Billboard Women in Music 2025
It’s lights out and away we go at CinemaCon, where director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer took the stage at Caesars Palace to talk up the upcoming racing drama “F1,” starring Brad Pitt.
“We believe this is going to be the cinematic event of the summer,” Kosinski and Bruckheimer told the room of movie theater owners. They happen to know a little something about crafting compelling blockbusters, having worked together on 2022’s billion-dollar smash “Top Gun: Maverick” with Tom Cruise. “We filled your theaters all summer long [with ‘Top Gun: Maverick’] to the tune of $1.5 billion. We’re here to tell you that we’re ready to do it again.”
In order to demonstrate their confidence in the big-budget action epic, Kosinski and Bruckheimer unveiled the electrifying first 10 minutes of the film. In “F1,” Pitt — who didn’t attend CinemaCon — plays a middle-aged Formula One driver who likes to push his cars (and his competitors) to the limit. The movie opens at the prestigious Daytona race with Pitt’s Sonny Hayes pulling off one dangerous maneuver after another in a desperate bid to maintain his lead. He’s also a loner who lives out of a van and, even after winning Daytona, wants to enjoy an off-the-grid lifestyle. That’s at least until Javier Bardem’s elegant team owner re-appears in his life in need of a daredevil to pull his last-place team into contention.
“New day, new challenge,” Pitt’s character says in the sneak-peek scene.
The immersive race footage has the same “you are there” feeling that made “Top Gun: Maverick,” with its gripping, sweat-inducing aerial sequences, such as phenomenon. It’s also terrain that Bruckheimer is familiar with, having produced 1990’s “Days of Thunder,” featuring Cruise as a hot-shot racer.
Apple backed the mega-budgeted film, which Warner Bros. will distribute on the big screen. It’s a major gamble for Apple, which has entered the theatrical space with grand ambitions but zero profitable films to show for it. The global popularity of Formula One should help the commercial prospects of the movie, which boasts seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton as a producer. Several F1 drivers, such as Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Sergio Pérez, George Russell and Charles Leclerc will appear in the movie as themselves. Pitt stars alongside Damson Idris, who plays a slick rookie driver, as well as Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies and Kim Bodnia.
And yes, Pitt is really driving — at speeds that top 180 mph — in the film. Pitt, Kosinski and Bruckheimer circumnavigated the Formula 1 global circuit from Silverstone to Las Vegas, ending in Abu Dhabi for production (hence the film’s reported $300 million budget).
“We shot this film during real Grand Prix races all across the globe, from Abu Dhabi to Silverstone, including right here on the Vegas Strip,” Bruckheimer said. As for the final result? “This film has everything that audiences love,” Kosinski promised. “Action, romance and humor.”