Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is set to make his acting debut in ‘Apex’, an upcoming Formula 1-based movie starring Brad Pitt which has endured a troubled and costly production
Lewis Hamilton’s acting debut will come in one of the most expensive films of all-time.
The Formula 1 legend is co-producing what’s set to be titled ‘Apex’, starring Brad Pitt as a grizzled F1 driver who comes out retirement to mentor a “young phenom” played by highly-rated British actor Damson Idris. Hamilton, 39, is also expected to play a small role in the star-studded flick which will now cost Apple Studios more than £240million ($300m).
Due to last year’s Hollywood-wide strikes, Covid-enforced delays and the use of big-name actors in genuine race cars, ‘Apex’ is set to end up at least 12th on the all-time list of most expensive films, according to Puck News. That’s level with the likes of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, DC’s Justice League and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.
Although it’s yet to find a distributor or pencil in a release date, the film is being directed by Joseph Kosinski, who helmed 2022’s box office smash hit, Top Gun: Maverick, and has struck up a friendship with Hamilton. The Mercedes icon, who’ll be driving for Ferrari in 2025, is serving to make the film as “authentic” as possible and will make his first on-screen acting appearance, the Sun add.
“My point was, ‘Guys, this movie needs to be so authentic’,” Hamilton, who’s previously voiced an animated character in the Cars franchise and had a cameo in the Zoolander sequel, stressed in a recent interview with GQ Magazine.
“There’s two different fan groups that we have – like, the old originals, who from the day they’re born hear the [BBC] Grand Prix music every weekend and watch with their families, and the new generation that just learned about it today through Netflix.
“I felt my job really has been to try to call BS. ‘This would never happen’. ‘This is how it would be’. ‘This is how it could happen’. Just giving them advice about what racing is really about and what, as a racing fan, would appeal and what would not.”
