Lights, cameras, cars

Posted on 12/03/2010

An officially-sanctioned Formula 1 film will be released early next year. It will be an action documentary charting the history of the sport but focusing especially on the period between 1968 and 1982. The project has the backing of Bernie Ecclestone.

“My partners and I really believe that documentaries can be entertaining and engaging, not just reporting facts," Oscar-winning writer Mark Monro told Autosport. "We want to make a big action movie, do something that puts people in the car and makes them gasp at the speed of the thing. Then, tell the human stories all the while, so you can dip in and out of these human stories with these big action moments that are enhanced from archive footage.

"We have to hit the right tone so the proper fans don't think it is a rubbish, but also make it broad enough so that someone who doesn't know anything about the sport can really enjoy it.”

“It’s a tough order to make a dramatic film about a dramatic sport," producer Michael Shevloff told Autosport. "To make a film and say we will spend US$100 million US$200 million dollars on this movie … well Bernie would just reply and say the teams spend a billion dollars on the sport. So I don't know how you would make it bigger than it is."

The one certainty is that the film does not yet have a title.