Christian Bale & Matt Damon's Ford V Ferrari Almost Starred Two Different A-List Actors

2019 was one of the greatest years in cinema this century. Sure, many of us look back at 2019 in a fond light for ... particular reasons, but that year boasted some remarkable films to define the end of the 2010s decade. Whether you look at the Best Picture winner "Parasite," which recently topped the New York Times' 21st century list, or Martin Scorsese's stunning achievement that was "The Irishman," that year's crop of Best Picture nominees really stood out. One of the more interesting nominees for Best Picture that year came in the form of James Mangold's effortlessly entertaining drama, "Ford v Ferrari," which starred Matt Damon and Christian Bale.

"Ford v Ferrari" tells the true story of automotive designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale), who are both hired by Ford's CEO Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) and vice president Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal) to defeat the Scuderia Ferrari racing team at the 1966 24 hours of Le Mans race in France. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards and grossed $225.5 million on a budget of $97.6 million. It boasted some powerful A-list talent, with Oscar winners Matt Damon and Christian Bale as the headliners, but what's crazy is that there were two other A-listers that almost took their roles, and it would have been a big screen reunion a quarter century in the making.

The development of a film based on the Ford/Ferrari rivalry at the Le Mans Grand Prix of Endurance had gone on for years. Before director James Mangold took over with Matt Damon and Christian Bale in their respective roles, Joseph Kosinski was looking to direct the film, with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in negotiations to play Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles, respectively. Kosinski reflected on losing out on the project (which was at the time titled "Go Like Hell," based on author A.J. Baime's book, "Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans") in an interview with Collider:

"The one that I always think about that got away was called 'Go Like Hell,' which eventually did get made as 'Ford v Ferrari.' I always wanted to make a racing film, but the thing about racing movies is, it can't be about racing. It has to have some amazing story underneath to warrant itself being made, and that story was one of those great stories of an incredible friendship and an incredible rivalry and an incredibly dangerous race."

Joseph Kosinski acknowledged that while his version of the film never got off the ground, it reached a point where the two stars of "Interview with the Vampire" reunited to read the script for "Go Like Hell" together:

"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. But we couldn't get the budget to the number it had to be at, and it was the right number. So that was the one for me that got away. But I was thrilled to see that they ended up making an amazing version of it."

"F1" is now playing in theaters. You can read /Film's review of the film here.