Racing Champ Lewis Hamilton Goes Hollywood With ‘F1.’ How Peyton Manning, Serena Williams and More Are Turning Sports Fame into Production Gold

Formula 1 superstar Lewis Hamilton enters a new race this summer — as a movie producer chasing the box office crown. He speeds into multiplexes with “F1 the Movie,” the high-octane blockbuster hopeful from his company Dawn Apollo Films and Apple Original Films.

For his recent Variety cover story with Apple’s Tim Cook, Hamilton opened up about making the professional pivot.

“I grew up in a time where people really put you in a box, and it’s like you can only do one thing,” Hamilton explained. “When I was at school, I was very creative, and then when I got into racing, there was a lot that had to be suppressed or put to the side. And as I got older, I really started to have to create space to be able to tap into these different creative outlets, which I have found inspiring and have given me a lot more confidence.”

Hamilton was closely involved in the making of the racing movie, which stars Brad Pitt and Damson Idris as drivers on a scrappy, underdog team chasing their first win on the Formula 1 circuit. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Joseph Kosinski, “F1” was filmed during the 2023 and 2024 race seasons, meaning that Hamilton simultaneously managed his day job as a driver and a new career as the film’s producer.

“I would often come to L.A. and be in Jerry’s office, which was mad, or Joe’s studio going through beat by beat the script, the dialog, the terminology that’s authentic to racing drivers, switches, gear shift sounds you’ll hear that are overlapping,” Hamilton recalled. “I got to get involved in all that. And then we got [composer] Hans Zimmer on board, and we go to his studio and see him create. It’s been an emotional roller coaster.”

Hamilton isn’t the first athlete to try his hand at producing scripted content — think LeBron James and his SpringHill Company or the late Kobe Bryant, who won an Oscar for best animated short — but his entrance on the scene underscores that audiences are invested in more than just football, basketball and baseball.

Here are a few more of Hollywood’s new heavy hitters.