Movie on the life of Bruce McLaren
Discussion
Interesting, I hope they do it justice.
We are hearing whispers from New Zealand of plans for a movie to be based on the life of Bruce McLaren and produced by some of those involved in the Oscar-winning "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. The films were so successful that New Zealand had benefited hugely from an influx of tourists and the director Peter Jackson has been propelled to the position of being a major player in Hollywood with his own studio called Wingnut Films. He followed up the trilogy with a remake of King Kong, which has been another big success, and is now working on various projects including a remake of The Dambusters, a film called Those Lovely Bones and a film based on the video game Halo.
What is not clear is whether Jacxkson is involved in the McLaren project or whether it is others who are keen to continue to growth of the New Zealand film industry.
Bruce McLaren was the pioneer of New Zealanders racing in Europe and won his first Grand Prix at the age of just 22. He started his own racing team in 1964 and entered F1 in 1966. That year was hard in F1 but McLaren won the Le Mans 24 Hours. The team expanded dramatically with cars in F1, CanAm, USAC and Formula 2 and in 1968 the team won its first F1 victories. McLaren finished third in the World Championship in 1969 but in June 1970 was killed while testing a McLaren CanAm car at Goodwood. The company lived on to become one of the foremost racing teams in the world.
GP.com said:
We are hearing whispers from New Zealand of plans for a movie to be based on the life of Bruce McLaren and produced by some of those involved in the Oscar-winning "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. The films were so successful that New Zealand had benefited hugely from an influx of tourists and the director Peter Jackson has been propelled to the position of being a major player in Hollywood with his own studio called Wingnut Films. He followed up the trilogy with a remake of King Kong, which has been another big success, and is now working on various projects including a remake of The Dambusters, a film called Those Lovely Bones and a film based on the video game Halo.
What is not clear is whether Jacxkson is involved in the McLaren project or whether it is others who are keen to continue to growth of the New Zealand film industry.
Bruce McLaren was the pioneer of New Zealanders racing in Europe and won his first Grand Prix at the age of just 22. He started his own racing team in 1964 and entered F1 in 1966. That year was hard in F1 but McLaren won the Le Mans 24 Hours. The team expanded dramatically with cars in F1, CanAm, USAC and Formula 2 and in 1968 the team won its first F1 victories. McLaren finished third in the World Championship in 1969 but in June 1970 was killed while testing a McLaren CanAm car at Goodwood. The company lived on to become one of the foremost racing teams in the world.
The resume doesn't point out that BRUCE McLaren (with fellow New Zealander Chris Amon) won the 1966 Le Mans 24 race in a Ford GT.
His cars were massively succesful in Can Am racing from about 1965 to 1973/74 and it has to be said that the Can Am successes probably held back their success in F1. It made economic sense at the time as Can Am was much more lucrative in the mid 1960s than F1.
His cars were massively succesful in Can Am racing from about 1965 to 1973/74 and it has to be said that the Can Am successes probably held back their success in F1. It made economic sense at the time as Can Am was much more lucrative in the mid 1960s than F1.
Edited by Eric Mc on Tuesday 9th January 08:06
If they can make it as mainstream as 'The World's Fastest Indian' (OK not a NZ film but Australian unless I'm completely wrong and surely they'd draw on the Australian industry for resource) then this has the potential to be a fine film. Here's hoping, it's about time a really good motor racing film is made.
I'm a New Zealander, & a huge Fan of Bruce Mclaren, his Trust & of course the current Mclaren F1 Team.
The thought of this movie being made has me in two minds - 1/It could all be sooo wrong if produced poorly and 2/it would have to be accurate, so, so, so accurate, as that's what Bruce was, and how he would (I am sure) like it to be. Anything else would create my first thought.
The thought of this movie being made has me in two minds - 1/It could all be sooo wrong if produced poorly and 2/it would have to be accurate, so, so, so accurate, as that's what Bruce was, and how he would (I am sure) like it to be. Anything else would create my first thought.
I'm sure if New Zealanders are producing the film they will want to do it right....
Apart from the drivers mentioned, it would be a nice reminder to people of the influence in F1 that both New Zealand and Australia had in the 60s, many people forget that McLaren and Brabham were both from the sub-continent and it's too easy to make the presumption that these were always British teams!
If only modern F1 could more easily accommodate the likes of these entrepeneurial drivers come team owners... back in the 60-70s we had McLaren, Brabham, Surtees, Fittipaldi and Hill all starting teams from scratch with various degrees of success, but since Prost's failure at Ligier and the influx on international car manufacturers no one else seems inclined to take up the challenge!
Apart from the drivers mentioned, it would be a nice reminder to people of the influence in F1 that both New Zealand and Australia had in the 60s, many people forget that McLaren and Brabham were both from the sub-continent and it's too easy to make the presumption that these were always British teams!
If only modern F1 could more easily accommodate the likes of these entrepeneurial drivers come team owners... back in the 60-70s we had McLaren, Brabham, Surtees, Fittipaldi and Hill all starting teams from scratch with various degrees of success, but since Prost's failure at Ligier and the influx on international car manufacturers no one else seems inclined to take up the challenge!
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