Though he'd planned to follow Logan with a film about infamous kidnap victim Patty Hearst, a complaint from her family has derailed that plan, so James Mangold is switching tracks at Fox. He's now climbing into the directorial driver's seat for a still-untitled drama about the clash between Ford and Ferrari over Le Mans.
Drawn from a true story, the film will follow an eccentric, determined team of American engineers and designers, led by automotive visionary Carroll Shelby and his British driver, Ken Miles, who are dispatched by Henry Ford II with the mission of building from scratch an entirely new automobile with the potential to finally defeat the perennially dominant Ferrari at the 1966 Le Mans World Championship.
Mangold's developing the new film with writers Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, and if you've been thinking that a film about Ferrari and Ford's driven rivalry sounds familiar, that's because Michael Mann was working up a movie based on A.J. Baime book Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, And Their Battle For Speed And Glory At Le Mans, though that has since moved to Legendary, which plans a TV series adaptation. Mangold, according to Variety, has different source material in mind. And while there is early talk of casting, with Christian Bale and Matt Damon as possibilities for the leads, it's merely that – early discussions at this point.
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