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The Cove's Mark Monroe to Make Formula One Documentary

by Ethan Anderton
February 9, 2010

One of the most daring and revealing documentaries of last year is also one of the most talked about. The Cove is an eye-opening look into the dolphin slaughtering in a secret cove off the coast of Japan which has gone from its Audience Award winning premiere at Sundance last year to an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary. Now Variety says the film's writer, Mark Monroe is teaming up with Paul Crowder (who has edited docs like Riding Giants, and co-directed Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who) to make a documentary on the world's fast paced and most expensive sport Formula One auto racing. Read on!

No on has successfully crafted a narrative film based on Formula One auto racing, but the most recent was the 2001 film Driven with Sylvester Stallone, so it sounds like a doc might give the sport its due diligence. Three production companies (Spitfire Documentary Films, Diamond Docs and Flat-Out Films) are on-board to produce the doc which will span the history and evolution of the racing circuit. With all the tension and excitement that came from the daring antics of the camera crew in The Cove, Monroe will certainly have no problem translating the speed, danger, and excitement of Formula One to the big screen. Maybe even in 3D?

Flat-Out Films' Michael Shevloff says: "Our goal is to achieve a big screen action documentary experience with all of the style and charisma of the era." Spitfire Pictures' Nigel Sinclair continues, "The heyday of Formula One racing was a very different time, when the risks were high and the characters were larger than life." The documentary is fully endorsed by Formula One, and shooting is already underway, interviewing everyone from the drivers to engineers. There's a chance that I might actually become interested in racing now. I guess we'll have to see how this turns out. How many other readers are Formula One fans?

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Shane

I'm more of an AMA Superbike fan, but I dig all types of racing. This should be great.
CarthikV12

YES!!!! Finally, THE movie... I'm excited about 'The Limit' with tobey maguire playing phill hill, but this one sounds really interesting too... but it is a HUGE responsibility... Formula 1 is extremely special to me and a lot of people and i've been an avid student of its history... i really hope they do justice with this!
budbud

Massive F1 fan and now i can't wait for this. Hurry up and finish it!
Epleterte

I saw the headline and thought "awesome! some dark as shit secrets of formula 1 to be revealed!" evil mechanics who in the cover of darkness fucks up the competitors cars or evil businessmen letting nothing stand in their way of winning etc.. But no. Ah, well.
dom

Big F1 fan here! Actually have been around the mclaren garages, quite something.
case

Huge F1 fan!! I will certain enjoy watching this, I still love going back and watching the old black & white Gran Prix movie. Driven didn't exactly do it for me as a F1 movie, if you catch my ...drift... ha..ha.. ahhh.
Linkfx

Speed racer is all you need. Better than the real thing, I assure you.
case

In conjunction with my previous, I hadn't seen the part about it being in 3d... the -only- way I would see this in 3d would be if it was done in the same manner as Avatar, and the 3d just adds depth within the screen, as opposed to it "popping out" cause that would honestly ruin the movie for me. Just my humble little opinion though!
Chris

Driven wasn't about Formula 1, it was about Champ Car (Now the Indy Racing League by default).
Pete

Don't watch too many documentaries, but THIS I will watch! Big F1 fan here.
saenker

Oh mannnn: Schumacher, you better win the title this year!!!
Harri

There can be only on rece movie, Flåklypa grand prix! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073000/ This one I'm gonna see too!
Wylles

hmmm... Im a Die Hard F1 Fan, I just hope the documentary does Justice to F1 as a Sport. Driven was a mediocre movie about Champ Car Racing, in every sense, the acting, the driving scenes, EVERYTHING was laughable, absurd, and ridiculous, There was not one bit of Realism in that damn Movie, At least Days Of Thunder was a Good Racing Film, The Racing felt very Real, the action and Racing shots, that was really well done, althougn it was not THAT realistic, some points here and there, such as how RIDICULOUSLY FAST Tom Cruise´s Character passed from last to first in less than what looked like 8 laps, the film was very entertaining, and had a good blend of reality, action, and creativity. I hope that whoever dares to make a Formula 1 Film, looks at Days of Thunder as inspiration, and not ONE BIT at Driven, which Sucked. And I hope that they understand that it´s a World Sport, not exactly American, like Nascar, which I also like a lot, but it´s just a different taste.
Eric

No mention of the film Grand Prix yet? That's the closest thing we've seen to F1 racing and it was done back in the 60s.
Carthik

yea, grand prix was a brilliant example... the racing scenes were incredible for a movie made in the 60s! but if its going to be a documentary, i'm sure they'll use footage from the actual races... so its all good!
http://blog.revo21.com el rolio

yep, big F1 fan. grew up watching it with my pops in jamaica. We watched all sports, but since the time difference required waking up at 5 or 6am every other sunday during the season - it sure made an impact. So big fan, love it. the tech, the aero, the changing rules, the sillyness, and the experience in real life. good stuff. (replied just cuz you asked)