Yet another racing movie, this one from Ron Howard (Oscar winning director of A Beautiful Mind) and Peter Morgan, who was nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar for writing the movie The Queen.
Set against the sexy, glamorous golden age of Formula 1 racing in the 1970’s, the movie Rush, directed by Oscar winner Ron Howard, is an action-drama based on real events starring Chris Hemsworth (The Avengers) and Daniel Brühl (Inglourious Basterds).
The movie Rush focuses on the unique sporting rivalry between handsome English playboy racer James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth), and his tough, methodical, brilliant opponent Niki Lauda, (Daniel Bruhl) and the legendary Formula 1 season of 1976.
Rush follows their distinctly different lives and loves on and off the track, (Olivia Wilde as Suzy Hunt and Alexandra Maria Lara as Marlene Lauda) and builds to a thrilling, nail-biting climax where both drivers put their lives on the line to become world champion in a sport with no margin for error: if you make a mistake, you die.
There has never been a serious movie, with A-list actors, about car racing that has been a box office hit. Tom Cruise tried it with Paul Newman in the bomb Days Of Thunder. Speed Racer, anyone?
Throw in an action movie series about stealing cars and racing them and you have the successful The Fast And The Furious franchise. Car racing + comedy and you have the Smokey & The Bandit franchise, and The Cannonball Run franchise, both of which did great box office business. Disneyfy car racing and you get the Herbie movies, which were all marginally successful in the 1970s and 1980s.
Not sure how Universal thinks that this movie, Rush, no matter who is featured in it, will make any money at the box office, because we are positive that it will be a bomb of epic proportions. Maybe even a bigger bomb than Days Of Thunder.
