Before ‘F1: The Movie’ debuted in theaters last week, Brad Pitt was initially lined up to star in a different racing film alongside Tom Cruise. During a recent interview with The National, Pitt expressed his desire to collaborate again with his ‘Interview with the Vampire’ co-star in the future.
Pitt revealed that both he and Cruise were once attached to ‘Ford v Ferrari,’ but ultimately pulled out when Cruise realized his character would have limited driving scenes. “Tom and I, for a while there, were on Ford v Ferrari with Joe [to direct],” he explained. “This was about 10 years before the guys who actually made it — and made it a great movie.”
He 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.”
The pivotal roles of Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby ultimately went to Christian Bale and Matt Damon, with James Mangold at the helm as director.
In addition to discussing ‘Ford v Ferrari,’ Pitt touched on speculation regarding a sequel to ‘F1,’ admitting that he has a personal interest in driving again, even though his character, Sonny Hayes, exits Formula One racing by the story’s end. He expressed enthusiasm for possibly working on a sequel to Cruise’s 1990 film ‘Days of Thunder,’ as The Hollywood Reporter highlighted last year that Cruise was exploring that prospect.
“F1 is still the focus. It needs to be on Joshua Pierce — Damson Idris’ character — and the rest of the team fighting for a championship. Where does Sonny fit in? I’m not sure,” Pitt said. “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.”
