Christian Bale To Star In Michael Mann’s FERRARI Film
Christian Bale is set to star in Michael Mann’s Ferrari movie, and the actor will play the Italian car magnate Enzo Ferrari. Mann has been working on getting this film onto the being screen for about 15 years. According to Deadline, it will finally shoot next summer.
The movie is a passion project for the director, and it’s also the perfect film for him to take on. The film is based on the book, Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferarri, and their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans by A.J. Baimes, and is said to tell the "true automotive story." It was previously reported that the movie would be called Go Like Hell.
The story will take place in 1957, “a year where passion, failure, success and death and life all collided.” This seems like it will make for a solid flick. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a film from Mann that has truly impressed me, but some of my favorite films that he’s made include The Last Of The Mohicans, The Insider, Collateral, and Heat.
Mann and Bale previously teamed up on 2009’s Public Enemies, which was OK but ultimately a disappointment. Mann needs another great film under his belt, and this movie seems like it has the most potential for that.
Here’s the synopsis of the book that the film is based on:
By the early 1960s, the Ford Motor Company, built to bring automobile transportation to the masses, was falling behind. Young Henry Ford II, who had taken the reins of his grandfather’s company with little business experience to speak of, knew he had to do something to shake things up. Baby boomers were taking to the road in droves, looking for speed not safety, style not comfort. Meanwhile, Enzo Ferrari, whose cars epitomized style, lorded it over the European racing scene. He crafted beautiful sports cars, "science fiction on wheels," but was also called "the Assassin" because so many drivers perished while racing them.
"Go Like Hell" tells the remarkable story of how Henry Ford II, with the help of a young visionary named Lee Iacocca and a former racing champion turned engineer, Carroll Shelby, concocted a scheme to reinvent the Ford company. They would enter the high-stakes world of European car racing, where an adventurous few threw safety and sanity to the wind. They would design, build, and race a car that could beat Ferrari at his own game at the most prestigious and brutal race in the world, something no American car had ever done.
"Go Like Hell" transports readers to a risk-filled, glorious time in this brilliant portrait of a rivalry between two industrialists, the cars they built, and the "pilots" who would drive them to victory, or doom.