Bruce McLaren Formula One film
Barrie Osborne, producer of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, is preparing a film that will look at the life of Formula One racing legend Bruce McLaren. The film is reported to have a US£100 million budget and will feature original McLaren cars.
There hasn't really been a Formula One film since that superb John Frankenheimer film Grand Prix in 1966. That was a stunning film that really captured the speed, pressure and amazing thrills in the sport both on and off the race track. It also showed some amazing race footage.
Now it looks like Osborne is going to bring another film to the big screen, and I'm hoping it's a success so that we can see more studios leap into Formula One and deliver some superb films based on the largely untapped and story rich top end of motor racing.
According to The Hollywood Reporter through Coming Soon, Matthew Grainger is developing a script on the man who overcame a crippling joint problem in his youth to win a Formula One race at the age of 22, the youngest ever winner at that time. He died in a car accident just ten years later, in 1970, while he was at the peak of his career on a record breaking winning run for the McLaren team.
Not only is the film using some of the original cars from McLaren - imagine if they crash one - but will be shot in New Zealand, UK, Monaco, Germany, France and the US. That to me suggests that they are going to be visiting and shooting on actual race circuits.
I really do hope that's the case and that they keep everything as real as possible rather than relying on CGI, not enough realism would seriously cut out current F1 fans and make the film look far too polished. I hope these guys take some reference from watching F1 races and perhaps taking a look at the Frankenheimer Grand Prix film.
Is there interest out there for films such as this and films which would looko at the pinnacle of motor racing?
Promotion