Racing legend Sir Lewis Hamilton has offered up some new details about the proposed sequel to last year’s crowd-pleasing hit and Oscar Best Picture nominee “F1”.
Speaking with the media ahead of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, the seven-time world champion says a follow-up to the sports drama is already making serious progress, with script work already underway and big plans afoot.
Hamilton produced and made a brief appearance in the Joseph Kosinski-directed film, which starred Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes, a man who returns after a 30-year absence to save his former teammate’s underdog team, APXGP, from collapse. Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies, and Javier Bardem also star.
He confirms to Motorsport.com that several meetings have already taken place between himself and some of the film’s key creative personnel:
“We are already working on the first script. We had our first meeting maybe mid-to-late the second part of the end of the year. Me, Jerry and Joe [Kosinski] talking about different ideas, different directions that we could go with the script.
And then with Ehren [Kruger], we’ve had plenty of meetings on it. So it’s really exciting. I’m super excited. Now I’ve been through it, and it was already very intense the first time going. Now I’m used to it. So I know what to expect.
I know what we could do better. And it’s been amazing to see how big an impact it’s had, how many people have loved the movie. I’m still getting texts from people who are still only just watching the movie and how it’s opened their eyes up to what this sport is about and sent them down a rabbit hole trying to understand it more.
The second one is important. Sequels often aren’t always great. And we’ve got a great team, got a great cast, great writer. So I’m not concerned about that, but we’re going to take our time and make sure we get it just the way it needs to be.”
The film grossed $633.3 million worldwide off a $200-300 million budget, making it the highest-grossing auto racing film of all time, the highest-grossing film by Apple, and the highest-grossing film of Pitt’s career.
