What a show: MotoGP and Netflix launch a two-wheeled "Fast & Furious," but it looks like a bloated mess

From the track to the big screen: Netflix’s new project puts MotoGP at the center of an international thriller.

A Netflix-branded action film that will involve MotoGP, both in terms of setting and consultancy. Only the official announcement is missing, but it seems to be just around the corner: the streaming platform and the Motorcycle World Championship will join forces for a motorcycle thriller. Not a behind-the-scenes docuseries in the “Drive to Survive” Formula 1 style (already attempted with “MotoGP Unlimited,” a project that quickly failed), but rather a setting brought to the big screen in a completely different context, unrelated to the championship itself. We’ve already told you about Hollywood setting its sights on the TT for a film, and now the focus shifts to MotoGP. Another chapter since Liberty Media’s arrival—what do you think?

A completely different route to aim at expanding the championship’s audience, but in a very distinct and “particular” way. As Deadline reports, the new project will enjoy the full support of the Motorcycle World Championship, which has signed a deal to provide consulting on the film and contribute to its development. MotoGP SEG has signed an agreement with Netflix to advise the creative team during filming, with the goal of bringing authenticity to the world of professional racing and motorcycles, and to make the competitive past of the protagonist, actor Alan Ritchson, believable.

This would be the first step in a creative partnership between Netflix and Ritchson’s production company, Dancing Skeleton (he’s known for the action-thriller series “Reacher”). The film, with Ritchson also serving as producer, revolves around a motorcycle gang that begins stealing valuable archaeological artifacts around the world. Interpol recruits a former MotoGP prodigy to catch them, until he realizes the gang’s leader might be his younger brother, long presumed dead. The project is said to have been pitched to studios as a sort of “Fast & Furious” on motorcycles, earning immediate enthusiasm: it’s no surprise, then, that the screenplay bears the name of Chris Morgan, best known for that saga.