Because why walk out in 30 seconds flat if you can go from zero to 124 mph in 8.4 seconds behind the wheel of a Ferrari 488 GTB, Variety reports that Michael Mann is in the final stages of developing a biopic based on the life of Italian automotive baron Enzo Ferrari. Mann has reportedly combined two scripts, one written by The Italian Job’s Troy Kennedy Martin and the other by Out Of Africa’s David Rayfield, to create his story.
The biopic comes from L.A.-based production company Cecchi Gori Media, which also recently produced Martin Scorsese’s Silence. The film has been in the works since at least 2004, when Sydney Pollack was attached to direct the movie with Al Pacino as the star. After Pollack’s death in 2008, Cecchi Gori went looking for backers, teasing the involvement of a “well-known U.S. director with passion for the project.” That director turned out to be Mann, which makes sense because not only do Ferraris look cool speeding down rain-soaked streets bathed in neon, but Mann has a well-established relationship with the company and has directed promotional videos for Ferrari in the past. (A recent example is below.)
This is just one of a duo of competing Ferrari biopics in development at the moment; the other will reportedly star Robert De Niro and is being directed by Elizabeth Taylor’s former personal photographer Gianni Bozzacchi. We’ll see if Mann’s version ever gets made—as usual, he has several projects simmering right now, and shooting on this one isn’t scheduled to begin until next year. But the rivalry between Ferrari and Ferruccio Lamborghini—who, according to gearhead lore, founded his eponymous car company to spite Enzo Ferrari after his Ferrari broke down—will provide Mann with the perfect opportunity for one of his signature empathetic depictions of the personal lives and demons of men on opposite sides of the law/Italian car industry. Plus, one of them might have owned a speedboat.