Lewis Hamilton has provided an update on the filming for the as-yet-untitled F1 film starring Brad Pitt. Shooting for the Apple Original movie began at the British Grand Prix, where Pitt and co-star Damson Idris took up their roles as Sonny Hayes and Joshua Pearce in the paddock, with APX GP F1-style adapted F2 cars taking to the track across the weekend. Several high-profile projects have been put on hold after the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists [SAG-AFTRA] went on strike for the first time since 1980 in a dispute over pay and the use of Artificial Intelligence in productions. Movies and TV show productions have already been slowing down due to many screenwriters being on strike since May, with the actor strike likely to impact the completion of more Hollywood films. With Pitt a part of SAG-AFTRA, it was erroneously believed filming for the F1 movie had been shut down, with a source telling NBC that this was the case. However, it has transpired that filming without actors will take place at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where an 11th garage has again been set up and track time scheduled for the two cars to collect on-track and paddock footage. "There has been a writer's strike for a minute now, so that changed the way we had to work on the script," Hamilton told media, including RacingNews365 . "Now there is the actor's strike, so it is an unprecedented time for the industry but reading through it and speaking to everyone to try and understand it more and more. "Fortunately for us, APX is here, we are still filming with the drivers we have, so hopefully we can continue to get some important parts of the filming done."
Film support 'amazing'
The APX crew were welcomed with open arms at Silverstone, with Hamilton suggesting such a project would have been untenable under previous F1 regimes. "It has been really amazing to see how the sport... this sport, when you bring something new, everyone gets really nervous and there is all this pushback," added the seven-time champion. "Now we are seeing these changes and people are starting to see the benefits and I think it has been really great to see all the teams embrace APX and the team we have there. "To see them on track now is so cool. I have seen all the images from some of the filming with Brad, from the different scenes we had read through, you just have a vision of what it would look like. "But now I have seen some of those scenes, it makes me even more excited about the end result."
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