Bernie Ecclestone Slams Rival F1 Docs As ‘Fortunate!’ Offers Shut – Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Bernie Ecclestone has slammed Formulation 1 documentaries presently available on the market and stated audiences will desire the “actuality” of his upcoming sequence Fortunate!, which Deadline can reveal has added a trio of broadcast and streaming companions.

DAZN, Discovery+ and Star+/ESPN Latin America have boarded the eight-part program, which comes from Senna producer Manish Pandey and tells the story of the event of Formulation 1 by means of the eyes of the nonagenarian media mogul. It’s set to launch this December following a manufacturing course of that started throughout the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, and its producers have spent the previous few months efficiently procuring it on to consumers.

World sports activities streamer DAZN acquired rights in Japan, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain and Italy, whereas Discovery+ grabbed rights within the UK and Eire. Disney-owned ESPN LatAm acquired rights for its Star+ streaming service and ESPN channels within the area. Different offers are recognized to be near completion.

In an unique interview with Deadline forward of launch, Ecclestone referred a number of instances to “an American [Formula 1] documentary on Netflix in the mean time” being “simply an American tackle the story” of the motor sport, which he’s extensively credited with remodeling right into a multi-billion greenback enterprise.

He didn’t identify the doc, however was virtually definitely referring to Field to Field Productions’ behind-the-scenes doc sequence Formulation 1: Drive to Survive. Pushed on how a lot he had watched, he merely responded: “I don’t have to see it as a result of it’s not true.”

Ecclestone stated Fortunate!, which the BAFTA-winning Pandey produced by means of his Jiva Maya banner, was as a substitute “actuality — and generally individuals desire actuality.” The present is billed because the “intensely private story of Bernie Ecclestone as he realizes his imaginative and prescient to create and develop a sport to rival the Soccer World Cup and the Olympics.”

The previous F1 CEO and Emeritus Chairman has been embroiled in a sequence of controversies this 12 months, and just lately denied fraud by false illustration after a UK tax authority investigation alleged he has undeclared property value greater than £400M ($451M) saved abroad.

Ecclestone and Fortunate! writer-director Pandey have a friendship stretching again greater than 15 years, and the Formulation 1 guru stated:  “I’d not have made this documentary — and I hate that phrase — with anybody else.” Nevertheless, Pandey added: “This isn’t a love letter to Bernie.”

Now aged 91, the controversial Ecclestone stays an enigma however he allowed Pandey to movie extensively at his properties in Gstaad and Ibiza over almost eight weeks throughout the Covid-19 lockdown, revealing his life story and the how Formulation 1 grew into an outstanding success beneath his stewardship. Pandey stated near 100 hours of footage had been shot for the eight-part sequence.

“Fortunate! is a sequence I’ve been writing and researching all my life,” stated Pandey. “It’s a as soon as in a lifetime alternative to work with Bernie and inform the story of a genius showman and unmatched businessman who created a sports activities franchise single-handedly, one thing that can in all probability by no means be accomplished once more.”

Unique music for the sequence shall be composed by Antonio Pinto, who labored with Pandey on Senna.

Zone Imaginative and prescient co-founder and worldwide TV veteran Chris Sharp, who runs Jiva Maya together with Pandey and former Virgin Head of TV William Campbell, struck the offers with DAZN, Discovery+ and Star+/ESPN, immediately.

“In his 70 years within the sport, Bernie handled public figures from Mandela to Blair, and with drivers from Fangio to Senna to Hamilton to Verstappen,” stated Pandey. “Our key broadcast companions, DAZN, discovery+ and Star+, have been extremely supportive and I sit up for working with every of them to make the sequence successful of their particular person markets.”