Adam Driver Revealed as Enzo Ferrari in New Biopic

If only Adam Driver had honed his Italian accent, the "Star Wars" actor has been tapped to play the lead role in the Enzo Ferrari biopic due out in 2023. [Filming has already begun, and snaps from the set have been uploaded to social media. And late last week, the first official photos of the driver dressed as Ferrari were released.

Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale were previously both rumored to be playing the role of Il Commendatore. Both are accomplished actors, but the young Driver has shown great range when it comes to acting. If one ignores the rather dry persona he played in the film "Star Wars," he has given impressive performances in, for example, "A Marriage Story" and the recent "House of Gucci," in which he plays an Italian.

Penelope Cruz and Shailene Woodley are also set to appear in the Ferrari biopic, playing Ferrari's wife Laura and mistress Lina Lardi, respectively. Lardi is the mother of Ferrari's only surviving child, Piero Ferrari. And Patrick Dempsey, an avid racer, will play racing driver Piero Taruffi.

Directed by Michael Mann, who is probably most widely known as the director of The Last of the Mohicans and Heat. He has been working on the project for years, working on the script with Troy Kennedy Martin and drawing inspiration from the book "Enzo Ferrari: The Man and the Machine" by Brock Yates.

The film focuses on Ferrari's life in 1957, a time in his life when things were very difficult. To say it was difficult is an understatement. That year, a Ferrari 335S racing car lost a tire in the Mille Miglia. The car plowed into the crowd, killing the driver, co-driver, and nine spectators. Ferrari, which had lost its eldest son Dino the previous year and was on the verge of bankruptcy, was tried for manslaughter, but the case was ultimately dismissed.

There had been previous Ferrari biopics, notably the 2003 Italian film Ferrari, but this new film had been a Hollywood dream since Ferrari's death in 1988, and perhaps even before. For a long time, it was going to be a passion project for director Sydney Pollack, but the director passed away before it could be realized. It is now in the hands of director Mann.

Note that this is a different film than the one associated with Robert De Niro, which is said to be about Ferrari in his later years. It is not certain if the De Niro film is still in progress.

Apple's streaming service also has a series in production about the Ferrari founder, featuring some big-name actors.