Here comes another epic collaboration that might just blow your mind.
While renowned filmmaker Martin Scorsese is reuniting with Leonard DiCaprio for “Devil in the White City“, another legendary director namely Michael Mann is reuniting with his “Public Enemies” star Christian Bale for an upcoming Ferrari biopic.
According to The Wrap, Bale is set to star as Enzo Ferrari, the race car driver and the businessman who founded Italian car manufacturer Ferrari in 1929. It would mark the 2nd time Bale is working together with Mann as he previously starred as FBI Special Agent Melvin Purvis opposite Johnny Depp, Marion Cotillard, and Channing Tatum in Mann’s “Public Enemies” in 2009.
The Ferrari biopic will be based on Brock Yates’ 1991 book “Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races”. It is said to be set in 1957, the year when a Ferrari car crashed and killed 9 pedestrians, 5 of them children.
This isn’t the first time that Mann has been attached to helm a Ferrari movie.
He was previously attached to direct “Go Like Hell”, a film that would have focused on Ferrari’s rivalry with Henry Ford II. The project never came to fruition and it was perhaps because of 2013’s “Rush”, another film that also focused on the rivalry between 2 racers. In “Rush”, the film starred Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl as Formula One drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda respectively.
There’s another Ferrari movie in development, as veteran actor Robert De Niro told Italian newspaper Il Messaggero that he has signed up to play Enzo Ferrari in an upcoming biopic that will be simply named Ferrari. It is said to be slated for release in 2016.
For Mann’s version of the Ferrari movie, it may be based on Yates’ book, but Mann will helm it based on the script written by Troy Kennedy Martin (of “The Italian Job” fame) and rewritten by the late David Rayfiel (of “Out of Africa” fame).
It is currently being fast-tracked as it is scheduled to shoot next summer. Mann will seek financing at upcoming film festivals and the search for the female lead in the project is currently underway.
So, what do you think of the project? Are you excited to see the film? Share your thoughts in the comments box below.
Source: The Wrap.
