Lewis Hamilton provided an update on the Formula 1 film he’s producing alongside Brad Pitt, Jerry Bruckheimer and Joseph Kosinski after a wave of summer strikes across Hollywood.
Actors walked out on the London premiere of Oppenheimer in mid-July as part of the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA strike, and the dispute still hasn’t ended seven weeks later and coincides with other Hollywood industrial action.
Part of the untitled F1 film was shot at the 2023 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, just days before the strike began, but there have been rumours over the project’s future with filming halted.
“No, I know that Apple is fully behind us and wants us to go ahead,” Hamilton told the press, when asked if he’s concerned. “Everyone in the team is fully focused on making the greatest movie we can and it’s just a matter of time.
“It’s definitely not the easiest time I think for actors around the world but hopefully something that’ll be resolved in the not-too-distant future.
“The positive thing for us is we’re still able to do some filming, still able to use stunt doubles, we still have editing and things we can do with the stuff we’ve already caught, I’ll be on calls with Joe next week as we continue to finish off the story.
“There’s a couple of races we need to go through and talk about the wording and how it’s worded with the different races and stuff, so yeah I’m not massively concerned just yet.”
Hamilton: I’ve not thought about F1 all summer
Hamilton also said he had no trouble switching off from F1 over the summer break. He finished fourth in the Belgian GP after finding himself in no-man’s land for much of the race, but did snatch fastest lap to close out the first half of his season.
Since then Hamilton‘s had the customary travel and family time that comes with F1‘s summer break, but he said he left the sport behind mentally as soon as he left Belgium.
“I didn’t think about Formula 1 once after the race in Spa,” Hamilton said. “It was easy to adjust.”
