No, I don't know of any F1 movies coming out, this is a 'what if' question. If someone made a movie of F1 racing over the last, say 40 years, who (still living) would play the roles? Who would play all the WDC's ? (to start with) Who would play the very notables that were never champions? (Gilles, etc.) Who would play Bernie, etc.? Just curious as to who you folks think would fit into these roles.
Hmmm interesting question. but truth be told, the only people that could play these people would be the themselves. I'd make it a documentary. As an aside, Sly Stallone tried something like that several years ago and he couldn't do it because Bernie was such a ****** bag and wanted an insane amount of money. That's how we ended up with "Driven".
Probably the worst (car?) movie of all time. I should have turned it off at 'so and so driver got the 31st pole position'. They weren't talking about 'his' 31st pole position but just his starting place. Booo.
I'm glad Bernie didn't give Sly the rights. As Bas mentions one of the worst racing movies ever made. haha!
From what I heard in an interview with Sly, they had to completely change direction with the film because of Bernie which is why it ended up like it did. Who knows what it could have been otherwise. Might have still been crap but who knows?
Anyone who watched that piece of garbage and did not breathe a sigh of relief that it was not made about F1 either knows nothing about racing or knows nothing about cinema. Probably both. "Driven" was absolutely unwatchable. I picked it up as a freebie, and started skipping the non-racing bits as the plot was so bad, then started skipping the racing bits as THEY were so stupid. That left nothing to watch. I don't think anyone will ever match "Grand Prix." For one thing, modern F1 is so safe that the possibility of death is vanishingly remote, and not the ever-present spectre it was back then. Great for the sport, bad for dramatic effect.
But-but-but Driven was going to be CART's saving grace if we were to believe their spin at the time. Stallone's original scripts were rejected several times by Bernie supposedly due to the fact that the 50+ year old Stallone insisted on being the lead protagionist. Bernie then set an astronomical price with an equal amount of stipulations and the whole notion was dropped. CART was a sinking ship and so desperate for any sort of attention that they gave Stallone carte blanche to do anything he wanted. CART officials were convinced that "Driven" was going to be their own "Days of Thunder". Pity everyone in CART were so enamored by Stallone's star power that they evidently failed to check out the script. The result was inevitable, Bernie was justifed in the end and what was left of CART sank even deeper as manufactures and related sponsors left in droves. It would be great to have a new racing movie of course but the days of Frankenheimer's "Grand Prix" and McQueen's "Le Mans" were simpler and the logistics pulling off such a project these days would be nearly impossible as proven by Audi's "Truth in 24" documentary. RM would
I liked Driven. A lot actually. People complain about it, but as a story it had a lot more to offer than "Grand Prix" or "Le Mans". Particularly the McQueen movie is totally overrated from a script perspective. We love those flicks because of the footage from a long lost era, but as movies, they don't hold much water. So far my favorite racing movie remains "Michel Vaillant". Probably unknown to the US as it was a French flick. Another interesting "movie" is the IMAX semi-documentary "Speed" with the Andrettis. Great footage and quite informative.
I liked Driven the first time I saw it, but I was much younger then. When I saw it again last year I thought I saw a different movie, lol. I didn't know Michel Vaillant had a movie! I have a bunch of comics about that guy, bought at a market many years ago for next to nothing.
Not that Driven is a great movie, it isn't. But it has some of my fav actors of all times (Stalone, Gershon) and a decent enough story. Some of the footage is simply awesome. Lots of it is over the top and ridiculous, but hey, it's a movie. If you like the comics, you'll love the movie. Get it on DVD from e.g. German ebay and watch it on the PC (avoiding TV incompatibilities and zoning issues, although you live in Europe, so it might not be a big deal for you): http://cgi.ebay.de/Michel-Vaillant-1-DVD-dtsch-u-franz-Version-Dian_W0QQitemZ200419728068QQcmdZViewItemQQptZDE_DVDs?hash=item2ea9f25ac4 Has some absolutely spectacular eye candy. Story is as thin as in all racing movies.
Make no mistake about it, the movie was crap, but the BS behind the the making of the film was all down to Bernie being a greedy toad, as usual. He wanted was bag loads of cash and for the sports not to be portrayed in a negative light. He kept changing the terms of the agreement then Stallone basically said the heck with it. Make no mistake about it, Driven would have been about F1 if Sly would have paid up. The movie could have been ok, if Renny Harlan hadn't been involved.
I hope no one ever makes another F1 movie unless they do it RIGHT, which means any carnage involves real cars (even if they are built only enough to be destroyed on camera) not computer graphics, which cheapen any movie. Movies that rely heavily on computer graphics look especially bad a few years later when the new has worn off and newer, better technology is out. I certainly wouldn't want it to be made by Americans (could you imagine J'Lo as the love interest ), I suppose the Brits might do the best job, but only if they are not allowed to portray Hambone or Button as something they aren't. I suppose it would be better if all characters were ficitonal, although they could bear resemblance of course. Overall, I can't see it happening anytime soon, even if Bernie would allow it.
I personally think that "Grand Prix" is the best F1-themed movie made to date. Playing it again yesterday only confirmed it. The 2-disc special edition looks absolutely stunning on a 1080p big screen plasma. The racing footage is absolutely fantastic! I also like the way that they tie in a lot of historically memorable moments such as Garner's dive into the Monaco harbor (an homage to Ascari), the footage of the then current F1 stars such as Graham Hill (looking smooth and dapper) and others. Still the gold standard as far as I'm concerned...
I personally believe they missed the perfect window of opportunity to do a Senna movie years ago when he was still topical and a younger Antonio Banderas bore a passing resemblence to Senna. My understanding is that a potential movie was in the works with Banderas playing Senna. I believe he would have done an outstanding job. Unfortunately with the aging of Banderas, I believe that window is closed... there are other possibilities, but the best option would have been with Banderas in that time frame when the tragedy was still recent enough to carry name brand recognition in the world public's consciousness.
Senna's life could have made for a fascinating movie. They would have to have started with the Imola accident first and then go gradually back in time as you can't end a movie like that with a fatality as the last scene. Gilles Villeneuve would have made for an equally good story. It would have been a decent enough movie, but no blockbuster. For that there needs to be much more to "sex it up". At that point the script has to leave reality and go into fiction. That's when you gain general audience, but loose the racing fans. Driven and Michel Vaillant are those kind of movies. Lets not forget that the here much loved and cited "Le Mans" movie didn't sell many tickets at the box office and was slaughtered by the movie critics. "Cardboard performance" they called Mc Queen's acting. In short a racing movie that appeals to everybody is impossible.
I liked Driven because of the slight comparisons to F1. Think about it, the all-powerful German racer in a red car (Schumi in a Ferrari) is defending against the blond haired no-mistake driver in a silvery car (Hakkinen in the McLaren-Mercedes). The racing parts were entertaining, the rest ... meh.
I agree with your assessment! Almost any Hollywood movie has to have the "love story angle" as a major component for it to gain support to be produced. Also, there have to be fictional "behind the scenes" created where the characters interact away from the action. To incorporate both of those elements to make the movie palatable for the public at large would decrease the accuracy desired by most of the hard-core racing fans...an unfortunate reality I'm afraid. I still believe the amount of controversy surrounding Senna and the fact that he was so open and wore his heart on his sleave would have given more than enough fodder to make an intrinsically interesting movie. Many, many incidents in his life together on the screen would have portrayed him as a talented, but tortured individual would have caused many to see him as an interesting individual and case study...not a one-dimensional cut-out as so many drivers come across today with the mandatory vanilla PR-speak that dominates the interviews with drivers today. The openness, candor, and at times startling comments made by Senna made his post-race comments and interviews fascinating in the extreme... I believe a well made movie could have portrayed him as the complex individual he was.
