03/09/2013
NEWS STORY
Yesterday saw the long-awaited world premiere of Rush, the blockbuster movie about the 1976 Formula One championship. It focuses on the story of the late James Hunt who won the title by one point from Niki Lauda after the Austrian driver was nearly killed in an accident mid-way through the season.
Whilst German actor Daniel Brühl has been widely praised for his performance as Lauda, Australian Chris Hemsworth has come in for some criticism of his portrayal of Hunt who was one of F1's most colourful, charismatic characters. It didn't go unnoticed by F1's boss Bernie Ecclestone.
In an interview with Pitpass' business editor Christian Sylt for motoring magazine Evo, Ecclestone said "the guy who plays Niki was very, very, very good. But nobody could play James. He was a bit special. He would have livened the film up an awful lot." Hunt's 27 year-old son Tom concurs.
Tom - pictured centre with Freddie Hunt (right) and their mother Sarah Lomax (left) - is launching a merchandise line and innovative charitable foundation in his father's memory. Sylt recently did an in-depth interview with him about it and the highlights will soon be here on Pitpass. Rush was discussed in detail and Tom told Sylt that “for me to watch it, it is definitely not dad up there. I think the one thing it does lack a little bit is the cheekiness and charisma that dad had which obviously is so difficult to convey. I can’t think of any actors alive today or anyone at all who would be able to do that but that is because dad was so unique."
He adds "I think the best person to play my dad, though he is not around any more, is Heath Ledger. He would have been spot on. It is such a shame and he was a very good actor."
One scene which has attracted a lot of attention immediately follows the press conference given by Lauda announcing that he will return to racing just six weeks after his accident. A journalist then questions whether Lauda's disfigurement has affected his relationship with then-wife Marlena. Lauda dismisses his comment but Hunt reacts even more strongly and angrily attacks the journalist in a storage room.
One armchair critic went as far as to say that "the scene with the journalist should be cut from the movie, not accepted." Pitpass could understand this view if Hunt was not a passionate person who acted on the spur of the moment but he was. A good case in point is the 1977 Canadian Grand Prix when Hunt instinctively punched a trackside marshal who grabbed him after he stumbled out of his wrecked car. On realising that the marshal meant no harm Hunt immediately apologised and Tom says it has similarities with the scene where the journalist is attacked.
"The scene is when he punches that guy, even though I don’t know if that actually happened, it was certainly the sort of thing that he would have done. He was so loyal and such a passionate guy. We have all seen him hit the marshal and immediately say sorry. He hits him in a fit of rage and passion, realises he has done it and immediately starts patting him on the back saying sorry. That was a very daddy moment."
There is no doubt that Hunt stands in great contrast to the mild-mannered drivers of today and Tom is hoping to build a brand around it. It certainly has tremendous potential and the film makes an ideal springboard for this. It has got wide attention in the motorsport media but still needs to gain traction in more mainstream publications.
Empire, the UK's leading film magazine has Hemsworth on the cover of its latest issue but he isn't in Hunt's overalls to promote this month's Rush. Instead, the editors chose to run with a photo of him in costume as Thor, the god of thunder - the character he plays in the Marvel comics movie Thor 2 which is released in November. The irony is that in Hunt's era, it would have been laughable to think that a superhero movie would get more publicity than one about F1. It goes to show that although F1 is far more popular now than it was in the 1970s this counts for little in Hollywood.
Two new featurettes...
On set with Chris Hemsworth:
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and, worth it if only for the "air that pushes the car down" line...
Driving an F1 car:
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