Rush-PosterRon Howard’s Rush has long been one of my most anticipated films of the year, with the director reuniting with the great Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon) for the racing action/drama, promising to be one of the highlights of 2013.

Universal released a great new trailer a few weeks back, giving us another fantastic look at the adrenaline-fuelled pace of the film. And now partners StudioCanal have released a new featurette, going behind the scenes on the true-story rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda.

The epic action-drama stars Chris Hemsworth (The Avengers) as the charismatic Englishman James Hunt and Daniel Brühl (Inglourious Basterds) as the disciplined Austrian perfectionist Niki Lauda, whose clashes on the Grand Prix racetrack epitomized the contrast between these two extraordinary characters, a distinction reflected in their private lives.

Set against the sexy and glamorous golden age of Formula 1 racing, Rush portrays the exhilarating true story of two of the greatest rivals the world has ever witnessed—handsome English playboy Hunt and his methodical, brilliant opponent, Lauda. Taking us into their personal lives on and off the track, Rush follows the two drivers as they push themselves to the breaking point of physical and psychological endurance, where there is no shortcut to victory and no margin for error. If you make one mistake, you die.

Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl take the lead as Hunt and Lauda, respectively. And starring alongside them will be Olivia Wilde, Alexandra Maria Lara, and Natalie Dormer.

Rush will be released in the UK on 13th September, and has its US release date set for a week later on September 20th. Here’s the new featurette to help set the scene. As Howard says, if you didn’t know that this was real, you wouldn’t believe it was true.

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