Christian Bale has just had one too many weight changes in recent years to take on Michael Mann’s Enzo Ferrari. The Oscar winner backed out of the racing biopic on Friday.
Bale joined the project in August, but Deadline confirmed that Bale dropped out. The film would have required another weight gain and, since no one has told Bale about prosthetics, he decided that he couldn’t get out-of-shape soon enough to make it.
Bale is famously dedicated to authenticity, so when a character requires extra weight - like the one he played in American Hustle - he likes to put the weight on. (Or take weight off and bulk-up, as was the case for the Dark Knight movies.)
The actor won an Oscar for The Fighter and was nominated for American Hustle. He’s up for a second Best Supporting Actor Oscar for The Big Short.
Enzo Ferrari is set during 1957, when the racing icon faced several crises at once. It was written by Troy Kennedy-Martin (The Italian Job) and later revised by David Rayfiel (The Firm) and Mann, who is hoping to make it his follow-up to Blackhat.
It is based on the book by Brock Yates and has been a project Mann has been working on for 15 years, so it’s unlikely that he will stop chasing it. Paramount has already secured distribution.