Brad Pitt Says Tom Cruise Pulled Out Of ‘Ford v Ferrari' After He Realized He 'Would Not Be Driving Much In The Movie'

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13 hours ago

On a different racetrack of events, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise were initially attached to Ford v Ferrari, with the F1 star revealing what ultimately led the latter to back out of the project.
Speaking to the United Arab Emirates-based publication The National News, Pitt reflected on the racing pic that never came to pass, which initially featured F1 and Top Gun: Maverick helmer Joseph Kosinski as director. The eventual 2019 biographical sports/action film featured Christian Bale as fearless racer Ken Miles, Matt Damon as automotive designer Carroll Shelby and James Mangold as filmmaker.
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'Tom and I, for a while there, were on Ford v Ferrari with Joe [to direct],' the Interview with the Vampire actor said. 'This was about 10 years before the guys who actually made it — and made it a great movie.'
The two-time Oscar winner continued, 'What it came down to is that we both wanted to drive, and he wanted to play Shelby, and I wanted to play Ken Miles. And when Tom realized that Carroll Shelby would not be driving much in the movie, it didn't come through.'
He concluded, 'So I'm not sure how that's going to work [in a potential F1 The Movie sequel], but we'll give it a go. I'd love to.'
Previously, Kosinski shared in a sprawling GQ feature about the making of F1 that the reason his version of Ford v Ferrari never came to fruition was because of studio objections to the budget.
A box office hit following its release June 27, the Apple Original Films blockbuster is already getting chatter about potential sequel treatment, with Kosinski telling GQ UK that it's 'up for the audience to decide' and 'not my decision.'
Made in partnership with Formula 1 and its 10 teams, the drama stars Pitt as has-been racer Sonny Hayes, who aims to stage a comeback after his promising career was derailed by a track accident, finding that his biggest competition may be his young, irreverent upstart teammate Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris). Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem, Sarah Niles, Kim Bodnia and Samson Kayo also star. (Simone Ashley's role was cut down in the film.)
Elsewhere in his interview with The National News, Pitt said he would be open to returning to the track in a sequel.
'I would want to drive again, selfishly speaking,' he said. 'F1 is still the focus. It needs to be on Joshua Pierce – Damson Idris's character – and the rest of the team fighting for a championship. Where does Sonny fit in? I'm not sure. Sonny's probably out on the Bonneville Salt Flats, setting speed records or something like that. So I'm not sure beyond that, just yet. Right now, I'm just pleased as punch that something like this can bring people together. That's the power of this kind of cinema.'
With that, Pitt added that should a followup come to pass, he'd be open to collaborating with Cruise, perhaps even a tie-in with the in-the-works Days of Thunder sequel, which the latter has said he is actively 'working on.'
Speaking to what it would take to reteam, Pitt joked last month, 'Well, I'm not gonna hang my ass off airplanes and sh– like that, so when he does something again that's on the ground.'
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