Targeted by Michael Mann in 2011, 20th Century Fox’s adaptation of A.J. Baime’s non-fiction book, Go Like Hell, has now, according to Deadline, attracted the interest of star Tom Cruise as a potential project on which to re-team with his Oblivion director, Joseph Kosinski.
With the subtitle “Ford, Ferrari, and their Battle For Speed and Glory at Le Mans,” the book is officially described as follows:
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 grandfathers 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.
The news comes on the heels of word last week that Kosinski is eyeing an untitled action thriller through Media Right Capital. That’s in addition to plans for him to helm The Twilight Zone at Warner Bros. and a tentative sequel to his 2010 TRON: Legacy at Walt Disney Pictures.
(Photo Credit: Brian To / WENN.com)
