How close were we to seeing Ford v Ferrari starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt instead of Matt Damon and Christian Bale? According to Pitt, wheels were in motion
In an interview with The National, about a decade before Ford v Ferrari was made, he and Cruise were lined up to star as Ken Miles (Pitt) and Carroll Shelby (Cruise) with F1 director Joseph Kosinski.
“Tom and I, for a while there, were on Ford v Ferrari with Joe [to direct],” Pitt said, per William Mullally of The National. “This was about 10 years before the guys who actually made it – and made it a great movie.”
A project like that certainly seems like a natural for Pitt, who enjoys making sports movies. So, what went wrong with the Pitt and Cruise-led Ford v. Ferrari project? Pitt explained that, as well.
“What it came down to is that we both wanted to drive, and he wanted to play Shelby, and I wanted to play Ken Miles,” he said, Per Mullally. “And when Tom realised that Carroll Shelby would not be driving much in the movie, it didn’t come through.”
Ford v Ferrari was released in 2019, starring Damon as Shelby and Bale as Miles. It won two Academy Awards (Best Sound Mixing and Best Film Editing and Best Sound Editing) and was nominated for two others (Best Picture and Best Sound Mixing).
Certainly, it would have been interesting to see how that movie would have looked with Pitt and Cruise in the starring roles. But all things considered, things worked out pretty well.