#Neon Nabs Michael Mann ‘Ferrari’, Sets Christmas Release

Neon has landed the North American rights to Michael Mann’s Ferrari, setting a nationwide Christmas Day release.

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

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

The synopsis for the movie reads: “Ferrari is set during the summer of 1957. Behind the spectacle and danger of 1950’s Formula 1, ex-racer, Enzo Ferrari, is in crisis. Bankruptcy stalks the company he and his wife, Laura, built from nothing ten years earlier. Their tempestuous marriage struggles with the mourning for their one son. Ferrari struggles with the acknowledgment of another. His drivers’ lust to win pushes them out to the edge. He wagers all in a roll of the dice on one race, the treacherous 1,000-mile race across Italy, the iconic Mille Miglia.”

Mann directs Ferrari from a script by Troy Kennedy Martin based on Brock Yates’ book Enzo Ferrari – The Man and the Machine. Mann produces alongside P.J. 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 filmmaker.

Out of the Cannes Film Festival, Neon acquired a full slate of films with Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall from Justine Triet, Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera, Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days and Robot Dreams from Pablo Berger.