Michael Mann has been trying to make a film about car racing legend Enzo Ferrari for years now. He got close a couple of years ago, only for the wheels to come off when chosen leading man Christian Bale dropped out in early 2016. It appears that things are back on track now, as Hugh Jackman and Noomi Rapace are in talks to take the main roles.
Mann has taken two existing scripts, one by The Italian Job’s Troy Kennedy Martin and another from Out Of Africa’s David Rayfield and bolted them together into a planned film called Ferrari. Everything is based on Brock Yates’ 1991 book Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Cars, The Races. The eventual film will focus on one year in the life of Ferrari, the charismatic, driven Italian car mogul who began his career working for Alfa Romeo as a racer, left to launch his own company in 1947, building the Ferrari name into a force to be reckoned with in the 1950s and 60s and eventually letting Fiat take control of the car business. The role will require Jackman to bulk up a little, and not in a muscular way as he has done playing Wolverine. According to Deadline, Mann and Jackman have been quietly discussing collaborating for a while and if all the deals are signed, the cameras should be rolling next year.
And in actual fact, this would represent Rapace returning to the film, as she was already lined up previously to play Ferrari's wife Laura Dominica. We'll see if the movie finally hits the starting grid soon enough...