Like a big original budget film that was done largely with practical effects, “Ford / Ferrari” is not so much pointed against headwinds Hollywood, as it’s accelerating 200 miles per hour right into them.
The film, directed by James Mangold, was premiered Monday at the Toronto International Film Festival, the unveiling of a big, swagger, movie relent, a studio-made crowd-pleaser led by a pair of celebrity formers. cinema of Christian Bale and Matt Damon.
“As the real movie stars become more and more intellectual property – the source material, the costume, the outfit, the magic of the actors of the march into something completely unknown to you, it’s an exciting thing that we have not seen in a long time, “Mangold said in an interview in advance of the premiere of the film. “To make a smart action movie was the goal. “
“Ford / Ferrari” is just getting into the gear. He will not be hitting the theaters until November. 15, but it’s already attracted a strong exam and was written in this autumn’s awards season after its debut debut at the Telluride Film Festival last week. For Damon, such a speech is too early, especially for a film that was made with the intention of reaching a mass audience.
“I read the script and thought it was a crowd-pleasing film in all good manners – like in a movie that people want to see,” Damon said. ” That’s what we did. He’s just a big loser in the story. “
“Ford / Ferrari” stages the Ford Motor Co.’s drive to dethrone the defending champions of the power of the international race, Ferrari, at the 1966 Le Mans, the classic 24-hour endurance race. Damon plays automotive designer Carroll Shelby; Bale plays the stubborn pilot Ken Miles. It’s a movie about obsession and the car, in which Shelby and Miles are often rubbing at the constriction of Ford’s dictates business.
Mangold sees his film, too, as a battle effort a dominant force.
“I really feel, at least inside my own body, that there is a burnout with the kind of superhero-tentpole film and all the tropes,” Mangold said. “Certainly” Logan “was my answer. I was not just trying to make a western disguised as a superhero movie. I tried to make original superhero movie. “
The 55-year-old Mangold (“Walk the Line,” “3:10 for Yuma”) has made a career of directing a disappearance of the film race: adult film studio. Before “Joker” was to gain praise for rewriting the movie superhero, Mangold is gritty, no-frills take on Wolverine, “Logan”, became the first superhero movie to win a nomination to the Oscar for his writing.
“Ford / Ferrari,” costs nearly $ 100 million to make, is potentially risky for 20th Century Fox, which after producing the film was acquired by the Walt Disney Co. After disappointing results for the Fox initial release, under its new parent company (“Dark Phoenix”, “Stuber”), “Ford / Ferrari” can turn the tide.
But like Shelby initially, says Ford, Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal), “You can not buy a win. Still, you can, Shelby says, pay the right people to give you a chance to win.
“Our goal, and all our money has been put to use to try to make as analog a movie as possible,” Mangold said. “We tried to do it for real. Of our actors, could lead. “
“I really do not want to do a CG race movie. Of course, there are visual effects of working on the film. But the center-forward of the race is something that we physically mounted, “he added. “In this sense, I am an avowed traditionalists. “