'Driven' Trailer: Go Back In Time For A Film About The Fall Of John DeLorean

Hollywood suddenly seems interested in John DeLorean, the charismatic creator of the DeLorean Motor Company and the car that became iconic after appearing in Back to the Future. Earlier this year we saw the release of Framing John DeLorean, a blend of fact and fiction that cast Alec Baldwin in the lead role. Now we have a trailer for Driven, which puts actor Lee Pace in the shoes of the infamous auto magnate. But this isn't a traditional biopic – it's a story of how DeLorean's career basically came to an end during a drug sting orchestrated by the FBI through DeLorean's neighbor (Jason Sudeikis). Check out the trailer below.

Spoilers for real life ahead, but Jim Hoffman's attempt to bring DeLorean down didn't actually work – DeLorean was charged with being a financier in a major cocaine deal, but was able to argue that Hoffman and the FBI illegally entrapped him with the lure of a quick payday because his company was in financial trouble. Hoffman had a prior criminal record and was hoping to use his work with the feds to get himself a lighter punishment for an outstanding incident, and since DeLorean had no criminal record, he was acquitted in court in the early 1980s. But by that point, the damage to his reputation was too much to overcome, and his company went bankrupt.

To me, Driven looks like a run-of-the-mill but watchable informant story, and maybe it will at least give the constantly-underutilized Judy Greer something significant to do.

Here's the film's official synopsis:

A fast-paced, comedic crime thriller of a bromance gone wrong between John DeLorean, played by Lee Pace (Captain Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Book of Henry, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies), and Jim Hoffman, played by Jason Sudeikis (TAG, Colossal, Booksmart).

Set in early 1980s California, the story follows the meteoric rise of the golden boy of the automotive industry, John DeLorean (Pace) and his iconic DeLorean Motor Company, through the eyes of his friendship with charming, ex-con pilot turned FBI informant, Jim Hoffman (Sudeikis). DeLorean turned to unsavory activities to save his financially troubled DeLorean Motor Company, and it was Hoffman who was all too willing to lure the car designer/engineer into a cocaine trafficking ring set up by the FBI. Isabel Arraiza is Cristina DeLorean, DeLorean's fashion model wife, Judy Greer (Ant-Man, Jurassic World, War for the Planet of the Apes) is Ellen Hoffman, Hoffman's direct, no nonsense wife and Corey Stoll (First Man, Ant-Man, Midnight in Paris) is ambitious FBI Special Agent Benedict Tisa.

Driven skids into theaters and arrives On Demand on August 16, 2019.