Brad Pitt BACK ON TRACK

THE STAR IS RIDING HIGH WITH A HIGH-OCTANE RACING MOVIE AND A ROMANCE THAT'S GOING THE DISTANCE

- Jennie Noonan

Promoting Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on April 3, Tom Cruise got a little sidetracked. “Brad’s [Pitt] gota new movie, with Jerry Bruckheimer, Joe Kosinski. I can’t wait to see that... It'll be awesome,” the 61-year-old action icon said of the Kosinski-directed, Bruckheimer-produced sports drama, in which Pitt stars as a former Formula 1 driver.

“It’s great to see Brad driving,” Cruise continued. “He’s a very good driver. Believe me, I’ve raced against him. When we were doing Interview with the Vampire, we’d go and race go-karts. We’d literally finish and go drive go-karts all night.”

In F1, Pitt’s skills behind the wheel are on full display, with production filming at 14 Formula 1 Grand Prix events around the world. “Watching Brad drive around at speeds over 180 miles an hour [290km/hr] was really impressive to see because it’s not something you can just learn overnight,” said seven-time world champ Lewis Hamilton - a producer on the film - at a virtual press conference in March. “The dedication and the focus that Brad put into this process has been amazing to witness.”

For director Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick), the buck stopped with Pitt’s prowess behind the wheel. “If Brad can’t drive, this whole film wasn’t going to work, and what Lewis was very happy to discover was that, you know, Brad had a lot of just natural ability,” he said at the March event. “When you see Brad driving, that’s not acting. He’s really concentrating on keeping that car on the track and out of the wall during all those scenes, so that’s something that you just can’t fake.”