Roger Donaldson's MCLAREN Doc Starts Its Engine
Donaldson was born in Australia but emigrated to New Zealand in 1965. He is best known in North America for thrillers such as No Way Out (1987, a personal favorite), Species (1995, another personal favorite), and, most recently, The November Man (2014), but his first credit came with the documentary short Burt Munro: Offerings to the God of Speed (1971), about the New Zealand motorcycle racer who set a land speed record. Donaldson later directed a feature based on that true story, The World's Fast Indian (2005), starring Anthony Hopkins.
As to the documentary subject, he entered his first competitive race at the age of 14, per Wikipedia, in a vehicle restored by his father, a service station owner and racing enthusiast. He quickly gained a good reputation in the racing world, becoming the youngest winner of a Grand Prix race in 1959. Four years later, he founded a racing team that has enjoyed tremendous success over the years.
It sounds like a good story for racing enthusiasts, and with Donaldson's narrative expertise, I'd wager that he has good ideas about shaping the documentary into a movie that will have wide appeal.
[Full disclosure: ScreenAnarchy founder and editor Todd Brown is a partner in XYZ Films, which has US rights to McLaren and is involved in a venture with GFC to produce it. Mr. Brown was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.]
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