28/04/2021 - Three friends hit the road to the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix in a comic road movie

From left to right: Actors Kryštof Hádek, Robin Ferro and Štěpán Kozub and director Jan Prušinovský

Czech producer-writer-director Jan Prušinovský is known for his works of social comedy for the big and small screens, as well as webseries set in the local milieu. Social dramedy The Snake Brothers [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Jan Prušinovský
film profile] successfully traveled the festival circuit and his last TV venture, the raw social comedy series Most!, broke records in viewership numbers for the domestic public broadcaster. Prušinovský’s chamber romance Mistakes (read the news), his last feature-length project, is currently on the back burner awaiting the opening of local cinemas. Nevertheless, after a stint in theatre, the writer-director is bracing for a shoot on feature film Grand Prix, which he calls his biggest project yet.

Prušinovský spent six years working on the script, described as “a testosterone comedy about a journey, friendship and stolen tires.” After the romance Mistakes, the director set to work on Grand Prix in a less conventional genre in terms of the domestic cinema: the road movie. The story will follow two cousins — Emil who owns a garage and Roman who sells used cars — who have a chance to see the start of Formula 1 in Barcelona, thus fulfilling their dream. A petty thief and Roman’s friend, whom the director calls “a catastrophe-magnet”, happens to join them as he needs to hide from a local drug dealer. As the trio hits the road to Spain, the journey doesn’t go as seamlessly as they might have expected.

"The road movie is a genre that not many filmmakers want to get involved in. The Czech Republic is too small for it. That’s why we decided to take our everyman Czech heroes abroad,” explains the director. Principal photography will start in May 2021 and the shooting will unfold in stages until next May, given the current pandemic situation. Grand Prix will be shot on location in Germany, France, and ultimately in Spain during the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The project's budget is close to the €2 million mark. The producers have already launched a local crowdfunding campaign (https://www.donio.cz/grandprix).

Grand Prix is produced by Jan Prušinovský for OFFSIDE MEN and Ondřej Zima from the Czech production outfit Evolution films. Czech Television and Slovak company PubRes are serving as co-producers with the Czech Film Fund supporting the project. The domestic premiere is set for 17 November 2022, with Falcon handling the local theatrical release.