drama: a risk-taking cowboy whose career has never quite come together, who never made it in F1 despite early opportunities, and is called back into the sport to save a last-place team from oblivion.

“He’s a pure racer,” says Pitt of his character. “He’s there for the love. He washed out of F1 at a young age, and had thought he had made his peace with that dragon - until this opportunity comes long from his old friend.”

Pitt says he, along with Kosinski, developed the character through conversations with real F1 drivers. “We had the luxury of interviewing drivers as we developed the story of this last-place team,” he says. “You can be one of the best drivers in the world, at the pinnacle of the racing sport, and to be on the back end is actually still demoralising.”

So there you have it! A small look inside what is sure to be a high-octane thrill fest. Be sure and catch F1 The Movie on the big screen here at Showcase Cinemas.