After two decades of development and a false start in 2017, it looks like Heat director Michael Mann’s Enzo Ferrari biopic is inching further towards the start line with the news that Adam Driver (House of Gucci), Penelope Cruz (Parallel Mothers) and Shailene Woodley (Big Little Lies) have been cast in the long-gestating project.
The aptly-surnamed Driver is set to take the wheel on the role of the racecar driver and Ferrari founder, replacing Hugh Jackman who was previously attached to the project alongside Noomi Rapace. Cruz will play Ferrari’s wife Laura, with Woodley as his mistress Lina Lardi.
“Being able to have these wonderfully talented artists, actors Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz and Shailene Woodley, bring to life these unique characters on location in Modena and the Emilia-Romagna is a vision fulfilled,” said Mann, who plans to begin shooting the film in Italy in May.
Ferrari takes place in the summer of 1957 and follows the ex-racecar driver as “bankruptcy stalks the company he and his wife, Laura, built from nothing ten years earlier. Their tempestuous marriage struggles with the mourning for one son and the acknowledgement of another. He decides to counter his losses by rolling the dice on one race – 1,000 miles across Italy, the iconic Mille Miglia.”
“Ferrari is so much more than a story about a man and his machine. It is an extraordinary and emotional story that Michael 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.”
Mann is directed Ferrari from a script by Troy Kennedy Martin (The Italian Job), which is based upon the book Ezno Ferrari – The Man and the Machine by Brock Yates.
Via Deadline
