The 1983 Rally World Championships sparked an intense rivalry between the Italian and German teams and now Italian director Stefano Mordini is turning that larger-than-life story into a movie. Deadline reported this morning that Daniel Brühl, Riccardo Scamarcio, and Volker Bruch have been cast in 2 Win which will begin filming in Italy later this month. The script was written by Filippo Bologna, Mordini, and Scarmarcio, who last worked together on the Italian comedy The Players in 2020. Mordini and Scarmarcio have been frequent collaborators, but 2 Win is their first English-language feature together.
The film centers around Italy's team manager, Cesare Fiorio (Scamarcio), who is up against certain defeat at the 1983 Rally World Championships as they go up against Roland Gumpert (Brühl) and his formidable Audi team. Determined to win, Fiorio sets out to create a perfect and unusual team to secure victory, with doctors and nutritionists at his side. He manages to convince German driver Walter Röhrl (Bruch) to drive for Lancia (the Italian car brand backing the team) against Audi's reigning champion Hannu Mikkola, but Röhrl isn't going to go without stipulations. While this may not be a Ford v. Ferrari level manufacturer rivalry, the 1983 Rally World Championship is well known in the racing community because of its major upset.
This is Brühl's second racing film. He starred as the famed Formula 1 driver Niki Lauda in Ron Howard's Rush, opposite Chris Hemsworth. 2022 is shaping up to be a busy year for him, with the actor boarding the film adaptation of The Movie Teller earlier this year. The German actor, who is perhaps best known to American audiences as the MCU's Baron Zemo, has an impressive filmography, spanning five languages and roughly seventy films.
Scamarcio has an impressive filmography himself, appearing in a number of films and television series in Italy. He appeared in The Woman in White mini-series opposite Jessie Buckley and Dougray Scott. One of his upcoming films, Caravaggio's Shadow, will see him play the artist Caravaggio opposite Louis Garrel as The Shadow. Bruch is best known for playing Gereon Rath in Babylon Berlin, in addition to a number of German films and television series.
While 2 Win is filming in Italy, it will be shopped around to buyers at Cannes, which starts on May 17. Given the star-power behind the project, and the increasing interest in the racing industry, it's guaranteed to catch the interest of buyers.