‘Ferrari’ Featurette Spotlights Cars’ Custom Craftsmanship: ‘Couldn’t Possibly Use the Authentic Ones’ | Exclusive Video

Director Michael Mann takes you behind the wheel

Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” hits theaters on Christmas Day and ahead of that release we are premiering a brand-new, behind-the-scenes featurette, which you can watch above.

In “Ferrari,” Adam Driver plays Enzo Ferrari, who, in the summer of 1957, is under siege. His racing empire is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, his marriage to the volatile Laura (Penélope Cruz) has taken an explosive extra dimension following the death of their son and her discovery of his second family with Lina (Shailene Woodley). And there are also some truly horrific accidents on the road that he has to contend with.

It’s those races that this featurette is most concerned with, specifically the design and construction of the cars in the film. “We had to replicate the sports race cars – the 315s and 355s – that we use in the films. You couldn’t possibly use the authentic ones. We needed the cars to be safe, reliable and very, very fast,” Mann said in the featurette.

As to how they made the cars (some made out of fiberglass, the others metal), he said: “We replicated those cars by doing 3D Lidar scans of real cars and then we put that shape together with a tubular chasse, which we designed.

Patrick Dempsey, who plays racer Piero Taruffi in the film (and races cars in real life), said of the cars in the film:  “It’s hand-crafted, and anything hand-crafted, you can feel that soul. You feel that energy because of all the time and thought and emotion that’s put into it.”

According to Mann, the stylishness of the cars, which still stand the test of time all these years later, was not the main goal of Ferrari – the man or the company. “Nobody is sitting at Ferrari saying, ‘Let’s make an art object that moves.’ It’s quite the opposite. Ferrari is saying, ‘I build engines, the rest of the car you get for free.’ They’re not designed to look good, they just do look good,” Mann said, in truly the Mann-iest way possible.

If you want to see these babies in action, “Ferrari” opens everywhere on Christmas Day.

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