Rush
Sneak Peek at "Rush"
The success of sports movies are few and far between, there's something about certain sports inability to translate universally that causes major Box Office issues. Sure, we all love The Mighty Ducks... but how many baseball movies really succeed outside of the USA? How many soccer movies do much outside of Europe? How many folks in Uganda have seen David Williamson's The Club?
Even rarer is the success of a racing film, arguably the most loved sport worldwide outside of basketball... but loved by a niche audience. For every Fast & The Furious, there's a Sly Stallone penned Driven. So it's interesting to see Hollywood heavyweights getting behind a, relatively unknown to the public at large, racing tale.
It comes from two time Oscar winner Ron Howard, a fellow behind one of the most underrated boxing movies of all time in Cinderella Man, who has teamed up once again with fellow Oscar nominee writer Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon, The Queen).
Rush is an expensive looking and exciting big-screen re-creation of the unrelenting 1970s rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda (check out the doco explaining their history below, it's riveting).
Australia's own Chris Hemsworth (aka Russell Crowe V2.0) stars as Englishman James Hunt, while Daniel Brühl takes on the role of disciplined Austrian Niki Lauda as the two clashe on the Grand Prix racetrack - their driving styles an exact reflection of their private lives.
Shot on location throughout the U.K., Germany and Austria and set against the sexy and glamorous "golden age" of Formula 1 racing, as well as one of the most violent racing tracks of all time.
To be honest, this looks like it will be fantastic. Howard has a near flawless track record and this story is stranger than fiction itself. I'm still not sure it will be a resounding blockbuster, but since when has box office receipts ever been an accurate representation of quality?
