One of car racing’s most storied battles is coming to the big screen.
During game two of the NBA Finals on Sunday night, 20th Century Fox debuted the first high-octane trailer for its eagerly anticipated new film Ford v. Ferrari, an award season hopeful that stars Oscar winners Matt Damon and Christian Bale. Directed by James Mangold, the lauded filmmaker behind Logan and Cop Land, the movie will tell the exhilarating true story behind the American automaker’s attempt to build a car that could finally beat the Italian speed legends at Le Mans.
“Suppose Henry Ford II wanted to build the greatest race car the world’s ever seen to win the 24 hours of Le Mans. What would it take?” Lee Iacocca (played by Jon Bernthal) asks Carol Shelby (Damon) at the beginning of the trailer. The legendary Texas-born automotive designer initially scoffs at the idea, but pushes forward anyway, calling upon notoriously difficult British driver Ken Miles (played by Bale) to help him make that dream a reality in just 90 days. The answer was the legendary Ford GT40, which would claim 1-2-3 victory at Daytona, Sebring and Le Mans in 1966 (though Miles, controversially, finished third in the last race).
Fifty years later, the two companies are still competing to be the fastest on the track. In 2016, exactly 50 years after the GT40’s victory hat trick, the latest version of the car, which Ford had resurrected just one year prior, took the victory podium as the overall winner in the GTE class at Le Mans. Limited to a production run of 1,000 over four years, the exceedingly rare speedster has a $453,750 price tag. Meanwhile, just last week, Ferrari unveiled its new hybrid, the SF90 Stradale. The company’s first plug-in and AWD sports car also happens to be its fastest yet, packing a ridiculous 986 horsepower.
Ford v. Ferrari—which also stars Catriona Balfe, Tracy Letts and Josh Lucas—speeds into theaters on November 15.
