Kerry Condon, recently Oscar-nominated for “The Banshees of Inisherin,” will join Brad Pitt and Damson Idris in Apple Original Films’ Formula One racing flick. The yet-untitled film will be directed by Joseph Kosinski (“Top Gun: Maverick,” “Tron: Legacy”).
Jerry Bruckheimer and Chad Oman of Jerry Bruckheimer Films will join Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment in producing the film alongside Kosininski and seven-time Formula One champion Sir Lewis Hamilton under his Dawn Apollo Films banner. The whole F1 community, including Formula One, the ten teams and the FIA, will participate in the film’s production. The screenplay will come courtesy of Ehren Kruger (“Top Gun: Maverick,” “The Ring,” “Arlington Road”).
The film stars Brad Pitt as a former driver who returns to the sport, while Condon will portray the team’s Technical Director. This will be Apple Studios’ second film with Plan B Entertainment alongside George Clooney’s upcoming Jon Watts-directed “Smokehouse.” This film will join a swiftly expanding slate of potentially prestigious and media-friendly original films like Martin Scorsese’s “Flowers of the Killer Moon” and Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon.”
Those two will get conventional theatrical releases toward the end of 2023, courtesy of Paramount and Sony respectively. Also on tap is Doug Liman’s “The Instigators,” which will star Matt Damon and Casey Affleck while being produced by Studio 8, The Walsh Company and Artists Equity.
There is no word on whether these upcoming films, “Smokehouse, “The Instigators” or the aforementioned racing film will get theatrical distribution prior to their streaming debuts. But with nearly every major studio, including most streamers, realizing the value that a theatrical release creates even for a streaming-centric title, at this point, it’ll count as a surprise for any big-deal non-Netflix features, like Apple’s upcoming Henry Cavill-led spy flick “Argyle” or the Juliane Moore and Sydney Sweeney-starring “Echo Valley,” to forgo at least the approximation of a global theatrical release.
