Brad Pitt reveals why 'Ford v Ferrari' with Tom Cruise never happened

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During the press rounds for his new race car flick F1: The Movie, director Joseph Kosinski spoke about how he almost made Ford v Ferrari with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.

Now his F1 star is lifting the hood on the abandoned film project after his new Formula 1 drama scored a $144 million worldwide opening.

Eventually released in 2019 with Christian Bale and Matt Damon, the movie was based on the triumphant true story of the American car designer Carroll Shelby (Damon) who, along with race car driver Ken Miles (Bale), helped engineer a Ford motor car to take on Italy’s fabled Ferrari team at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race. 

Kosinski said budgetary constraints were part of the reason his proposed film didn’t come together. In a new interview, Pitt says they got close to making their own version, but when Cruise found out how little driving he would be doing, he also cooled on the idea.

“Tom and I, for a while there, were on Ford v Ferrari with Joe (to direct). This was about 10 years before the guys who actually made it – and made it a great movie,” Pitt tells The National. “What it came down to is that we both wanted to drive, and (Tom) 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.”

With an F1 sequel already being talked about, Pitt says he’s excited by the prospect of returning as Sonny Hayes. In the film, Pitt’s Hayes gets a chance at redemption when he is given an opportunity to mentor a hotshot rookie driver (played by Damson Idris).

Pitt got to drive real-life race cars with filming for F1 taking place in front of hundreds of thousands of spectators at actual Formula 1 races like Silverstone — home of the British Grand Prix — and at the Hungaroring near Budapest, as well as the Circuit of Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, Japan’s Suzuka track, the Vegas strip, and Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina circuit.

“I would want to drive again, selfishly speaking,” Pitt says about a sequel. “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.”

Kosinski said that because of their early prep on Ford v Ferrari, he knew that Pitt would be able to handle going at speeds of up to 180 miles per hour to film his driving scenes in F1.

“I knew that he was interested in racing,” Kosinski told Postmedia in an interview last month. “Driving a real race car, going to real events, capturing it during race weekends, those were all things Brad was up for doing.”

In separate interviews, Kosinski has floated the idea that an F1 sequel could crossover with Cruise’s 1990 NASCAR drama Days of Thunder.

“Well, right now, it’d be Cole Trickle, who was (Cruise’s) Days of Thunder character, we find out that he and Sonny Hayes have a past,” Kosinski said in a recent chat with GQ Magazine UK. “They were rivals at some point, maybe crossed paths … who wouldn’t pay to see those two go head-to-head on the track?”

Pitt says he doesn’t know yet if a follow-up will get greenlit. But he’s happy that F1 has connected with audiences.

“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,” Pitt says. “I’m not sure how (a potential F1 sequel) is going to work, but we’ll give it a go. I’d love to.”

F1 is now playing in theatres.

mdaniell@postmedia.com