Lewis Hamilton to produce Formula One movie for Apple, Brad Pitt to star

Formula One's most successful driver will soon make his silver screen debut, with 103-time race winner Lewis Hamilton signing up to produce an Apple-backed film centred around the racing series.

Announced this week, Hamilton will work alongside director Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy, Top Gun: Maverick) in creating the film for Apple TV, with Hollywood A-lister Brad Pitt to star as its protagonist.

According to Apple, Pitt's character is a former driver who comes back from retirement, looking to guide a rookie driver to success against "the titans of the sport".

If this sounds at all familiar, the words Driven and Sylvester Stallone might jog your memory, although hopefully not enough to actually remember the CART-based film.

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Brad Pitt at Le Mans in 2016 with Queanbeyan's own Mark Webbet

In addition to the aforementioned cast and crew, Apple has drafted in Pitt's production company Plan B Entertainment (The Departed, Moneyball, 12 Years a Slave) and Jerry Bruckheimer Films (Days of Thunder, Black Hawk Down, Bad Boys) to be a part of the project.

Recent racing-based sports drama films such as Ford v Ferrari and Rush have done well to not only tell the stories they're loosely based on, but also open the sport up to a new fanbase which previously might have otherwise ignored it.

Netflix released the fourth season of Drive to Survive earlier this year, with the show's popularity pinned as one of the factor's behind Formula One's recent ratings revival – as well as being the catalyst for a younger audience to become engaged.

It's not known when the film enters production, although given Hamilton is still an active driver for Mercedes-AMG's Formula One team, it's unlikely the seven-time championship will take time off to chase his Hollywood dream during the season.