James Mangold (Logan) has come on board to direct a currently untitled film about the true story battle to build the world’s fastest racecar between the designers at Ford and Ferrari.
The action follows an eccentric, determined team of American engineers and designers, led by automotive visionary Carroll Shelby and his British driver Ken Miles.
The team are dispatched by Henry Ford II to build an entirely new automobile with the potential to defeat the perennially dominant Ferrari at the 1966 Le Mans World Championship. Jez and John-Henry Butterworth (Edge of Tomorrow) will work on the script.
Christian Bale is reportedly wanted for the role of Ken Miles and Matt Damon for Caroll Shelby. This isn’t to be confused with Fox’s previous attempt at a film about the subject, a project that Michael Mann and Joseph Kosinski were circling. That take is now being turned into a TV series by Legendary Entertainment and is based on different source material.
Mangold had originally been slated to make a drama about kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst, a project scrapped in the wake of complaints by the Hearst family. Mangold is also attached to direct an adaptation of Don Winslow’s best-selling crime thriller The Force.
