Neon captures Michael Mann ‘Ferrari’, sets Christmas release

Neon got the North American rights from Michael Mann Ferrarisetting a national release for Christmas Day.

Sources note that the project was acquired in a competitive situation that included other studios and a streamer. Ferrari is set to debut at the Venice Film Festival, setting it up for a possible awards season run.

Adam Driver plays Enzo Ferrari alongside Penélope Cruz as Laura Ferrari. Shailene Woodley, Jack O’Connell, Sarah Gadon, Patrick Dempsey and Gabriel Leone round out the cast.

The synopsis of the film reads: “Ferrari is set in the summer of 1957. Behind the spectacle and danger of 1950s Formula 1, former driver Enzo Ferrari is in crisis. Failure stalks the company he and his wife, Laura, built from scratch ten years earlier. Their stormy marriage struggles with mourning their only son. Ferrari struggles with the recognition of another. The lust of its riders to win pushes them to the limit. He bets everything in a roll of the dice on one race, the treacherous 1,000-mile race through Italy, the iconic Mille Miglia.

Mann directs Ferrari from a screenplay by Troy Kennedy Martin based on the book by Brock Yates Enzo Ferrari – The man and the machine. Mann produces alongside PJ van Sandwijk, John Lesher, Marie Savare, John Friedberg, Lars Sylvest, Thorsten Schumacher and Gareth West.

CAA Media Finance negotiated the deal on behalf of the director.

Outside of the Cannes Film Festival, Neon has acquired a full slate of films with the Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a fall by Justine Triet, by Alice Rohrwacher The ChimeraWim Wenders’ perfect days AND Robot dreams by Pablo Berger.