As many of Formula One's fans know, Oscar-winning director Ron Howard is filming the movie Rush which recants the tale of iconic 70's legends James Hunt and Niki Lauda. The last time F1's fans got excited, for a minute, was when Sylvester Stallone started poking around the paddock and hinted at making a movie about Formula 1. Ultimately that movie was never made and the CART series here in America suffered an eternal blow when Stallone's Driven was released. The pain is still tangible to this day.
Interest in F1 is global and it was piqued when the documentary film, Senna, was released last year to fawning crowds and with good reason...it was a fabulous film. Riding the coattails of interest and investment, Howard decided to take a poke at creating his own impact on F1 with the movie Rush. F1 fans are elated and anticipating the 2013 release.
Where Howard went right and Stallone went wrong is that the former chose to make a movie about the past and this makes things easier at some level due to the recreation of the scene and time instead of trying to get rights to the current scene, teams and times that Stallone attempted. Commercial rights alone would have made the deal nearly impossible as F1 boss bernie Ecclestone was not about to let any revenue generated by Stallone's efforts go unnoticed or unclaimed.
Today, April 4, 2012, signaled the final day of shooting for the movie and it was spent recreating the Hunt/Miller wedding. Pictures of the days shooting can be seen here.
What do you think? Does he look like Hunt? Does she look like Miller? Does the movie excite you? Are you anticipating a sensationalized version of reality or do you think Ron Howard will hold true to F1's legacy and realism and not throw in Hollywood's typical over-the-top formula for movie success? Certainly most movies these days are made with obnoxious hand-held jerkiness (see current release of Hunger Games for example) and the recent triumvirate of social issues are found in most movies and television shows including drug use, gay/lesbian anti-bullying message and nudity.
Come to think of it, those three issues may very well have played a role in Hunt's life as I am sure this world-renowned playboy saw it all in his day so on second thought, Howard may have found the perfect formula that is replete with a good battle, storyline and current social issues in which to work and all without the commercial stress of getting major approval from Ecclestone or dividing the spoils 70/30 in favor of the elder statesman of Formula One.