- published: 02 Jan 2009
- views: 416303
Driven is a 2001 film directed by Renny Harlin and starring Sylvester Stallone, who also wrote and produced. It centers on a young racing driver's effort to win the Champ Car World Series auto racing championship. Prior to production of the movie, Stallone was seen at many Formula 1 races, but he was unable to procure enough information about the category due to the secrecy with which teams protect their cars, so he decided to base the film on Champ Car.
Mid-season, rookie driver Jimmy Bly has already won 5 races. His brother/business manager Demille is seen to be more concerned with working out endorsement deals and press engagements than racing, putting tremendous pressure upon Jimmy.
Jimmy's winning is also angering former champion Beau Brandenburg who decides he's not doing very well this year because of his fiancée Sophia. He breaks up the engagement and he immediately starts winning again.
As Brandenburg returns to form, Bly's wheelchair-using team owner Carl Henry is concerned that Bly is becoming more prone to driving errors. He sees parallels to his former Joe Tanto, who he convinces to come out of retirement to mentor Jimmy. Joe agrees and is brought in to replace Jimmy's teammate, Memo Moreno. To complicate matters, Joe's ex-wife Cathy Heguy is now married to Memo, the driver that Joe replaced. Despite all this, Joe and Memo are still friends.