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The 2024 Formula 1 season has been full of excitement and upsets. Alpine is having a shocker, Carlos Sainz’s form has surprised us all and last weekend, Mercedes-Benz AMG’s George Russell took a shock win at the Austrian Grand Prix. Adding to the excitement has been the filming of a big budget production — and we’re not even talking about Drive to Survive (although the wildly successful series is filming its seventh season this year). We’re talking about Apple Original Films’ upcoming, yet-to-be-named film in partnership with Formula 1, which has been filmed at races throughout the year.
Starring Brad Pitt as a former driver who returns to the Formula 1 circuit to compete alongside Damson Idris’ character for the fictional APX GP team — “the 11th team on the grid” — the film is set to hit cinemas worldwide on June 27, 2025. Save for the cast, director and production companies involved, few details about the project have been released. But now, an exciting new detail has been unveiled: luxury Swiss watchmaker IWC Schaffhausen is teaming up with Apple Original Films as an official ‘sponsor’ of the APX GP team.
This means that APX’s drivers — Brad Pitt and Damson Idris — will not only be wearing IWC concepts throughout the film; their cars, race suits, helmets and wider team uniforms will also feature IWC branding, just like the uniforms of real life drivers and teams. To coincide with the announcement, a suite of images of Idris’ character wearing a variety of pieces have been released, as well as images of cars and gear resplendent with IWC’s distinctive logo.
IWC has been a big supporter of Formula 1 for over a decade, becoming the Official Engineering Partner of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 team in 2013, the same year Lewis Hamilton joined the luxury manufacturer as a brand ambassador.
“We are a brand with a long-standing connection to motorsport, so we could not miss out on the opportunity to become a part of this project,” said Chris Grainger-Herr, CEO of IWC Schaffhausen in a statement. “We are thrilled that the movie will be shot using race cars on real racetracks, and we cannot wait to see what an incredible experience this will be on the screen.”
The project also stars Academy Award-winner Javier Bardem, Irish actress Kerry Condon and The Crown’s Tobias Menzies. It will directed by Joseph Kosinski of the Top Gun series as well as Only The Brave and the Chris Hemsworth-starring thriller Spiderhead. It will be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Plan B Entertainment, and seven-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton’s Dawn Apollo Films.
As we approach the halfway mark of the 2024 season, with the British Grand Prix set to take place this coming weekend, the producers of this film are gearing up for more exciting real-life action, which will provide a thrilling backdrop to the fictional production. And now that IWC is on board, the film doesn’t only set to be a high octane action flick — it will have the style credentials worthy of the world’s most stylish sport.
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