Motorhead: Do we need another Senna film?

Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro told entertainment website Collider that talks were in progress about making the flim.

"He's a hero. In Brazil, he's... 'huge' wouldn't describe it. He's a hero, like a true hero," explained Santoro, before adding that the film would not get off the ground without the support of the Senna family.

"It's a very delicate matter; I've been very careful [with] how we're going to approach that.

"If we get this done, if we really move forward with this project, it will be with the family, with his family, it will all be done in a very, very careful and respectful way. So yeah that might be possible in the future. Right now, we're still in conversations, but it is moving."

Senna’s extraordinary life, the impact he had on both the sport he loved and the country he called home, and the tragic nature of his death, make him obvious subject matter for a film.

So much so, in fact, that a documentary has already been made of his life.

Many motorsports fans will already have seen ‘Senna’, the 2010 documentary that received huge critical acclaim and won awards at the Sundance film festival and the BAFTAs.

What made the film work so well was the fact that despite telling a story that much of its audience knew well, it did not embellish the events unduly, but simply used the footage of the time. The result was a vivid one, real, heartening and at times chilling.

Films, by contrast, can often find themselves playing too fast and too loose with the truth. It’s a natural thing – there are financial motives, storyline reasons, production considerations, simplifications for the audience and whatever else you care to name.

Before you know it, you get away from the essence of the story.

And even where films of sporting events that have Hollywood-style stories on their own, there’s something about translating them to the screen that can inadvertently rob them of their beauty.

Invictus, the story of South Africa’s rugby team winning the World Cup on home soil soon after the fall of Apartheid, was one such story. Ali, featuring Will Smith, was another (incidentally, compare that, if you’ve seen it, to the acclaimed documentary When We Were Kings).

Films are often a matter of personal taste, of course, and you might well disagree. But you’ll almost certainly have a film or two leaping into your mind which didn’t live up to the drama of the events as they unfolded in real life.

That the film would only be done with the consultation and approval of Senna’s family is essential. They were a crucial part of the 2010 documentary, and the result was a fascinating portrait of the triple world champion – and a rounded one too, with his weaknesses in evidence along with his many strengths.

It could also bring Senna to a wider audience, and for those who witnessed his feats first-hand, that is surely a good thing. As good as the documentary was, the box takings were just shy of $12m. Compare that to Transformers III (yes, they made a third), which is critically thought to be... well, suffice it to say it is not on a par with Citizen Kane. Transformers III took $1.1bn at the box office. If you make a feature film of Ayrton’s life, it will reach more people than the documentary ever did.

With the scope to turn a sizeable profit, it may well prove too lucrative for film producers to ignore. It may also help the Senna Foundation, who do some remarkable charity work in Brazil to this day.

But would the Senna of the cinema, the one this new audience meets, be the Senna who lit up the sport?