Jessica
Deadline is reporting that Michael Mann is close to signing on to direct ”Go Like Hell”, the true story of the furious competition between Ford and Ferrari in 1966, when an American car won the Le Mans for the first time.
Based on the book, ”Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferarri, and their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans” by A.J. Baimes, here’s the book’s synopsis:
By the early 1960s, the Ford Motor Company, built to bring automobile transportation to the masses, was falling behind. Young Henry Ford II, who had taken the reins of his grandfather’s company with little business experience to speak of, knew he had to do something to shake things up. Baby boomers were taking to the road in droves, looking for speed not safety, style not comfort. Meanwhile, Enzo Ferrari, whose cars epitomized style, lorded it over the European racing scene. He crafted beautiful sports cars, “science fiction on wheels,” but was also called “the Assassin” because so many drivers perished while racing them.
”Go Like Hell” tells the remarkable story of how Henry Ford II, with the help of a young visionary named Lee Iacocca and a former racing champion turned engineer, Carroll Shelby, concocted a scheme to reinvent the Ford company. They would enter the high-stakes world of European car racing, where an adventurous few threw safety and sanity to the wind. They would design, build, and race a car that could beat Ferrari at his own game at the most prestigious and brutal race in the world, something no American car had ever done.
”Go Like Hell” transports readers to a risk-filled, glorious time in this brilliant portrait of a rivalry between two industrialists, the cars they built, and the “pilots” who would drive them to victory, or doom.
Mann has made some terrific flicks – “Manhunter”, “Heat”, “Miami Vice” but I think we can all agree he didn’t do his best work on “Public Enemies”. Hopefully “Go Like Hell” can expunge that one from our memories.
