Daniel Brühl to star as Formula One champ Niki Lauda in Ron Howard’s Rush

by Bénédicte Prot

02/12/2011 - In mid-November, Spanish-German actor Daniel Brühl met the legendary Austrian Formula One champion Niki Lauda, who he will play in Ron Howard’s Rush, a co-production between UK companies Revolution Films (Michael Winterbottom’s company) and Working Title, which also has US financing. About ten days ago, another company also got on board: Germany’s Egoli Tossell, which as well as producing domestic titles (like Hilde [trailer]) regularly gets involved in international projects (including Paul Verhoeven’s Black Book [trailer], The Last Station [trailer] and Olivier Assayas’s Carlos [trailer]). This partnership should enable Rush to access German financing. Egoli Tossell, which was in difficulty at the start of the year and was rescued in May by Frankfurt-based group Film House Germany, has evidently bounced back.

Scripted by well-known London-born screenwriter Peter Morgan (The Queen [trailer, film focus]), Rush centres on the rivalry between Lauda and racing driver James Hunt (played by Australian actor Chris Hemsworth). The two lead actors will star alongside Alexandra Maria Lara.

Shooting is expected to start in Germany in February. At the latest AFM (American Film Market), US seller Exclusive Media Group pre-sold the film to territories all over the world, including to Germany’s Universum/RTL, the UK’s StudioCanal, and Spain’s Aurum. It will be distributed in the US by Universal Pictures.

(Translated from French)