Brad Pitt Formula 1 Movie Acquired by Apple; Lewis Hamilton Attached as Producer

The Formula One craze is coming to the silver screen.

Per Rebecca Rubin of Variety, Apple Original Films has acquired the rights to an F1 movie starring and produced by Brad Pitt.

Seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton is also attached as a producer.

F1 has seen its popularity in the United States explode in recent years. Its success in this country is largely attributed to the Netflix series Drive to Survive that debuted in March 2019.

Per David Hill of the New York Post, a recent Nielsen study showed Formula One is on track to have more than 1 billion fans worldwide this year.

According to Rubin, Pitt is going to play "a driver who comes out of retirement to compete alongside a rookie driver and the titans of the sport."

If the plot description of an aging movie star fighting to recapture his former glory against a young hotshot sounds familiar, there's a reason for that.

The movie is set to be directed by Joseph Kosinski, who is riding high amid the success of Top Gun: Maverick. The sequel to the 1986 original saw Tom Cruise return to the role that made him a Hollywood superstar.

Maverick has earned rave reviews and is already the third-highest grossing movie of the year with $308 million in just two weeks of release.

Ehren Kruger, who co-wrote Top Gun: Maverick, wrote the screenplay for the Formula One movie.

Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced both Top Gun movies, is also going to produce Pitt's untitled F1 movie. His production company has experience in the world of racing. The 78-year-old was a producer on Days of Thunder, another Cruise-starring vehicle from 1990.

It's unclear at this point when filming is going to begin on the project.