The engine is well and truly rumbling for Michael Mann’s Enzo Ferrari passion project. He has Christian Bale locked in to star, Paramount agreeing to distribute the film and now a likely female lead, as Noomi Rapace is in talks to join the cast{
Mann has been working to help get this made for nearly 15 years, and at one point was setting it up for the late Sydney Pollack. Now, he’s firmly in the director’s chair for the story of the man who redefined the high-powered Italian sports car and was partly responsible for kick-starting Formula 1 racing. 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. Everything is based on Brock Yates’ 1991 book Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Cars, The Races.
Bale will be Ferrari, the charismatic, driven (pun entirely intended) 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. If Rapace does sign on to co-star, she’ll be Laura Dominica, his long-suffering wife, who watched him become a tyrant in the boardroom and an abject cheat in his marriage.
With key elements either in place or getting there, Mann will be hoping he can finally start shooting soon. Rapace, meanwhile, will be seen in action thriller Unlocked and sci-fi pics Rupture and What Happened To Monday?, the latter of which is shooting now. She’s also probably going to return as Elizabeth Shaw for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus sequel Alien: Paradise Lost.