Finally new Mann!
We can reveal that Oscar nominee Adam Driver, Oscar winner Penélope Cruz and Emmy nominee Shailene Woodley are newly aboard for the big-budget biopic of racing mogul Enzo Ferrari.
Star Wars and House Of Gucci actor Driver is replacing Hugh Jackman in the title role while Parallel Mothers star Cruz will play Enzo’s wife Laura. Big Little Lies star Woodley will play mistress Lina Lardi. Four-time Oscar nominee Mann is gearing up for a May start in Italy.
The movie, which Mann has been working on for two decades, is set during the summer of 1957. Ex-racecar driver, Ferrari, is in crisis. 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.
The project has famously been through multiple iterations, but this is as far along as the casting has been at any stage.
Mann will direct from a script by Troy Kennedy Martin (The Italian Job) and Mann based on Brock Yates’ book Enzo Ferrari – The Man and the Machine. The filmmaker is also producing via his Moto Productions banner alongside P.J. van Sandwijk and Birdman producer John Lesher, as well as Lars Sylvest, Thorsten Schumacher and Gareth West with Niels Juul executive-producing.
Michael Mann said today: “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.”
Adam Fogelson, Chairman of STXfilms Motion Picture Group commented: “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.”
