As if on cue, Michael Mann has arrived to help you rinse that Gran Turismo aftertaste out of your metaphorical mouth. It’s been a good long while since Mann’s had a film chambered — Blackhat, back in 2015, alienated audiences and delighted real heads — but he’s back with Ferrari, a biopic of the man behind the Black Stallion logo, whose name is synonymous with precision, style and speed, at least in the automotive sphere. Adam Driver’s in the lead, and you can bet your ass there’ll be no talk of Carol Shelby here (at least in any good way), so our apologies to Matt Damon.
Anyway, Neon dropped the first trailer for the film earlier on Wednesday (so early, in fact, it feels like we’re already on Venice time), and it is ninety seconds of pure stress. They should sell this thing as a coffee supplement, because we can imagine this blowing up film geeks’ Apple Watches with heart rate alerts all around the world.
Peep it:
Here’s a synopsis, and if you’d like to know more about Ferrari (or his battles with Ford at Le Mans), we highly recommend checking out the book Go Like Hell by A.J. Baime, which is just excellent. Anyhow:
“It is the summer of 1957. Behind the spectacle of Formula 1, ex-racer Enzo Ferrari is in crisis. Bankruptcy threatens the factory he and his wife, Laura built from nothing ten years earlier. Their volatile marriage has been battered by the loss of their son, Dino a year earlier. Ferrari struggles to acknowledge his son Piero with Lina Lardi. Meanwhile, his drivers’ passion to win pushes them to the edge as they launch into the treacherous 1,000-mile race across Italy, the Mille Miglia.”
Ferrari will premiere at Venice later this week and will be a centerpiece attraction at this year’s New York Film Festival in October. You’ll have your chance to see it when it revs to life and speeds toward a theater near you on December 25. Looks like Michael Mann is Santa Claus this year, huh?