Latest news with #Tron:Legacy
Time Out
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Time Out
Where was ‘F1: The Movie' filmed? The locations behind the Brad Pitt racing epic
After filming neon-streaked light cycle races in Tron: Legacy and high-altitude dogfights in Top Gun: Maverick, director Joseph Kosinski brings the summer blockbuster to the Formula One circuit. Officially licensed by Formula 1, the Brad Pitt-led F1: The Movie one-ups previous motorsport films with unparalleled access to real-life racing seasons, immersive first-person camerawork from modified cars, and cameos by champion drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. Pitt steers aerodynamic beasts as Sonny Hayes, a yesteryear driver hired as a last-ditch option by FI team APX GP, an outfit much closer to bankruptcy than titles. Meanwhile, Londoner Damson Idris plays Pitt's impetuous, insecure young teammate Joshua Pearce. Together, the veteran and the rookie trot across the globe's flashiest Grade 1 circuits, with occasional pitstops for a pint at the pub and a post-race party at a Las Vegas club. This is how and where they pulled it all off. Where were the races of F1: The Movie filmed? The racing scenes were all shot at actual tracks, from trial laps at Silverstone Circuit in the UK to a final nail-biter at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Daytona International Speedway, Florida Brad Pitt's Sonny Hayes is introduced in a non-F1 setting at Florida's Daytona International Speedway that hosts the '24 Hours of Daytona'. To footage of the endurance race, a fictional 'Chip Hart Racing' team was embedded within the 2024 edition. The crew used a Porsche and a BMW (from competing Daytona teams Wright Motorsport and Turner Motorsport) for the rainswept opening race sequence. Silverstone, UK Once Sonny's skills behind the wheel are established, he attempts a Formula One comeback with training sessions and early races at Silverstone, home of the British Grand Prix. Located near villages of Northamptonshire, Silverstone hosted Kosinski and his crew during July 2023's Grand Prix weekend. Filming took place during practice laps or the short breaks during actual races. Pitt and Idris really did most of the driving, pushing the pedal on modified Formula 2 cars with Formula 1 fittings. The Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi Other tracks used in the film include Hungary's Hungaroring, Belgium's Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Italy's famous Monza Circuit, Circuit Zandvoort in the Netherlands, Japan's Suzuka course, Mexico City's Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, and finally, Abu Dhabi's futuristic Yas Marina Circuit – the last track of the season. Where were the non-racing scenes filmed? Christina's Coin Laundry, New Smyrna Beach, Florida After his Daytona victory, Sonny Hayes can be spotted at Christina's Coin Laundry, which operates every day of the week at Florida's New Smyrna Beach. This is where he runs into his former teammate and now manager of APX GP, Ruben (Javier Bardem). Pappas Drive-In and Family Restaurant, New Smyrna Beach, Florida As Ruben tries to persuade Sonny to come out of retirement, the racer grabs a bite at the neighbouring Pappas Drive-In and Family Restaurant. The eatery has been a local staple since 1970. Sadly, shortly after F1 wrapped filming here in March 2024, Pappas Drive-In burnt down in a fire. The site remains closed, with the owners confirming the restaurant's demolition in a social media post from August. It might be some consolation that Pappas is now immortalised on screen, as the hungriest movie star in cinema history tucks into one of its pies. McLaren Technology Centre, Woking, England After a career-ending injury, Sonny is shown to have left the competitive racing circuit in the 1990s. As he plans his big comeback to F1, we find him and young rookie Joshua undergoing rigorous physical training and attending press conferences at the APX GP headquarters. The team might be struggling on the leaderboard, but APX's base boasts sleek, spacious modernist architecture. The McLaren Technology Centre in Woking stood in for the fictional team's headquarters. One shot shows Damson Idris using the high-tech facilities to push his physical limits, while Pitt jogs around the distinctive semi-circular glass building. Opened in 2004, the building has also been used in Star Wars series Andor as a spaceport on the planet Coruscant. The Globe Inn, Leighton Buzzard, England In between practice sessions for his big Formula 1 return, Sonny meets the team's technical director, Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon), as they indulge in some friendly banter over pints. The rendezvous spot in this case is The Globe Inn, a cosy pub nestled by the Grand Union Canal in the Bedfordshire market town of Leighton Buzzard. Omnia Nightclub and Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas, USA When his F1 team makes its way to Las Vegas for the US Grand Prix, Joshua has a moment of clarity at a nightclub inside Caesar's Palace. The club sequence also features a cameo from Dutch DJ Tiesto, who performs his Sexxy Red collaboration OMG!, an exclusive single that features on the film's soundtrack. A mainstay in numerous Las Vegas-set films, the interiors of Caesar's Palace also feature when Condon's Kate McKenna 'parent traps' bickering teammates Joshua and Sonny into a conciliatory drink. Who stars in F1: The Movie? Brad Pitt gets top billing in F1: The Movie for playing racer Sonny Hayes, joined by Snowfall star Damson Idris as his teammate Joshua. The Banshees of Inisherin breakout Kerry Condon plays APX GP's technical director Kate, while Oscar-winner Javier Bardem supports the ensemble as team owner Reuben. Other cast members include Tobias Menzies (The Crown), Kim Bodnia (Konstantin in Killing Eve), and Sarah Niles (Dr Fieldstone in Ted Lasso). Many real-life F1 drivers and team CEOs appear as themselves, including the likes of Lewis Hamilton (who also serves as producer and consultant), Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, and many more. When does F1: The Movie come out? F1: The Movie releases on June 25 in UK and Ireland cinemas and June 27 in the US. The film is scheduled for a streaming release on Apple TV+ after its theatrical run. . .
Metro
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Tron: Catalyst review - I'm sorry I haven't a CLU
As a new movie prepares for launch, the latest attempt to adapt Tron into video game form comes with a very interesting and purposeful glitch. Tron has always seemed like a franchise on the edge of greatness. The original 1982 movie was a hugely important milestone in the evolution of computer-generated imagery, but it wasn't really that great a film. Likewise, Tron: Legacy is most fondly remembered for its amazing soundtrack, rather than anything that actually happened in it. Naturally, there's been many video game adaptations over the year, with two separate waves around the time of the two movies and an unconnected 2003 first person shooter from the now sadly deceased Monolith Productions. The most recent tie-in was low-key visual novel Tron: Identity in 2023, from Thomas Was Alone developer Bithell Games. Despite being a small indie studio, the team was also responsible for the only John Wick game so far – which we loved but nobody else seemed to. Tron: Catalyst takes an equally daring approach to its subject matter, but this time the gamble hasn't paid off. The unavoidable problem for all the modern Tron games is that Legacy was a much less visually interesting movie than the original, with an almost monochrome colour scheme and less fantastical costumes and designs. New film Ares, to which this is only nominally connected, is set in the real world and yet still everything looks bleak and dark, which really doesn't seem appropriate for a concept as inherently silly as Tron. Nevertheless, designer Mike Bithell, who we had a good chat to about the game last year, does what he can, with an original story based on a different grid (aka server) than the one seen in the films. The idea is that the grid has been left alone for so long that most programs no longer really believe in humans and those that do have turned the concept into a kind of religion. You play as a courier named Exo, who becomes involved in a plot to reset the server, caught between a dystopian police force and a growing band of resistance fighters. It's a perfectly reasonable set-up and does involve some interesting sci-fi ideas – like the super-evolved programs that have lost all connection with humanity – but the wider plot could be transposed to any other fantasy setting with very few changes needed. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. The game is played from a very distant top-down view, which doesn't help with the sense of immersion or your connection to the character, and only makes the drab art design look even more uninteresting. What makes Exo unique is that she has a bug, literally called a glitch, that lets her reset the server whenever she wants. This means starting the current chapter of the story again, while retaining any abilities you unlocked or information you didn't previously have. So, for example, if your need a code for a locked door you can go off and find it, even if that ends up altering all the guards, and then come back later and use it. It's a very neat idea and there's always a shortcut, literally or figuratively, involved that means you don't have to repeat everything a second time. However, it never really feels like the game is making full use of the ability, as there's generally no reason to use it except when the game tells you too and nothing that surprises you with its cleverness. The combat involves melee fighting and using the (relatively) iconic identity disc, which is basically a Frisbee. This works fine in theory but there's very little sense of feedback for your attacks and as you face down armies of respawning enemies it gets old worryingly quickly; especially as the skill tree and the ability to steal enemies' moves make little practical difference. The top-down view really doesn't help either, given how much it distances you from the action. Combat soon becomes a chore, with too many bullet sponge opponents, while minor enemies are easily confused by level furniture. Ironically, the AI is quite glitchy and often you end up taking advantage of its brokenness to get the action over with more quickly. More Trending The other main action element is driving a light cycle, which is fun because of how fast they are, even if there's often little room to manoeuvre. Given the original Tron included a version of what would today be recognised as the game Snake (but actually started out as a coin-op called Blockade in 1976) none of the modern Tron games have done the concept justice and while Catalyst is perhaps the best of the bunch it still feels fiddly and random. Catalyst is quite cheap but it's also very short, at around five hours, and with no real reason to ever play it again. Annoyingly, the ending is filled with hints at a third game (since this is technically a sequel to Identity) and yet there's been no announcement so far that one is happening. The end result is a disappointingly joyless gaming experience, whose story and characters are surprisingly uninteresting, given Bithell's talents. The gameplay doesn't take any particular advantage of the Tron setting and the whole thing is just so ugly and bland to look at. John Wick Hex was much the same, but we easily forgave that because of the fun and original gameplay, but unfortunately Tron: Catalyst doesn't have that same advantage. In Short: A disappointingly drab Tron tie-in that wastes some interesting ideas on dull and repetitive combat and an unequally unengaging story. Pros: The glitch concept has lots of potential, even if it's not fully realised here. For better or worse, it looks like Tron: Legacy. Cons: The storytelling is mostly uninteresting and there's barely any resolution. Combat is dull and repetitive. Glitch gimmick is never used in any particularly clever ways. Bleak and unengaging visuals. Score: 5/10 Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PCPrice: £19.99Publisher: Big FanDeveloper: Bithell GamesRelease Date: 17th June 2025 Age Rating: 7 Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 is 15% off if you pre-order now MORE: PS Plus games for July includes one of the best dungeon crawlers ever MORE: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 climbs chart after 'unusual' sales boost
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- First Post
F1 movie review: Brad Pitt-Damson Idris-Javier Bardem starrer sports drama delivers an immersive cinematic experience
With F1, Joseph Kosinski once again delivers a cinematic visual spectacle, which is not only immersive but also blissful read more Star cast: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies, Samson Kayo, Sarah Niles and Javier Bardem Director: Joseph Kosinski After delivering larger-than-life movies like Tron: Legacy and Top Gun: Maverick, among others, director Joseph Kosinski returns with F1, which promises to be a big-screen visual spectacle. While the promos looked nothing less than pure cinema, let's see whether it lives up to the sky-high expectations of movie lovers. The plot begins with Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) entering the Daytona oval after splashing water on his face and quickly making his way into the team's car for the 24-hour race, where he goes from 0 to 180 mph in a minute. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Hayes, who was once a phenomenon in the F1 world, crashed out of it decades earlier and is now racing any vehicle, including even a taxi. He is approached by his former teammate and old friend, Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), to join his F1 team APX GP, which is struggling big time in the racing world. While first Hayes refuses it, he eventually agrees. The team's young rookie driver Joshua 'JP' Pearce (Damson Idris) is called a 'shitbox' because he failed to score even a single point in Formula One. While the whole APX GP team is sceptical of Hayes, it turns out to be more chaotic as his lap time turns out to be slower than JP's, followed by a brutal crash at the open track. As Principal Kaspar Smolinski (Kim Bodnia) and Technical Director Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon) have a big task to make sure Sonny and the team finish in the top 10 in the next 9 races for the survival of APX GP. In this journey, the clash between Joshua and Hayes takes centre stage, and how their bond develops with an emotional eruption of an underdog winner narrates the crux of F1. First things first, F1 is a technical masterpiece, and I would like to urge everyone to watch it on the biggest screen possible and preferably IMAX. The importance of verisimilitude is seen in every frame, with DoP Claudio Miranda brilliantly and skillfully bringing the world of F1 to life. Right from racing tracks to cockpit shots, Miranda makes you feel of witnessing F1 races with high thrills and drama. Hans Zimmer's music takes the movie to the next level because of its blistering rhythm. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Joseph Kosinski once again delivers a cinematic visual spectacle, which is not only immersive but also blissful. Talking about the performances, Pitt carries the film with his swag and charm and the underlayered emotions, which is a treat to your eyes. Damson is pitch-perfect as Joshua, with Javier Bardem acing his character with finesse and ease. Kerry Condon's natural screen presence is magnificent. On the whole, F1 is easily one of the best films of the year with hands-down technical brilliance. Rating: 4 (out of 5 stars) F1 is releasing on 27th June
Hindustan Times
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Love making movies for the big screen, those are the ones I grew up watching: 'F1' director Joseph Kosinski
New Delhi, As someone who grew up on a diet of big movies in theatres, filmmaker Joseph Kosinski says he loves films that give audiences a thrilling ride whether it is with Tom Cruise-starrer "Top Gun: Maverick" or his upcoming Brad Pitt-starrer "F1", an action adventure set in the world of Formula One racing. Kosinski's other credits include Cruise-starrer "Oblivion", a story that the director initially wrote as a graphic novel, and "Tron: Legacy" as well as "Only the Brave". "I love making films for the big screen. I think now it's more important than ever that we get people out of their homes to see this. So you have to give them a reason to go to the theatre, and that's what I'm hoping to do with 'F1'," the filmmaker told PTI in a virtual interview. "Those are the kind of movies I grew up going to see in the theatre when I was a kid in the 80s and 90s. I remember seeing 'Top Gun', 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', big movies that take you into this world for two hours, send you on an adventure and then spit you out in the end and you can't wait to take the ride again," he added. Kosinski said the world of Formula One fascinated him and he thought it would be great to set a "big screen experience" within it. The movie revolves around a once-promising racer Sonny Hayes , whose former teammate Ruben Cervantes ropes in Pitt as a last-ditch effort to reverse the ailing fortunes of his F1 team. The team also has a successful rookie Joshua Pierce . Asked how is it to direct big stars like Pitt and Cruise, the filmmaker said they both love new challenges. "I think both Brad and Tom feel the same way. They're both at the top of their game, incredible professionals. They have great taste in films and stories. They understand how to develop a character. They're both incredible actors. And Brad was someone I always wanted to work with. "I thought this would be the perfect role for him. And luckily, he did, too, and it was just an incredible collaboration. I had an incredible time. And yeah, I'm excited for people to see his performance in this film, because I think it's really special," he added. Lewis Hamilton, who has won seven Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, is one of the producers on the movie. Kosinski said Hamilton was one of the first people he reached out to when he thought about making a movie on Formula One racing. "I asked him if he would help me make this film as authentic as possible. And he said yes. So he worked very closely with me and Jerry Bruckheimer and Brad from the beginning to help craft this story and character. We went through every line of the script together, making sure we got every detail right," he said. Kosinski's experience of working on "Top Gun: Maverick" came handy while shooting for this movie and one of them was to invent a brand new camera system. "The tools didn't exist to make this movie... We created a new prototype camera that's very small but delivers IMAX quality imagery. Sony built 25 prototypes for us, and we worked with the Mercedes F1 team to create a race car that had camera mounts built into it. So we had 15 or 16 different mount points on this race car," he said. Both Pitt and Idris were taught how to drive race cars for real. "When you see them driving in this movie, they are actually driving a race car on a Formula One track during race weekend. So the crowd in the stands is real. When you see other drivers getting in their cars around them, that all happened right before a real Formula One race. The idea was to give the viewer the sense of what it's like to be at one of these events," he said. Next for Kosinski is "Top Gun 3", which is already in development. Bruckheimer is also producing two of his other movies. "I've got three films in development, two with Jerry, including a sequel to Top Gun Maverick. Ehren Kruger is writing the script right now, who wrote 'F1' and also worked on 'Top Gun Maverick', so we got an incredible screenwriter working on it. Any opportunity to work with Jerry, I will take it," he added. "F1", an Apple Original Film, will be distributed in theatres and IMAX worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is produced by Bruckheimer, Plan B Entertainment, and Lewis Hamilton's Dawn Apollo Films. It will release in India on June 27 in English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.
Forbes
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
'Haptic Trailer' For Brad Pitt's 'F1' Lets You Feel The Race On iPhone
In the movie "F1" Brad Pitt, shown opposite Damson Idris, is a Formula One racer who gets another ... More chance to prove himself. Want to feel what it's like to be Brad Pitt as a Formula One driver tearing around a racetrack? Apple has released a 'haptic trailer' for the upcoming racing film F1 that brings racing sensations to iPhones. The trailer leverages the phone's Taptic Engine to deliver vibrations that sync with the onscreen action as Pitt straps in for some high-speed shenanigans. Apple promises that viewers will 'experience the power of the engines, the rumble of the curbs and the intensity of every gear shift like never before with responsive vibrations.' That makes the haptic trailer sound more dramatic than it actually is, but the revs and roars are still a fun, novel way to draw interest for the film and demonstrate another way technology is making entertainment experiences more multisensory. The trailer works on iPhones 18.4 or later. F1, out in theaters June 27 from Apple Original Films, stars Pitt as Sonny Hayes, a fictional Formula One prodigy in the 1990s who has to retire due to a crash and now lives in a van and gambles his life away. In the film, a former teammate played by Javier Bardiem convinces Hayes to return to Formula 1 to save a struggling team and get the chance to prove he's still got it. I think we all know where this one's headed. 'As the engines roar, Sonny's past catches up with him and he finds that in Formula 1, your teammate is your fiercest competition, and the road to redemption is not something you can travel alone,' reads a description of the film directed by Joseph Kosinski of Top Gun: Maverick, who also directed Tron: Legacy. Apple premiered the haptic trailer during this week's 2025 Worldwide Developers Conference. There, the company announced, among other things, its next iPhone operating software, iOS 26, which promises to screen scam calls and hold your place in the dreaded phone waiting line when you're stuck on hold. F1 features several F1 drivers including Lewis Hamilton in addition to starring Pitt, Bardiem, Damson Idris and Irish actor Kerry Condon, who gives Pitt's character a tough talking to in the trailer. 'They saying Sonny Hayes isn't a has-been,' she tells him. 'He's a never was.' Gauntlet thrown! Apple first introduced haptics to the iPhone in 2015 with a tiny motorized actuator that delivers subtle tactile sensations to confirm actions like toggling a switch or unlocking a device with Face ID and also provide discreet notifications when a phone's on silent. Last year, Apple released a number of accessibility features for iPhone users, including Music Haptics, which uses the Taptic Engine to layer synchronized sensations onto audio so those with hearing loss can get a more immersive listening experience. Feel the need for speed but don't have an iPhone? Here's a non-haptic version of the F1 trailer.
