Driven (2001 film)
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Renny Harlin |
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| Screenplay by | Sylvester Stallone |
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| Music by | BT |
| Cinematography | Mauro Fiore |
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Production
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Franchise Pictures Champs Productions
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Release date
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Running time
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117 minutes |
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| Budget | $94 million |
| Box office | $54.7 million |
Driven is a 2001 action drama 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, Stallone was seen at many Formula One 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.
Halfway through the (fictionalized) 2001 Champ Car season, rookie driver Jimmy Bly has already won 5 races. His brother/business manager Demille seems more concerned with working out endorsement deals and press engagements than racing, putting tremendous pressure upon Jimmy. His success has also drawn the ire of the reigning champion and series points leader Beau Brandenburg, who believes he's not doing as well as he should because of his fiancée Sophia becoming "a distraction". He breaks up the engagement and he regains his winning ways.
As Brandenburg returns to form, Bly's paraplegic team owner Carl Henry is concerned that Bly is making more driving errors. He sees parallels to his former driver and Champ Car Champion, Joe Tanto, whom 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.
Joe's comeback race is extremely close, with Jimmy leading and Brandenburg a close second. Jimmy can't seem to pull away from him so Carl orders Joe to pit and holds him there until the leaders are about to come by, despite Joe's protests. At the last second, Joe leaves the pit just in time to block out Brandenburg, allowing Jimmy to win the race. Jimmy's brother/manager takes a dislike to Joe's mentoring, implying that Joe should just act as a blocker. After the race, Joe urges Brandenburg to reconcile with Sophia because she has started an affair with Jimmy, which is causing him to further lose his form on the track, resulting in Jimmy crashing out in Japan.
At a party in Chicago, where the prototypes of next year's cars are being introduced, Brandenburg gives Sophia her ring back, apologizes for his behavior towards her, and they reconcile, much to Jimmy's indignation. Sophia apologizes to Jimmy, but he is so upset that he takes one of the new cars and races it out of the convention center. Joe hops into another of the new cars and chases him down the streets of Chicago, eventually bringing Jimmy back to his senses after they stop driving. In the coming race in Germany, Carl decides that bringing back Joe isn't getting the results he wants, so he reinstates Jimmy's original teammate Moreno while making Joe mentor Jimmy from the pit lane.
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