F1 is a new movie starring Brad Pitt and is directed by Joseph Kosinski. You know, the guy who gave us Top Gun: Maverick. So if anyone know what it means to go fast, it is Kosinski.
A new trailer for the film dropped and gives a bit more insight into what Kosinski and company are doing with F1. Fast paces, high stakes, and a lot of action, F1 looks like a great time. Whether or not you’re into the sport, it doesn’t seem to matter. Cars must go fast and drama ensues. What more could you ask for?
The film stars Pitt as Sonny Hayes, a has-been Formula One driver and that he must work with his team to find success out on the track. Look, so many friends of mine got into the sport during COVID so I can safely say that this looks like a perfect movie for all to enjoy!
The official synopsis is as followers: “Dubbed “the greatest that never was,” Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) was FORMULA 1’s most promising phenom of the 1990s until an accident on the track nearly ended his career. Thirty years later, he’s a nomadic racer-for-hire when he’s approached by his former teammate Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), owner of a struggling FORMULA 1 team that is on the verge of collapse. Ruben convinces Sonny to come back to FORMULA 1 for one last shot at saving the team and being the best in the world. He’ll drive alongside Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), the team’s hotshot rookie intent on setting his own pace. But as the engines roar, Sonny’s past catches up with him and he finds that in FORMULA 1, your teammate is your fiercest competition—and the road to redemption is not something you can travel alone.”
We attended a press conference for the trailer release!
Much like Kosinski’s work with Maverick, F1 is putting us right into the seat of a Formula One driver. I was lucky enough to attend a press conference for the trailer’s launch, moderated by Edith Bowman, where Kosinski talked about the challenges of F1. But when speaking of the feel of being in the driver’s seat, he knows that well from his work on Maverick, and spoke about how the biggest challenge with F1 was actually the camera system.
“The big challenge was just the camera system itself. I mean, we had to develop a brand new camera system taking everything we learned on Top Gun: Maverick and pushing it much further,” Kosinski said. “You can’t put 60 pounds of gear onto a race car and expect it’s going to perform the same way. So we took those top gun cameras and we worked closely with Sony, sizing them down to something about a quarter of the size. And then on top of that, something I really wanted to do on this film was actually be able to operate and move the cameras while we were shooting, which was something we weren’t able to do on Top Gun.”
Kosinski went on to explain how they went through the process of rigging the cameras to the cars, saying “So we have motorized mounts on the car as well. So you have transmitters that are transmitting the picture back. We’ve got transmitters controlling the movement of the camera. I’m sitting at the base station with Claudio, our cinematographer looking at 16 screens. I’ve got camera operators on the controls for the cameras and it’s calling out. Camera moves like a live television show while they’re shooting. So much research and technology and development went into just being able to roll a frame of footage in addition to the training for the actors and the logistics of shooting at a real race. So it was a lot of prep to be able to pull this off. “
You can see F1, exclusively in theaters, on June 27.
Published: Mar 13, 2025 05:46 pm