Adam Driver is nearly unrecognizable in the first trailer for Michael Manns upcoming drama Ferrari, where he suits up to play Italian sports car entrepreneur Enzo Ferrari. Driver stars alongside Penelope Cruz as Ferraris wife Laura Ferrari and Shailene Woodley as his mistress Lina Lardi. Ferrari will premiere at Venice Film Festival this year and is distributed by Neon in the U.S.
Also starring in the film is Patrick Dempsey as fellow racecar driver Piero Taruffi, Jack OConnell as racer Peter Collins, Sarah Gadon as Linda Christian and Gabriel Leone as driver Alfonso de Portago.
Ferrari is set in 1957, prior to the infamous Mille Miglia race during which de Portagos Ferrari racecar blew a tire and he and nine spectators died in a crash. Ferrari himself and the tire manufacturer were charged with manslaughter, but the case was later dismissed.
Most of the film was shot in Brescia, Italy, where the real Mille Miglia race took place.
As the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes rage on, Mann is proud that his film has no ties to the major studios. The director told Variety in an August cover story, The origins of the movie and the content of the screenplay and the movie that you saw do not fit into the kind of film that would be embraced by the conventional studio system. Its truly appropriate that it is an independent film being distributed by Neon, a very independent distributor.
The Ferrari screenplay was adapted by Mann and the late Troy Kennedy-Martin from Brock Yates 1991 biography Enzo Ferrari The Man, The Cars, The Races, The Machine.
Watch the trailer below.