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Brad Pitt hits the pits ahead of forthcoming F1 movie

Brad Pitt was the star attraction in pit lane at the Circuit of the America on Friday, as he met with team bosses ahead of the start production of a new movie about Formula 1 starring Pitt that will be co-produced by Lewis Hamilton.

All of the team bosses plus F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali were present at the F1 hospitality building in Austin to meet Pitt and the other senior executive connected with the project, which has been acquired by Apple Screen.

Director Joseph Kosinski has previously made Tron: Legacy, Oblivion, Only the Brave and recent blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick which starred Tom Cruise.
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Read also: Brad Pitt F1 movie co-produced by Hamilton acquired by Apple

That film was written by Ehren Kruger who is also scripting the F1 movie, which is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer whose list of credits also includes The Rock, Con Air, Black Hawk Down, Pirates of the Caribbean and the NASCAR-based Days of Thunder.

The new film tells the story of a veteran driver who mentors an up-and-coming youngster. Lewis Hamilton is one of the co-producers, and his manager Penni Thow is also involved.

The production team was there to soak up the atmosphere of a real Grand Prix, and to give the team principals an indication about what they plan to do and what support and assistance they might need from the teams.

F1 is expected to give full support to the production, including permitting location filming at Grand Prix races.

Kosinski has previously stated filming real cars in action will be a key part of the movie, but it's not yet known whether they will ask to borrow current or recent F1 cars.

Instead, the filmmakers showed the teams the technology used in Top Gun: Maverick to seamlessly blend real footage with CGI special effects.

“The idea is to capture that world in the most authentic way possible," Kosinski told The Playlist. "To shoot real cars in real races and really give the audience the sensation of what it’s like to be one of those cars."

The last time that real F1 cars were used in a film was for 1976's Bobby Deerfield starring Al Pacino, shot at the Spanish Grand Prix featuring Bernie Eccleston's Brabham team.

A subsequent proposed motor racing film starring Sylvester Stallone ended up relocating to the US ChampCar open wheel championship and was released under the title Driven. From the review, it was a narrow escape for F1.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.