If 21st century technology has given us anything, it’s the ability to recreate awesome historical race car battles with obscenely great cinematography, and badass on-track battles. The new Ford v. Ferrari trailer, the movie about Ford’s battle to conquer the dominant Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, is promising all that and more.
If you’re not familiar with the storyline here, stop whatever you’re doing and read Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans by A. J. Baime. Baime’s book will tell you everything you need to know about Ferrari’s longtime dominance at Le Mans and about the shot in the dark Ford took to kick Ferrari’s ass. Ford basically personified the Little Engine That Could—building car after car year after year until they finally made the one that could take down the Italian marque.
It’s worth noting that there’s already a scandal surrounding this movie. Fox actually bought the rights to Baime’s book, but those rights have since been sold to Legendary, who are adapting it into a TV series, Slashfilm reports. Ford v. Ferrari isn’t actually associated with Baime in any way, but it does seem like they’ve used Go Like Hell for some of their research. It’ll be a side story to follow!
Ford v. Ferrari looks like it’s focusing less on pitting two equally sympathetic automakers against each other, instead opting to let us know that it’s the underdog Ford we should be cheering for. Christian Bale plays Ken Miles, Jon Bernthal plays Lee Iacocca, and Matt Damon plays Carroll Shelby—and there really isn’t any sight of one Mr. Enzo Ferrari in sight as of yet.
That said, the trailer is compelling as hell! In between just enough exposition to let us know that we’re all going to love the no-bullshit Shelby and the take-no-shit Miles are some really beautiful racing shots that honestly make me kind of glad I live in the 21st century so I can see iconic race battles recreated at extreme angles in glorious HD. There are crashes, fist fights, fires—there’s romance, family, humor, and, well... just take two minutes to check out the trailer. It looks so good.
The film is coming out on November 15, so mark your calendars and get ready to book your opening night tickets now. Here’s hoping more people will go see it than did Rush now that they actually have some familiar names to root for when they go to the theater.