Brad Pitt (left) and Tom Cruise last worked together in the 1994 film 'Interview With A Vampire'. Photo: AP
No, these are not Louis and Lestat out to have another go at each other’s throats, but fans of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise were nonetheless delighted after the A-listers met at the London premiere of the former’s film F1, marking their first public reunion in over two decades.
The reunion happened after the Mission: Impossible star made a surprise appearance at the movie premiere held at Leicester Square on Monday, June 23. Cruise and Pitt greeted each other with a tight hug before posing for photos side by side.
“Great night at the movies with my friends! You guys crushed it!” Cruise said on his Instagram page on Tuesday, June 24, showing a snap of them from the event.
The F1 movie is co-produced by Pitt, seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton, Apple Studios and Jerry Bruckheimer, the filmmaker behind Cruise’s Top Gun Maverick. It also stars Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies, Kim Bodnia, and Javier Bardem, and was shot during actual Grand Prix weekends as the team competes against the titans of the sport.
Dubbed “the greatest that never was,” Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, Formula 1’s most promising phenom of the 1990s until an accident on the track nearly ended his career. Thirty years later, he’s a nomadic racer-for-hire when he’s approached by his former teammate Ruben Cervantes (Bardem), owner of a struggling F1 team that is on the verge of collapse.
Ruben convinces Sonny to come back to the race tracks for one last shot at saving the team and being the best in the world. He’ll drive alongside Joshua Pearce (Idris), the team’s hotshot rookie, intent on setting his own pace.
But as the engines roar, Sonny’s past catches up with him and he finds that in Formula 1, your teammate is your fiercest competition — and the road to redemption is not something you can travel alone.
Cruise and Pitt last worked together in the 1994 film Interview With A Vampire where they respectively portrayed the roles of vampires Lestat and Louis.
The Hollywood actors have yet to reunite on screen, but they had a public encounter in September 2001 during the America: A Tribute To Heroes benefit concert.
Pitt earlier this month said he is open to working again on a project with Cruise but on one condition.
“I’m not gonna hang my ass off airplanes and s**t like that,” he said, referring to a scene from Cruise’s Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning. “So… when he does something again that’s on the ground.”
Cruise and Pitt, as disclosed by film director Joseph Kosinski, were supposed to reunite in the filmmaker’s version of the racing drama Ford v Ferrari. However, the project was axed after the proposed budget was not approved. – Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network
