It’s been a minute since we’ve had a feature film from Heat auteur Michael Mann—the little-loved Blackhat came out way back in 2015. It’s been worth the wait, though, as Mann’s new film, Ferrari, is roaring into New Zealand cinemas on January 4, 2024.
As the title indicates, this is a biopic of Enzo Ferrari, founder of the legendary car company that bears his name and driving force behind the rise of Formula One racing, here played by Adam Driver. Centring on the disastrous 1957 edition of the ridiculously dangerous Mille Miglia cross-country race, the film sees Ferrari the man and the company in dire straits. The former deals with trouble in his marriage to Laura (Penelope Cruz) following his affair with Lina Lardi (Shailene Woodley), and the latter in dire financial straits and desperate for a big win to pump up sales.
Mann has been trying to make this one for ages and has mentioned in interviews that he’s been dreaming of the project since his early 20s. Indeed, Ferrari has been in development for so long that screenwriter Troy Kennedy-Martin (The Italian Job, Edge of Darkness), who adapted Brock Yates’ biography Enzo Ferrari: The Man and the Machine, never got to see the finished product, sadly passing away in 2009.
Gabriel Leone, Sarah Gadon, Jack O’Connell, and Patrick Dempsey co-star in the film, which has wowed audiences at the Venice Film Festival and is expected to feature heavily come awards season. Mann certainly knows his way around an action sequence, so the racing scenes are going to be absolutely killer, and his steely camera certainly loves all those gleaming curves and polished engines.
We feel safe in saying that one is easily going to be regarded as the second-best onscreen representation of the Ferrari brand in screen history. The top slot, of course, being occupied by Magnum P.I.
