James Mangold director of Logan is starting a new project for 20th Century Fox Films and is eyeing two big stars for the lead roles.
Mangold embarks to recreate,“follows an eccentric, determined team of American engineers and designers, led by automotive visionary Carroll Shelby and his British driver, Ken Miles, who are dispatched by Henry Ford II with the mission of building from scratch an entirely new automobile with the potential to finally defeat the perennially dominant Ferrari at the 1966 Le Mans World Championship.”
The two leads of Carol Shelby and Ken Miles are rumored to be played by Christian Bale (Ken Miles) and Matt Damon (Carol Shelby), according to Collider.
Although, Fox declined to discuss casting James Mangold will work with Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, who worked with him on Edge of Tomorrow," according to Variety.
The speculated leads are perfect for the roles due to the background of prior Sci-Fi blockbusters Mangold and the Butterworth brothers have created.
The project Mangold is working on is yet to be named but is being referred to in-house as the Untitled Ford vs Ferrari Project.
Ford vs Ferrari is based on a true story of the events surrounding Ford's failure to purchase Ferrari coupled with the Ford Motor Company's inability to beat Ferrari in the 1964 and 1965 Le Mans World Championship as well as how Ford won the 1966 race with a "1-2-3 win," with driver Ken Miles, according to dailysportscar.com.
As for a schedule of when the Untitled Ford vs Ferrari Project will be finished, Mangold has to complete work The Force and Crenshaw, both adaptations of novels.
The project also makes it clear that the Disney-Fox merger hopes to keep Mangold in the family.
The project is of interest to follow because of the creative talent occurring behind the scenes, the real-life based story of high stakes, and if Christian Bale and Matt Damon gain the lead roles in the Ford vs Ferrari Project, the finished product has a good shot of winning a lot of awards.