“F1” producer Jerry Bruckheimer provided updates on a number of his biggest Hollywood franchises during a keynote conversation Tuesday at TheWrap’s TheGrill 2025 conference.
Right off the bat, Bruckheimer gave a promising update on the planned sixth installment in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise. “We’re working on a script,” Bruckheimer told TheWrap’s Drew Taylor, before noting that the project will not move forward until he and his collaborators are happy with what has been written. “If we don’t have it on the page, it’s not gonna get on the screen.”
“We had two scripts at one point, and then one kind of dropped out and we kind of went with the other one,” Bruckheimer said, when asked about the past iterations of the still-developing sequel. Contrary to previous reports, Bruckheimer revealed that “Barbie” star Margot Robbie, who was reportedly set to star in a scrapped take on “Pirates 6” years ago, is still attached in some capacity to the franchise’s next installment.
“She’s still involved,” the producer said, adding that “Pirates” franchise veteran Ted Elliott contributed to the sixth installment’s current script. “He worked on it, and we’ve brought someone else in to fill in the blanks.”
Bruckheimer didn’t only have exciting “Pirates of the Caribbean” updates to share Tuesday. When asked about the long-rumored “National Treasure 3,” the producer said, “We’re getting closer on that one.” He confirmed that the intention is for original “National Treasure” director Jon Turteltaub and star Nicolas Cage to return for the long-awaited sequel.
While work continues on the project, Bruckheimer revealed that he was not frustrated by the move that the franchise made to the small screen in 2022 with the short-lived Disney+ series, “National Treasure: Edge of History.”
“No, it was completely different,” Bruckheimer said of the spin-off. “We want to keep the name alive in the public eye [and] the zeitgeist.”
Regarding some of his other properties, Bruckheimer said he and his team are in the midst of “working on some ideas” for sequels to both “F1” and 1990’s “Days of Thunder.” He added that a writer has not been hired yet to write the latter project, but he does expect the latest draft of a “Top Gun: Maverick” sequel script to be turned in next month by “F1” writer and “Maverick” co-writer Ehren Kruger.
“The hardest one has been ‘Pirates’ so far,” Bruckheimer confessed, while reflecting on the franchises that have been the most difficult for him to keep going. It has been eight years since the series’ last installment, 2017’s “Dead Men Tell No Tales,” hit theaters. “That world is so cool and specific,” Bruckheimer observed. “You just gotta find the right way in.”
As for “F1,” Bruckheimer explained why Apple was the perfect partner for making the blockbuster racing film that grossed over $626 million worldwide.
“I think they understood how he wanted to make one of the most authentic racing movie ever made,” he said. “Eddy Cue, he’s on the board of Ferrari, and he understood that it takes time and money to make it right.”
To accurately capture the racing in the film, “F1” director Joseph Kosinski leaned into shooting as much footage practically as possible. And when the actors and writers strikes hit, Kosinski was able to travel around the world himself to nine different race tracks to capture footage that would normally be shot by a second unit director. “We came back a year later and filmed the actors at the same race tracks,” Bruckheimer said.
“The hard part was to convince F1 to work with us,” he said. “They’re a worldwide operation, they spend hundreds of millions of dollars, so to allow a Hollywood movie to come into their life would be disruptive.”
Kosinski was inspired by “Drive to Survive,” the docuseries, and brought “Top Gun: Maverick” — which hadn’t been released yet — to help convince teams and drivers to allow the “F1” production to work with them on the film.
Bruckheimer tipped his hat to Kosinski for pushing for Imax exhibition for the film, which was released in theaters by Warner Bros.
“Once we had Apple and Warner Brothers, the first call Joe made was to Imax, so talk to them to make sure that we could get the screens,” he said.
Given that “F1” shot overseas, the longtime producer was also asked whether Donald Trump’s threat of 100% tariffs on movies made outside the U.S. worried him, but he shrugged it off. “There’s always a lot of noise,” he said. “Nothing you can do about it.”
“It takes an army for us to get a movie made, let me tell ya,” the producer divulged. Despite that, Bruckheimer told TheGrill’s 2025 attendees that he has no intention of slowing down anytime soon, let alone retiring to spend the rest of his days playing golf.
“I hate golf,” Bruckheimer said, to many laughs. “I can’t spend four hours doing something and not making a movie.”
Catch up with all of TheWrap’s TheGrill coverage here.