Christian Bale Won’t Play Enzo Ferrari After All

For over a decade, Michael Mann has been trying turn Brock Yates classic 1991 book, Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races, into a feature film. It’s been… a struggle. Things were looking up last month, when Mann scoring a distribution deal with Paramount Picture. But, now, the project has taken another, massive step backwards, as Christian Bale has dropped out of the project.

The 41-year-old actor’s decision to resign the film��s starring role stemmed from health concerns. Bale has a reputation for losing and gaining huge amounts of weight for his roles, namely dropping 63 pounds for The Machinist, then putting on almost 50 to take on American Hustle. But, according to Variety, the Oscar Award winner didn’t think he could safely pack on enough weight to play Enzo Ferrari before shooting is scheduled to begin this spring.

Still, the movie as much promise as ever. Set to take place in 1957, the script comes from by Troy Kennedy-Martin, the pen behind The Italian Job, and David Rayfiel, who wrote The Firm. Mann is reportedly already speaking to other actors, working to recast the role of Enzo Ferrari and move forward with the project.