Driven
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- This article is about the 2001 movie. For the British TV series of the same name see Driven (TV)
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| Driven | |
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| Directed by | Renny Harlin |
| Produced by | Renny Harlin Elie Samaha Sylvester Stallone |
| Written by | Jan Skrentny Neal Tabachnick (story) Sylvester Stallone (screenplay) |
| Starring | Sylvester Stallone Burt Reynolds Til Schweiger Kip Pardue |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | 27 April 2001 |
| Running time | 116 min. |
| Country | USA |
| IMDb profile | |
Driven is a 2001 movie directed by Renny Harlin and starring Sylvester Stallone.
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[edit] Plot
Rookie race car driver Jimmy Bly (Kip Pardue) is letting the pressure of winning and the pressure of a relationship get to him. He's started to fall in the point standings when he initially had so much promise. Former Champ Car champion Joe Tanto (Sylvester Stallone) is called in to help Bly out of the slump that he's in.
[edit] Race buff trivia
The movie was filmed at a variety of races on the Champ Car schedule, but some, including Chicago, Motegi, Detroit, and Germany, are no longer on the schedule: Chicago Motor Speedway's financial operations were suspended after Champ Car's last race there, Motegi, like many of Champ Car's teams, left for the Indy Racing League after 2002. Detroit was removed from the Champ Car schedule after the 2001 season due to lack of road surface, and Germany was suspended after Champ Car competitor Alex Zanardi lost his legs in a crash with Alex Tagliani with 13 laps to go. Zanardi would come back to finish those 13 laps in a specially modified Champ Car when Champ Car made its first (and last, to date) appearance at the EuroSpeedway. It should be noted that in Driven, the German race took place on a road course, but in fact, the CART race is on an oval.
The movie premier took place at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, with several Champ Car competitors driving and demonstrating pit stops in modified Champ Cars down Hollywood Blvd. The movie only met modest success, but fared better than director Harlin's last three films, Deep Blue Sea, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and the critical and financial failure, Cutthroat Island. The movie received mixed reviews, with people for the most part saying it was a good movie that needed quite a bit of improvement. [citation needed] The movie later spawned a video game of the same name, which, like its silver screen counterpart, only met modest success.
Reynolds' character, Carl Henry, is based on Formula 1 team owner Sir Frank Williams. Williams was in a car accident that left him in a wheelchair; Reynolds is wheelchair bound in the movie. Williams has also had a penchant for cutting drivers loose still at the top of their game, notably 1996 World Champion Damon Hill after the season. Reynolds contemplates terminating his rookie driver's contract at several points during the movie as he feels he's not tough enough to cut it in the cutthroat business of racing.
The two cars fielded by Henry carry Nextel and Motorola sponsorship and are those fielded by PacWest Racing during the 2000 season. The drivers were Mauricio Gugelmin and Mark Blundell, respectively. Blundell's helmet features his initials, MB, on the top, and the character Jimmy Bly changed it to JB for the film.
There are many cameos by actual drivers in the movie. Those who made an appearance include: Juan Pablo Montoya, Jimmy Vasser, Kenny Bräck, Adrian Fernandez, Roberto Moreno, P.J. Jones, Jean Alesi, Michel Jourdain Jr., Tarso Marques and Christian Fittipaldi. The character Memo Moreno is based on Moreno's actual career and the name is based on Moreno and Memo Gidley.
Stallone had originally intended to make a movie based on Formula 1, attending the 1997 Italian Grand Prix and stating his goal in a press conference.
[edit] Cast
- Sylvester Stallone - Joe Tanto
- Burt Reynolds - Carl Henry
- Kip Pardue - Jimmy Bly
- Stacy Edwards - Lucretia Clan
- Til Schweiger - Beau Brandenburg
- Gina Gershon - Cathy Heguy
- Estella Warren - Sophia Simone
- Cristian de la Fuente - Memo Moreno
[edit] Reception
Even with a major advertising campaign which is estimated to have been near 10 million USD, the movie grossed only 32 Million, a massive minus from the 91 Million USD budget. When Jay Leno co-hosted Ebert and Roeper, he mentioned Driven as the worst car film ever made.
