Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in the same movie? Could it happen, despite the fact none of them have hit “The Expendables” portion of their career? Well, it could happen, but since both of them are mega-stars in their 50s who can still carry movies on their own, if I were their agents I’d say, “wait 10 more years, guys” (“Interview With The Vampire” doesn’t count, Pitt wasn’t as huge then).
What was once a Michael Mann project, “Go Like Hell,” 20th Century Fox’s autoracing movie based on A. J. Baime’s “Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans,” is now a Tom Cruise and Joseph Kosinski movie – aka the team that brought you the underperforming blockbuster “Oblivion” (at least underperforming by huge tentpole standards). But Brad Pitt’s name has apparently been thrown in the mix according to THR. Here’s the synopsis of the novel:
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 grandfather’s 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.
‘Go Like Hell’ transports readers to a risk-filled, glorious time in this brilliant portrait of a rivalry between two industrialists, the cars they built, and the “pilots” who would drive them to victory, or doom.
Cruise is attached to play car designer Carroll Shelby and Pitt was once attached to star when it was a Michael Mann project. Apparently he’s still interested and a new script has been delivered to see it it passes the always-tough Brad Pitt script test (not a joke, he’s super picky and “World War Z” went through several drafts over many years at his behest). Will it happen? Wait and see, but Hollywood’s never been able to make a mega-hit out of the mega-popularity of auto racing, the recent Ron Howard-movie “Rush” included.
