Is the movie about Jackie Stewart and François Cevert at a standstill?

The 1973 season seems, in many aspects, to be tailor-made for a film adaptation. While in terms of sport, it has mostly showcased Tyrrell and Jackie Stewart who clinched his third and final crown at the Italian Grand Prix, it has marked the history of the discipline with the friendly rivalry that the Scotsman maintained with his teammate, François Cevert. The relationship between the two men, almost fatherly, naturally positioned the Frenchman as Sir Jackie’s successor at the helm of Ken Tyrrell’s team, especially since the triple world champion was set to announce his retirement after his hundredth race, at the United States Grand Prix in Watkins Glen.

But fate would decide otherwise: François Cevert would be killed during the qualifying sessions, after a violent crash in the Esses. Jody Scheckter, the first to arrive at the scene, could only ascertain that there was nothing more to be done and took the trouble to move Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Cevert’s brother-in-law, away from the scene. Stewart, horrified by the sight of the wreckage of his friend’s car, threw in the towel and did not take part in the race that should have been his farewell. Emotionally, therefore, the film would undoubtedly have brought tears, as Jackie Stewart had said to our colleagues at Autosport last year.

An adaptation that had indeed been approved and collaborated on by the Scottish pilot, notably in the screenplay writing: « I think it will be a good movie. They are working hard on it. The story will revolve around the question of how two drivers who are normally opposed to each other as teammates have become really close. I told Bill everything, all the great relationships we had.

The project, which seemed to be on the right track, suffered a setback due to a disagreement between the screenwriters and Helen Stewart, the wife of the triple world champion, concerning a significant point of the script, which she revealed in an interview with the Mail on Sunday: “It was going to be a great movie – but they wanted to say that I had a relationship with Francois Cevert… and I didn’t want to let them do that because it wasn’t true. It would have probably been the most exciting part of the movie if it had been true. But it wasn’t. Francois was a great friend of Jackie and me, but they wanted to do something crazy with it.”

« François was described as the most exciting man in France at that time. We had a lot of fun with him, he loved children, he loved everyone we were with, he had a wonderful girlfriend. But Jackie and I have been in love since childhood and have been in a happy marriage for 50 years. I met Jackie when we were 16 and we got married when I was 21. We had two children together and nine grandchildren,” she explains. « Anyway, they are not making the movie. That’s the only reason it’s been abandoned, which seems a bit stupid to me because it’s not true to begin with. »

The question of the future of this project arises, at a time when Formula 1 is experiencing significant cinematic news: thus, the film “Weekend of a Champion” directed by Roman Polanski, presenting footage from the 1971 Monaco Grand Prix, in the intimacy of Jackie Stewart, was presented at the Cannes Film Festival in May. As for adaptations, the film “RUSH” by Ron Howard will focus on the 1976 Formula 1 season and more specifically on the competition for the World Champion title between Niki Lauda and James Hunt, played respectively by Daniel Brühl and Chris Hemsworth. The latter will be released in September 2013 in France.