(Updated 10/18/2023)
Michael Mann is finally starting his Ferrari. For decades, the HEAT filmmaker has wanted to make a movie about Italian racing mogul Enzo Ferrari. There was even a time when his planned movie and James Mangold's FORD V FERRARI were head to head at the starting line. Obviously, Mangold's movie was made first. Fortunately for us, that hasn’t permanently sent Michael Mann‘s movie to the garage.
FERRARI is just one of two huge projects Mann has going on right now. He also has "Heat 2" — yes, a sequel to his fantastic Los Angeles crime movie — which is first coming to life as a novel, but which Mann has promised will also be a movie. But first, FERRARI. The film stars Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz, and its festival debuts have earned huge praise. Here is everything we know about Michael Mann's FERRARI.
When Can We See Ferrari?
NEON will release FERRARI in movie theatres on December 25 (read about New Christmas Movies coming out). This will be Mann's first theatrical feature since BLACKHAT in 2015.
Watch the New Ferrari Trailer
The new FERRARI trailer sets up many of the conflicts in the movie — the chief one being, of course, Enzo Ferrari's determination to succeed at any cost and how that pits him against, well, himself.
What Is Michael Mann's Ferrari About?
FERRARI is based on the book “Enzo Ferrari – The Man and the Machine” by Brock Yates. It takes place in the summer of 1957, when Enzo Ferrari's obsession with racing perfection and a gathering storm of personal and professional problems all come to a head at the open-road endurance race, the Mille Miglia. If you don't know anything about that particular race and want to experience FERRARI completely fresh, we suggest not reading up on it beforehand.
More important, perhaps, is that there will be no overlap between the story in this movie and that of FORD V FERRARI. For one, James Mangold's movie takes place several years later, and it isn't centered on Enzo Ferrari at all. In fact, Ferrari was barely even a supporting character in that movie.
This movie is really about Enzo Ferrari's battles with himself and those around him. A recent New York Times article about Mann says, "In the script, Enzo, his marriage in shambles, exhorts his scuderia of drivers to become 'men with a brutal determination to win. A cruel emptiness in their stomachs. Detached men.'" We can certainly see all that in the trailer!
The Cast of Ferrari
Adam Driver stars as Enzo Ferrari, with Penélope Cruz as Laura Dominica Garello Ferrari. Shailene Woodley plays Enzo’s mistress, Lina Lardi, and Patrick Dempsey is in the cast as well, playing the fading racer Piero Taruffi.
Additionally, Jack O’Connell (UNBROKEN) plays race car driver Peter Collins, while Sarah Gadon ("True Detective") plays the Mexican actress Linda Christian, who in 1957 was at the very least friendly with Ferrari driver Alfonso de Portago. He will certainly be part of this movie, too, but we do not know who plays the role just yet.
FERRARI opens on December 25.
All images courtesy of NEON.