2
Although the Academy Award winner became attached to the project back in August, Variety is today reporting that Christian Bale has exited director Michael Mann’s Enzo Ferrari biopic. According to the trade, Bale dropped the project after realizing he wouldn’t be able to gain the weight the role required in time for the film’s planned production start this spring. A replacement is expected to be announced soon.
Enzo Ferrari’s bio on the official Ferrari website is listed as follows:
Enzo Ferrari was born in Modena on February 18th 1898 and died on August 14th 1988. He devoted his entire life to designing and building sports cars and, of course, to the track. Having been made an official Alfa Romeo driver in 1924, within five years he had gone on to found the Scuderia Ferrari on Viale Trento Trieste in Modena which assisted mostly gentlemen drivers in racing their cars.
In 1938, Enzo Ferrari was appointed head of Alfa Corse but quit the position in 1939 to set up his own company, Auto Avio Costruzioni, which operated out of the old Scuderia buildings.
Ferrari has garnered over 5,000 victories on the world’s tracks and roads, becoming a modern-day legend in the process. In order to meet growing market demand, Enzo Ferrari sold the Fiat Group a 50% stake in the company in 1969, a figure that rose to 90% in 1988.
Bale, who recently starred in Adam McKay’s The Big Short, previously worked with Michael Mann on 2009’s Public Enemies. He can next be seen in the period drama The Promise, starring opposite Oscar Isaac.
