Ford Vs Ferrari At Le Mans Coming To A Theater Near You

The annals of racing history have known few stories as epic as the legendary battle between Ford and Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the 1960s. And that story is soon to be told on the silver screen.

Variety reports that 20th Century Fox has tapped James Mangold to direct the project. He’s the director behind such hits as Logan and Walk the Line (both produced by Fox studios). And he’s reportedly eying some big stars to appear on screen for this story.

Among them, according to Motor Authority, are said to be Matt Damon (playing Carroll Shelby), Christian Bale (as his buddy/test-driver Ken Miles), and Jon Bernthal (of Punisher fame) as Lee Iacocca. No word yet on who might play Bruce McLaren – who (spoiler alert) drove the winning Ford GT40 in ’66 – or Enzo Ferrari, to say nothing of all the other drivers, engineers, and various personalities that were central to the story.

If this is all sounding familiar to you, it could be because, a) like we said, this is one of the greatest stories in motor racing history, b) it was the subject of A.J. Baime’s epic book “Go Like Hell,” and c) that book was originally set to be turned into a movie. But the book is now being developed as a television series instead, with this (as-yet untitled) film project developing its own screenplay. The Butterworth brothers (Jaz and John-Henry) have been tapped to write the script, having previously teamed up on Edge of Tomorrow – starring Tom Cruise, who was originally attached to a similar project.