Channing Tatum is making a film about the Isle of Man TT

For two weeks every year, the Isle of Man does something quite strange. It stops being a quiet, damp, self-contained rock in the Irish Sea and becomes the centre of the motorcycling universe. Some 50,000 people come for the TT – a one-of-a-kind motorcycle race where the bravest, maddest and most committed riders on Earth fire themselves around 37.73 miles of public road at speeds that would make a health and safety officer seize. This year, among the faithful, was Channing Tatum.

Not on a stag do. Not misdirected from Cannes. But here with a Hollywood film crew hundreds strong, shooting a new Amazon MGM and Plan B Entertainment film about the TT. We’ve spent the last few days on the island, watched filming take place around the real event, and come away thinking this could do for the Isle of Man TT what Drive to Survive did for Formula 1. Only with fewer yachts, fewer stroppy drivers called Lance and considerably more food arriving in buttered rolls.

Like Brad Pitt’s F1 film, which embedded a Hollywood production inside live F1 race weekends, the new film – inventively titled Isle of Man – has spent the past week shooting in the middle of the TT itself. Tatum, his co-star Eve Hewson – known either as Bono’s daughter or as one of Apple TV’s Bad Sisters, depending on whether you read music magazines or watch television – and Belfast’s Ciarán Hinds have all been seen on set in the assembly area, the grandstands, on the start line and around the island.

The aim is obvious: authenticity. Earlier this week, Channing and Eve were seen receiving the legendary shoulder tap before being sent off down Bray Hill on a BMW superbike. Well, they were until they hopped off and TT veterans James Hillier and Ian Lougher jumped on as their stunt doubles. Hollywood likes danger, but not quite enough to send its lead cast down Bray Hill at race speed.

Still, it is about time the world got to see the TT on the big screen, because it is made for it. Unlike Fast & Furious, the TT does not need much embellishment. It already has everything Hollywood normally has to invent: history, danger, genuine heroes, proper eccentricity and a racetrack made from public roads.

So no wonder Amazon MGM and Plan B Entertainment – Brad Pitt’s production company – decided to bring their big cameras to a small island.

You might wonder why they went straight to a movie script rather than a documentary, à la Drive to Survive. Well, they already have. Box to Box, the people behind Drive to Survive, shot an entire documentary series at the TT in 2024 and are working in conjunction with the movie team, presumably so people who could not tell a superbike from a hedge trimmer can get up to speed before Channing Tatum takes over on the big screen.

Both Tatum and his long-time collaborator, director Reid Carolin, have apparently spent four years researching the TT and have made multiple trips to the Isle of Man. Carolin has been careful to stress that the production wants authenticity and has worked closely with organisers and the Manx government, rather than arriving as a typical Hollywood circus.

“My job is to capture the love of the race and also the love of the place,” he said, adding that the film would showcase not just the TT itself, but also the beauty of the island and the way it comes alive for race week.

And if you are there this week, you can see filming in action. Just as APEX GP appeared at F1 races for Brad Pitt’s film, two fake teams – LJR Racing and Cullen Racing – are in Douglas with fake pit garages and fake merch, all hiding in plain sight and acting completely normal. BMW has supplied 17 bikes for the production and, as the story spans several years, the bikes have been changing from older fairings to newer ones, depending on the scene.

BMW rider Peter Hickman – 14-time TT race winner and current TT lap record holder, with a 136.358mph average speed – had an interesting view.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what they can come up with. I really hope, and I’m sure they will, do it justice. It’s a difficult thing to get right, that’s for sure, but I know they don’t want to fake it. They want to make it as real as possible. They’ve got some great riders riding the bikes for the onboard stuff they’re doing, and relevant riders as well, which is even better.”

The hardest thing to get across on film will be the madness of the Snaefell Mountain Course itself. We went out in one of the BMW M5 safety cars while the roads were closed, and it makes memorising the Nürburgring seem like remembering where you parked at Tesco. The pace of some sections is properly unhinged, and it makes you respect the riders even more.

The problem is, cameras flatten everything – the gradients, the speed and the sheer proximity of the scenery. Corners that look ordinary on television are often blind, off-camber and lined with unforgiving obstacles. Famous sections such as Bray Hill and the Mountain Mile feel vastly steeper, faster and narrower in person than they ever appear on film.

But we have seen first-hand the lengths the production is going to. We saw a specialised converted Mini fitted with ultra-high-resolution RED Komodo cameras, designed to capture a full 360-degree view of the course, its 260 corners and 1,300ft of elevation during race conditions.

Behind the wheel was Mark Higgins, professional rally driver, James Bond stunt driver, local hero and outright car lap record holder. His time of 17 minutes 35.139 seconds was set in 2016 in a specially prepared Prodrive Subaru WRX STI. If you have not seen that lap, head to YouTube immediately.

More than anything, the challenge of the TT is mental. Riders must memorise hundreds of corners and commit to many of them long before they can see the exit, often relying on years of accumulated knowledge rather than what is directly in front of them.

And they have to do it on different bikes, with different handling characteristics, braking points and gear patterns, over two weeks in which the weather decides who races and who does not. Bikes cannot run if it is wet or visibility is poor, and a rock in the middle of the Irish Sea tends to have its own weather system.

“I’m riding four different bikes here,” Hicky says. “The superbike and Superstock bike are similar, but they’re still different. They handle differently, the braking points are slightly different, they feel very different. Then you’ve got the Supersport bike, which is a completely different gear pattern, different braking markers, different corner speeds, everything. Then the twin is completely different again. So yeah, you’ve got to remember a lot.”

But the inherent risk of the TT is always there, and there is no honest way to talk about the event without acknowledging it. Since racing first moved to the Mountain Course in 1911, more than 270 competitors have lost their lives on the circuit.

Even with the diligent and extremely committed organisers try to mitigate those risks with exceptional emergency care and support, this year’s event has once again illustrated that reality. TT newcomer Daniel Ingham was killed during qualifying, while a serious incident in Ramsey saw a rider crash into spectators, leaving eight people injured, including a two-year-old girl who was airlifted to hospital.

The event was further shaken by major sidecar accidents involving Maria Costello and Shaun Parker, and separately the highly regarded Crowe brothers, Ryan and Callum. Those crashes prompted organisers to take the unprecedented step of cancelling all remaining sidecar races after a safety review, amid concerns that the discipline has become an aerodynamic battleground.

“Obviously we know it’s a dangerous event,” Hicky told us. “That’s part of its appeal, whether we like it or not, but they still need to minimise that danger wherever possible.”

And that, really, is the tightrope the film has to walk. Make the TT too glossy and it becomes dishonest. Make it too grim and you miss the point entirely. This is not just a race. It is a place, a ritual, a risk, a community and a very particular kind of sporting madness.

Right now, though, the TT is getting the Hollywood treatment. It deserves to. If you have never watched the documentaries TT3D: Closer to the Edge or No Room for Error, get them on the list now. Then buy the TT Pass and watch this week’s racing, right up to the Senior TT.

This could be the moment the TT breaks out of motorcycling’s niche and becomes something much larger. For years, the Isle of Man TT has existed in a strange place. Everyone has heard of it. Everyone knows it is bonkers. Most people have seen at least one clip of a rider skimming past stone walls at impossible speed. But the general public has never fully invested in it. Channing Tatum and his crew might just change that. And we are absolutely here for it.