Key Points

Despite the high-speed action, Bruckheimer said that ‘F1 -The Movie’ is emotional, romantic, and a dramatic story that truly drives the film.

Talking exclusively to IANS exclusively about what made him build a feature film around the sport, Bruckheimer said: Well, it's a phenomenal sport. There are only ten teams, with two drivers on each team. And it's the only sport where your teammate is also your competitor.”

“These athletes, there are only 20 of them, obviously, are phenomenal. They're phenomenal athletes. They're going 220 miles an hour; it's filled with drama and excitement. These are enormously powerful machines, they're basically sitting in rockets as they go around the track. And it's not an oval; it's a road course.”

He said it is very exciting.

“So, you know, they have to hit these corners at 220, then brake down to 50. It's very exciting. And it's a great setup for drama. That's why we put Brad Pitt in this movie—to give you that excitement.”

Bruckheimer said they brought British race car champion Lewis Hamilton on as a producer to ensure the film's authenticity and accuracy in portraying F1.

“But the first thing we did was go to Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time world champion F1 driver, and ask him to work on the movie with us. He became a producer, and he kept us honest—he made sure we got everything accurate.”

Bruckheimer shared that Hollywood star Brad Pitt insisted on driving the race cars himself, and Lewis Hamilton confirmed he was skilled enough to do it.

He said: “When Brad Pitt decided to do the movie, he said, "The only way I'll do it is if I can actually drive the cars." So Lewis took Brad to the track and got him into a very high-powered car to see how good a driver he was. And Lewis said, "Look, he's an amazing athlete—he can do this."

“Then Lewis took him for the ride of his life around the track at full speed. That was pretty exciting for Brad. It shows you what these drivers can do.”

The producer said the entire process was built around the fact that Brad was going to drive the cars himself throughout the entire filming.

“So, every time you cut to a shot of Brad in the car, he's actually driving it. There’s no blue screen or green screen or anything like that—there are no visual effects. They're actually doing the work. They're getting up to 180 miles an hour and braking down to 50.”

He agrees that it was “physically difficult, what they had to go through.”

Bruckheimer said: “Because you're hitting 5Gs in the corners. It's brutal. But with all this cool stuff we did—we built six cars, traveled them all over the world, built our own garage that traveled with us—we went to nine different F1 races, so we're truly embedded in the F1 world.”

He added: That's what makes it so exciting. You're with the real drivers, you're with our actors, you're on the real tracks. But all that stuff aside, the most exciting thing is that it's a wonderful story. It's romantic, it's funny, and it's very exciting. You really feel the vibration of the cars when you do. But ultimately, it's the emotion that carries you through the film.”

Apple Original Films and Warner Bros. Pictures Present A Monolith Pictures / Jerry Bruckheimer/ Plan B Entertainment / Dawn Apollo Films Production, A Joseph Kosinski Film, F1 The Movie, distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, and will release in India on June 27in English, Hindi, Tamil & Telugu.

- IANS