Hunt Vs Lauda: The Next Generation [DVD]

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Freddie Hunt knows what you’re going to say. Yes, the spitting image. Yeah, it’s a bit spooky – sometimes his mother would look as if she’d seen a ghost. And yep, it’s mostly the hair, but also the good looks, the rakish manner, the clipped accent. Like father, like son… They are a close family, but there’s cruelly few of them. “Dad’s three other brothers all died as well. So I’ve really got to look after my health because the Hunt male life expectancy isn’t very high at the moment…” Freddie says, with a dark chortle. Ha, it’s funny really I have been enthralled by the smell of petrol and the sound of engines for as long as I can remember. It was never really anything to do with gender or the politics surrounding it, but rather the feat of human and mechanical excellence, the passion, the drive and I suppose the danger. It is something that has always impassioned and excited me. The premiere was a great success, a lot of very renowned individuals in the room, how did you feel showcasing your work to such a great bunch of industry professionals? There are a few series in the offing and I continue to grow my production company Branded Studios with my partners here in the UK and in the US as we develop opportunities across the factual and format spaces. Long term I also see myself moving into the drama space, but all in good time. The secret is to always pursue the goals but not to forget to enjoy the journey, and boy I am enjoying the journey right now! Hunt Vs Lauda crew

A petrolhead but committed environmentalist (he thinks fossil fuels should be banned for transport but allowed for recreation), Freddie has a girlfriend, fellow racing driver Aimee Watts. When he moved from Wiltshire he knew nobody on the island, nothing about building work and spent 12 months without heating or electricity.However, I will say, that while Hunt vs Lauda: The Next Generation is an easy to watch docu-film, and accessible for all, ultimately it is geared more towards racing enthusiasts. Those who are fans of this sport, or who love to devour anything connected to racing will get the most out of it. Personally, I found the first half of the documentary to be the most interesting, as it focuses more on Freddie and Mathias, and their respective fathers; however, I imagine those who are really into motor racing will better connect with the second half, when the docu-film devotes its time to the race. Either way, there’s enough dialogue and racing action to satisfy different tastes, and at around 80-minutes in length it doesn’t outstay its welcome. Any motorsport fan knows these iconic surnames, none are more noteworthy in motorsport history. Therefore, when I was approached by Jose Thomas, the guy who had the vision to make a ‘Rush V2’ with the sons of the two legends James Hunt and Niki Lauda, it piqued my interest immediately. I got to work pulling apart the story, delving deep into the characters and shaping what I knew would be a deep dive into the worlds of these two iconic motorsport families and tell the story in a whole new way – one generation on. So you have already made three or four racing films, what is new about Hunt Vs Lauda; The Next Generation? Well, personally it was the fact I was recovering from a major car accident and going into the filming of this I was in the early stages of brain injury rehab. I didn’t share my struggles with many people and continued to travel and work 12-16 hour days whilst struggling to stand up sometimes. I’d be on a plane one minute, doing brain rehab the next, then running round with a camera on my shoulder directing a team. It wasn’t easy. But it was worth it.

He would like children (“no more than two, it should be banned to have more”), and to make enough money to buy a full farm and rewild it. After the operation, he came home and asked what that noise was. “It was birds singing, I hadn’t heard it before.” A pause. “So yeah, that, then Dad dying, then school was absolute Japanese POW camp to me…” He attended five private schools in as many years before finishing with a stint at the local state school in Midhurst, West Sussex. At the time he was a promising polo player: “Mum and I decided to spend that money on horses instead.” Freddie has “absolutely no recollection” of those first couple of years, and in fact sums up his early childhood as “pretty s-----”. Which turns out to be an understatement. Charlotte, we see you once again entering the very male dominated world of motorsport, why is this such a draw for you?

Freddie is now firm friends with Mathias Lauda, the racing driver son of Niki, James Hunt’s Austrian rival during the testy 1976 season. Together they have made a documentary, Hunt vs Lauda: The Next Generation, rekindling the competition.