Movies about car racing are not a flourishing genre. Despite some sporadic successes such as the 1971 “Le Mans” film with Steve McQueen and the gorgeous Porsche 917, we all remember “Driven” starring Sylvester Stallone sitting behind the wheel of an Indycar, in plain clothes, at night, chasing his teammate through traffic after stealing the cars from a gala. What a nightmare…
In recent years, there’s been a lot of talk about making a movie about Formula 1. And mostly about one of its most tragic heroes: Ayrton Senna. Hollywood hotshots such as directors Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard and actor Tobie “Spiderman” Maguire were, at one point or another, linked to the film. However, Bernie Ecclestone’s financial demands, among other things, didn’t let any project come to fruition.
Until this year’s screening of the “Senna” documentary at the Sundance Festival, which received positive reviews and is about to get its theatrical release very soon in the US, which once again sparked rumors about an F1 film.
This time the news is that Warner Brothers hired Ben Younger, the writer and director of the 2000 drama “Boiler Room”, starring Vin Diesel and Giovanni Ribisi, to write a screenplay about F1 racing.
Younger, who rides a KTM Duke and races in the Championship Cup series, even went to Hungary to watch the local Grand Prix. “They are serious about it” he said in an interview with the NY Times.
His agent convinced him to meet with the studio executives while he was in California to race in Laguna Seca. “I told them I don’t want to do ‘Driven’”. Thankfully, the execs felt the same way: “They want to do Grand Prix” he said, referring to John Frankenheimer’s 1966 movie with James Garner and Yves Montand. “And they want an American driver”.
Receiving the green light from Ecclestone won’t be easy. But as far as Younger is concerned, there is no other way: “I hate the use of generic cars. It has to be Ferrari and McLaren”.
Story source: NY Times
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