Ford vs Ferrari – the movie is coming

It's not often we preview movies here at carsales.com.au but the new trailer for Ford v. Ferrari has us all worked up!

The production value of the multi-million-dollar movie production look incredible and based on this first trailer, it's shaping up to be a fairly gritty (if jingoistic) telling of the USA vs Italy story.

The new Ford v. Ferrari film stars Matt Damon as Carroll Shelby, the legendary automotive designer tasked with building a race car to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans – a race which was then, and still is today, one of the most prestigious titles in the motor racing world.

Henry Ford II was bitter that Enzo Ferrari pulled out of a deal in 1963 to join motorsport forces and so tasked Shelby to build a racecar that could beat the famous Italian brand, which had won the 1960, 1961, 1962 and 1963 races.

Christian Bale plays Ken Miles, a British engineer and race driver (who sounds oddly Australian!). He buddies up with Shelby to build the Ford GT 40 race car which is first raced in 1964. But the car faced several challenges and was unreliable… at first.

"We're lighter, we're faster. And if that don't work we're nastier," says Damon's character Shelby at the end of the trailer.

Expect fireworks in this movie, with some big crash scenes and probably a few old Hollywood tropes to tug at the heartstrings too. There's even talk of Oscar contention for the movie.

Based on 'true' events, the new movie is directed by James Mangold, the bloke behind the darkest Marvel movie yet, Logan, and the Johhny Cash biopic, Walk The Line, and follows in the footsteps of motor racing movies such as Days of Thunder (NASCAR) and Rush (F1).

The new film is due for release in the USA in mid-November 2019, with an Aussie released expected around the same time.

And who knows, maybe Baz Luhrmann will direct Eric Bana in a Bathurst 1000 movie one day, King of the Mountain?