Good motorsports films don’t come up terribly often, but now and again, we get lucky. In 2011, we were graced with the very fine Senna documentary, and it appears there’s another period Formula One racing piece that could be worth watching on the silver screen soon: Rush.

We’ve known for some time that this project, which chronicles the 1976 F1 season-long battle between Austria’s Niki Lauda and Britain’s James Hunt, was in the cards, and we also knew that Ron Howard had signed on as producer. Howard, you may recall, is the Academy Award-winning force responsible for such films as A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13 and Frost/Nixon. But we hadn’t heard much about filming getting underway – until now.

Thanks to these new photos taken at Germany’s Nürburgring by our friends at PistonSpy, we now see that work on the film has begun. We have to say, James Hunt’s Marlboro-liveried McLaren looks particularly fetching in these photos, and it must be a thrill to see and hear these vintage F1 cars lapping the legendary Nordschleife.

We’re already cringing in advance for Howard’s recreation of Lauda’s massive crackup at the German Grand Prix, a crash that saw him sever his right ear and suffer facial burns (you can see in-period video footage of the fiery crash after the jump). Lauda would return after missing just two races and storm back into the points chase in pursuit of James Hunt and his McLaren. Hunt would eventually win the World Championship by a single point. For dozens of additional images, be sure to check out PistonSpy at the link below.

Continue reading Ron Howard’s Rush caught filming at ‘Ring

Ron Howard’s Rush caught filming at ‘Ring originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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