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Ferrari vs Lamborghini: Hollywood movies to depict Italian sports car icons’ lifelong rivalry – and the men behind the machines

  • Enzo Ferrari and Ferruccio Lamborghini were sports car icons from the same part of Italy and lifelong rivals – two upcoming Hollywood films tell their stories
  • Ferrari, with Adam Driver in the title role, and Lamborghini, with Frank Grillo, cover the pair’s beginnings, family lives, womanising, their cars and legacies

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Frank Grillo in a still from Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend, one of two upcoming Hollywood biopics about Italian sports car icon, the other being Ferrari, starring Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari. Photo: Lionsgate Movies

The lifelong rivalry between Enzo Ferrari and Ferruccio Lamborghini, creators of some of the most iconic Italian sports cars ever built, has made its way to Hollywood.

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Duelling movies about these flamboyant automotive patriarchs promise to shed light on a pair of stubborn visionaries with a keen eye for winning and women.

The first off the starting line is Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend (now streaming on Amazon Prime Video), starring Frank Grillo as Lamborghini, Mira Sorvino as his second wife, Annita, and Gabriel Byrne as Ferrari. Just around the bend next year: Michael Mann’s Ferrari, starring Adam Driver as Enzo and Penelope Cruz as his wife Laura.

Ferrari started making cars in the late 1940s, and Lamborghini, unhappy with the performance of his personal Ferrari, started building his own car in the early 1960s. A quick pit stop about Lamborghini the man, and his fabled nemesis:

The Lamborghini headquarters in a still from Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend. Photo: Lionsgate Movies
The Lamborghini headquarters in a still from Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend. Photo: Lionsgate Movies

A tale of prancing horses and raging bulls

Ferrari was a moderately successful racing driver for fabled Alfa Romeo, but decided to go it alone, unveiling his first vehicle, the 125 S, in 1947.

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