Tom Cruise pulled out of ‘Ford v Ferrari’ with Brad Pitt

Tom Cruise hit the breaks on Joseph Kosinski’s adaptation of Ford v Ferrari after he learned that he would have limited time behind the wheel, according to Brad Pitt.

Pitt had been initially been attached to star opposite Cruise in an early version of the film about race car driver Ken Miles and automotive designer Carroll Shelby from his F1 director Kosinski, who recently directed Cruise in the blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick.

“What it came down to is that we both wanted to drive,” Pitt told The National News. “When Tom realized that Carroll Shelby would not be driving much in the movie, it didn’t come through.”

Pitt had been set to star as Ken Miles, a role that ultimately went to Christian Bale once director James Mangold got into the driver’s seat of the film. Matt Damon played Carroll Shelby in the 2019 sports drama, centered on Bale and Damon’s duo as they built a revolutionary race car for Ford to compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France, circa 1966.

Pitt praised Mangold’s version as a “great movie,” adding that while his and Cruise’s version did not come through, he would “love to” reunite with Cruise for a F1 sequel. The two last starred in 1994’s Interview With a Vampire together.  “I’m not sure how that’s going to work, but we’ll give it a go,” he said of a potential sequel. “I’d love to.”

F1, in theaters now, stars Pitt as Sonny Hayes, a once-promising Formula 1 driver whose career is nearly derailed by an accident on the track. He’s coaxed into leading a struggling Formula 1 team, including a young hotshot driver played by Damson Idris, to victory.

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Kosinski, for his part, already has a sequel on his brain that involves Cruise, pitching a crossover with the actor’s 1990 NASCAR film Days of Thunder while speaking to GQ UK last month.

“It”d be Cole Trickle, who was [Cruise’s] Days of Thunder character; we find out that he and Sonny Hayes have a past,” Kosinski said. “They were rivals at some point, maybe crossed paths. I heard about this epic go-kart battle on Interview with a Vampire that Brad and Tom had, and who wouldn’t pay to see those two go head-to-head on the track?”