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- Biopic on the life of Enzo Ferrari should start filming in Modena in May.
- Adam Driver will star as Enzo, Penelope Cruz as wife Laura, Shailene Woodley as mistress Lina Lardy.
- With Michael Mann helming the project, hopes are high.
The long-hoped-for biopic Ferrari, based on automotive journalist Brock Yates’ excellent 1991 book Ferrari – The Man, The Cars, The Races, The Machine, looks like it will finally make it to the silver windscreen.
Director Michael Mann has been working on the project for an astounding two decades. Thanks to his passion for the project, along with the involvement of major entertainment and media company STX, which will handle distribution, the story is reportedly headed for the bright lights of theaters. The media outlet deadline.com broke the news.
After having Hugh Jackman slotted to play the title role earlier, Driver was announced as the lead just recently. Earlier Enzo castings for various biopics had Christian Bale, who played Ken Miles in Ford v Ferrari, and even Robert de Niro playing the role.
Enzo’s wife, the headstrong and tempestuous Laura, will be played by Oscar-winner Penelope Cruz, while Big Little Lies star Shailene Woodley plays Enzo’s mistress Lina Lardi. (Lardi is the mother of Enzo’s once-illegitimate son Piero, who himself has risen to play a symbolic role in Ferrari affairs in recent years.)
The film is set in the summer of 1957, as bankruptcy stalks the relatively new carmaker Ferrari SpA. Enzo and Laura’s beloved son Dino has passed away the year before from muscular dystrophy at the young age of 24. And Enzo has finally acknowledged Piero as his own. With the looming bankruptcy, a bold move is called for, or so it’s presented in the movie.
“He decides to counter his losses by rolling the dice on one race—1,000 miles across Italy, the iconic Mille Miglia,” deadline panted.
Those of you who already know what happened in that race, those who don’t, we won’t ruin it for you. But there was a lot going on.
“Ferrari is so much more than a story about a man and his machine,” gushed Adam Fogelson, Chairman of STX Films' Motion Picture Group. “It is an extraordinary and emotional story that Michael (Mann) has been developing for years and the entire team at STX is looking forward to the start of production with this dream cast and filmmaker. Adam Driver is one of the most talented and fascinating actors working today, and we could not be more thrilled to pair him with Penélope, whose legendary career builds with every role she takes.”
The script was written by both Mann and Troy Kennedy Martin, who penned The Italian Job. The movie will be shot in Modena starting in May. No word on when it will be in theaters. With the recent success of the racing film Ford v Ferrari, our hopes are high.
