Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise were supposed to lead the movie Ford v Ferrari, but it never happened.
Long before the film released in 2019, it was already in the works since 2013. However, instead of Christian Bale and Matt Damon, it was supposed to feature Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.
Joseph Kosinski was supposed to direct the film, calling it Go Like Hell from A.J. Baime’s book. Sadly, everything fell apart.
Why Pitt and Cruise ended up not doing the film
In the Comic-Con at Home panel discussion led by Collider, Kosinski revealed they were pretty close to film the movie. However, everything fell to pieces.
“I wouldn’t say we got close to production, but I got to the point where I had Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt at a table read, reading the script together,” the 46-year-old director said, via IndieWire. “But we couldn’t get the budget to the number it had to be at, and it was the right number.”
The film was about the saga of the car designer Carroll Shelby and the driver Ken Miles in 1966. Pitt was supposed to play the role of Miles while Cruise as Shelby.
“So that was the one for me that got away,” Kosinski added. “But I was thrilled to see that they ended up making an amazing version of it.”
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Kosinski, praising the movie’s outcome
Although Kosinski didn’t end up handling the project, he was happy with how James Mangold directed it.
“The script was the same, and I think [Mangold’s] approach was generally how I was going to do it,” he said. “[With] real cars, real racing — obviously, making it with Tom, that’s the only way that it would be made.”
Recalling what he did for Top Gun, he would also feature car racing with mounted cameras if he did do the movie.
“I thought [Mangold] did an excellent version,” Kosinski continued. “I thought Christian Bale and Matt Damon nailed the characters, so that was a case where you go in going.”
Kosinski watched the film with Cruise, and they were both thrilled when they saw it.
“It’s a weird thing to see someone make a movie of something that you had kind of got close to making,” he admitted. “But they did an amazing job with it.”
Before Kosinski was about to handle Ford v Ferrari, it was first given to Michael Mann, who also planned to do it with Pitt. According to Collider, after news emerged that Pitt might play Miles’ role, nothing went further than that.
Anyhow, Ford v Ferrari still saw the light of the day, hitting the theaters in August 2019. It earned $225 million worldwide and even nominated for four Oscars even without Brad Pitt.
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