Top Gun Maverick Director's Formula 1 Movie Will Use Similar Practical Effects
"It's going to be a huge challenge but an exciting one."
Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski has shared his plans to use similar practical effects on the race track of his upcoming Formula 1 movie, which is set to star Brad Pitt.
The breathtaking aerial sequences in Maverick were achieved using unprecedented practical effects, and one very daring shot even blew away the set, inadvertently leaving the production team with a single take to use. Kosinski recognized the challenges of shooting this way, but told The Wrap he is committed to taking a similar in-camera approach on his forthcoming racing car movie with Brad Pitt.
"Certainly seeing people react to an in-camera, authentically captured film like 'Top Gun' makes us all feel good that our approach works and is appreciated by audiences," he said. "It's almost funny to me to see people who are so enamored with real photography. Younger people almost haven’t seen a lot of it. They’re so used to CGI being a tool of big movies that when you shoot something for real, it feels innovative."
"That's exactly the approach for Formula One… to shoot at the real races and real cars and capture it," he added. "It's going to be a huge challenge but an exciting one for me."
Kosinski chose to use practical effects as opposed to CG for Maverick because he wanted to capture the feeling of being a Top Gun pilot by "shooting it for real." However, it required a lot of time and dedication from the cast and crew, with the actors participating in a rigorous, Navy-approved boot camp before the cameras even started rolling.
The filmmaker said that he shot over 800 hours of footage for the movie, and there's no doubt that the unprecedented extent that Kosinski and the team went to in order to film Maverick in the most realistic way possible lead to quite the cinematic experience — one that Tom Cruise was determined to see play out on the big screen rather than streaming services.
Kosinski's next movie, which has the working title of Formula One, will be given a theatrical release before being rolled out onto Apple TV+ as part of an "innovative launch strategy." Meanwhile, Top Gun: Maverick has officially become Tom Cruise's highest-grossing movie of all time, having earned more than $800 million at the global box office since its release.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.
