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Heat director Michael Mann’s Ferrari movie has a stacked cast

Adam Driver has been cast as Enzo Ferrari in Michael Mann's long-planned movie about the racing driver, Penelope Cruz will play his wife

Penelope Cruz and Adam Driver

It’s-a-me, Ferrari! Thriller movie director Michael Mann is closer to getting his passion project Ferrari off the ground and has lined up a high-profile cast on the starting grid. Fresh off playing Maurizio Gucci, Adam Driver is set to play Enzo Ferrari – we only hope that he picked up some Italian accent tips from Lady Gaga and Jared Leto.

The movie is set in 1957, when Ferrari was 59 years old, but we don’t yet know if Driver will be aged-up for the role. Penélope Cruz, who has just been nominated for Best Actress for her role in Pedro Almodovar’s Parallel Mothers, will play Enzo’s wife Laura. Big Little Lies’ Shailene Woodley will play his mistress Lina Lardi.

According to Deadline; “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 been through many iterations, with both Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman attached to play Ferrari. It comes not long after James Mangold’s Ford v Ferrari (which did star Bale), which was nominated for Best Picture in 2020. Ferrari was played by Remo Girone in that movie, which was set in 1966.

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.” Filming is expected to begin in May.

Mann is known for the classic contemporary thrillers Thief (1981), Manhunter (1986), Heat (1995), The Insider (1999), Collateral (2004), Miami Vice (2006), and Blackhat (2015). Ferrari won’t be his first time working on a historical project, however, as he directed The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Ali (2001), and Public Enemies (2009). The Insider was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director.

If you enjoy movies based on a true story, check out our guide.