There’s nothing quite like motor racing for the sheer thrills and spills, for adrenalin and danger. Formula 1, NASCAR, WRC, Paris-Dakar, or MotoGP, take your pick, anything on wheels is sure to give the participants and the spectators a heady buzz alike.
Still, there’s just something that sets apart the world of motorcycle racing from all others. It takes much more guts and skill to maneuver a high powered sportsbike to the top of the podium than a car, where you are ensconced in safety, safe in the knowledge that a state-of-the-art roll cage is there to save you from most of the dangers that motor racing inherently comes with.
And in the world of motorcycle racing, MotoGP is the pinnacle, the sport that sits right up there in the hallowed clouds. It is the premier class, the Grand Prix, the one that all aspiring racers hope to race in one day. The majority of motorcycle manufacturers vie to have their racers and their machines up there at the top of the MotoGP heap, and those that don’t, can only look on with envy. MotoGP has produced great racers, great stories, and great rivalries, all of which will go down in the annals of motorsport.
This is the story that Hollywood star Brad Pitt is bringing to the screen in Hitting the Apex, a new documentary on the sport. The Academy Award-nominated star of Moneyball and the husband of Angelina Jolie-Pitt is a long time motorcycling fan and here, he produces and narrates the documentary directed by Mark Neale, also a longtime fan of the soprt. Neale has also directed Faster, Faster & Faster, The Doctor, the Tornado and the Kentucky Kid, and Fastest, all documentaries on MotoGP.
Pitt is in good company here. Previous narrators of Neale’s MotoGP documentaries include Ewan McGregor, the Star Wars actor who is also a biking enthusiast and has circumnavigated the world and rode all the way from Scotland to Cape Town with his actor friend, Charley Boorman. Pitt’s co-star is David Fincher’s Fight Club, Jared Leto, has also narrated TT3D: Closer to the Edge, a documentary about the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, another gritty and dangerous race that takes place on public roads every year, and the only one of its kind surviving still now.
This time round, Hitting the Apex tells the story of current MototGP stars, Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, Marc Marquez, Dani Pedrosa, retired Rossi archrival Casey Stoner, and Marco Simoncelli, the charismatic Italian racer who was tragically killed in a crash in Sepang, Malaysia, in 2011.
The inclusion of Simoncelli, who died tragically in a crash with Rossi and Colin Edwards at the Malaysian round of the Grand Prix in 2011, adds not only to the context of the story but the gravitas it carries. Stoner’s inclusion is also interesting, as he has famously shunned the spotlight even before his retirement in 2012.
Pitt also visited the MotoGP British Grand Prix race this Sunday in Silverstone, England, where he met the racers along with his son Knox Jolie Pitt, 7. The duo was accompanied by director Mark Neale. Valentino Rossi later posted a cheeky photo on his facebook page where he showed his girlfriend’s reaction to his handshake with Brad Pitt.
Hitting The Apex is set for release in theaters on September 2nd, before hitting DVD and digital on September 7th. Don’t miss it.
