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Brad Pitthas enjoyed a lifelong love of motorsports, both through his personal passion for riding and collecting motorcycles and his growing fandom for Formula 1 racing – a sport that’s new to many Americans. In 2015, Pitt made his first creative foray into racing, producing and narrating the documentaryHitting the Apexabouttop motorcycle racers. Now, Pitt will try his hand behind the wheel of the world’s most aerodynamic cars, acting in a film about an aging racer for a fledgling Formula 1 team. The film is, as yet, untitled, though it’s rumored it will be calledApex.
Helming the film will be director Joseph Kosinski, who shot to fame as the director ofTop Gun: Maverickwhen the film wowed audiences and made nearly $1.5 billion at the gate. Still, Formula 1 is a different animal, and to achieve the realism that Pitt, Kosinski, and Executive Producer Jerry Bruckheimer are after,the film’s budgethas already ballooned to over $300 million. Formula 1 is a financially elite endeavor, where the teams that can spend the most money often trounce their competition. Hopefully, for Pitt (as this film is quickly becoming the most expensive movie ever produced), outspending the competition will mean victory at the box office, as well.
Making a Realistic F1 Film Requires an Unprecedented Budget
While many Americans have long been aware of racing leagues like NASCAR and IndyCar, Formula 1’s newfound popularity in the States is owed entirely toNetflix’sDrive to Survivedocumentary series.DTShas put the European glamor of F1 on display, catapulting F1’s popularity past other racing series and making top F1 drivers like Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton household names in America. Hamilton, a friend of Brad Pitt’s, has been hired as a producer and consultant on Pitt’s film, with emphasis being placed on realism. In turn,Pitt spent five months learning how to drive these physically demanding and extremely dangerous cars.
While the cost of this untitled Joseph Kosinski film was originally announced by Apple at around $170 million, that budget has already doubled, with Apple executives now becoming acutely aware of how much it costs to run these race cars on track.The film also uses F1’s real-life teams and drivers, adding Pitt’s team, Apex GP, as a fictional 11th team on the F1 starting grid.
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That has meant following F1 around the world to shoot scenes at actual races. In July of 2023, the movie was filmed at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, one of the crown jewels of the England-based racing league. There, Pitt and co-star/teammate Damson Idris could be seen in realistic racing overalls shooting scenes in and around Silverstone’s paddock. Still, the film is far from completion, with additional shooting at the Las Vegas Grand Prix and Daytona gobbling up even more of this astronomical budget.
Pitt Will Play a Has-Been Driver Tasked With Mentoring a Prodigy
Describing the basics of the film’s plot, Pitt told Britain’sSky Sportsthathe would play Sonny Hayes, who raced in F1 in the ’90s before suffering a huge crash and being forced to race in lesser series. An F1 team owner, played by Javier Bardem, coaxes his friend Hayes to rejoin F1 in order to mentor a young prodigy, Joshua Pierce (Damson Idris), on the Apex GP team (each F1 team fields two cars and two teammates on track). This is where the film will stretch the realism a bit, with the 60-year-old Pitt being nearly two decades older than F1’s oldest-ever driver, Fernando Alonso.
Lewis Hamilton, the 7-time F1 champion, will try to ground this far-flung plot. Speaking about his job in the film, Hamilton said, “I felt my job really has been to try to call BS. ‘This would never happen.’ ‘This is how it would be.’ ‘This is how it could happen.’ Just giving them advice about what racing is really about and what, as a racing fan, would appeal and what would not.” Hamilton knows all too well that this realism will require top dollar, as his Mercedes team has been relegated to bridesmaid status while the Red Bull team,led by driver Max Verstappen,has proven to have the deepest pockets and has helped Verstappen win the last three F1 drivers championships over Hamilton.
Racing Movies Have a Checkered Past in America
American sports fans have long preferred team sports like football and basketball to motorsports – especially on film. Motorsports fanaticism in America is mostly confined to the Southern States, where NASCAR and IndyCar reign supreme.Car racing movies have been hit-or-miss in America, with some, likeDays of ThunderandTalladega Nights,proving successful, while others, like the Sylvester Stallone vehicleDrivenand Michael Mann’sFerrari,crashing and burning critically and financially.
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Brad Pitt and Co. will be encouraged by some more recent car racing successes,withFord v FerrariandGran Turismoenjoying solid profits and positive reviews. The only film about Formula 1 to ever become an outright success in America wasRush, Ron Howard’s 2013 racing epic about the real-life rivalry between James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl). The difference with Pitt’s film is the swollen budget — with industry economists estimating the film will need to earn $750 million, given its current budget, just to turn a profit.
Despite Fears of a Flop, Pitt’s Film Has All the Right Pieces to Work
Many movie industry insiders are already writing offPitt and Kosinski’s filmas a flop-in-the-making. Perhaps they’ve forgotten that Brad Pitt is still one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood and that Joseph Kosinski and Jerry Bruckheimer helped rescue a film industry reeling from the pandemic with the astounding profits ofTop Gun: Maverick. LikeTop Gun: Maverick, this F1 movie is the type of film audiences will want to enjoy theatrically, with a slated Summer 2025 release headed to IMAX theaters while F1’s popularity continues to grow domestically.
This film will also have enormous international marketing potential, as Formula 1 is a globally popular brand with races in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Pitt’s last major action film,Bullet Train, nearly tripled its budget in earnings thanks to a clever international marketing model. If this Formula 1 film can mimic the excitement and drama ofNetflix’sDrive to Surviveseries, an enormous profit is all but guaranteed for Apple.
2025 will be a decisive year for all involved, with the aging Lewis Hamilton moving to Ferrari’s F1 team, Joseph Kosinski looking to bounce back from his flop,Spiderhead, and Jerry Bruckheimer hoping his F1 film doesn’t suffer a fate like his recent filmSecret Headquarters. For Pitt, success in this role could mean continuing his status as a major action star into his 60s.Brad Pitt’s untitled Formula 1 movie is heading to theaters on August 18, 2025. Kosinski’s previous smash hit,Top Gun: Maverick, is streaming on Paramount+.
