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The box office successes of 20th Century Fox’s “Ford v Ferrari” in 2019 and Apple’s “F1” in 2025 have stoked the flames for a new wave of car movies. Paramount Pictures has confirmed that Days of Thunder 2 will be released in June 2028. Two different MotoGP heist movies are in the works, starring Alan Ritchson and Timothée Chalamet. If you have a bankable concept and script for a car movie right now, I’d drive to the nearest producer without hesitation.
We asked our readers last week who they would like to see star in their dream car movie. I was genuinely impressed with the mix of responses. The comments section featured interesting original ideas alongside worthwhile remakes and “based on a true story” treatments. Would I like to see a Michele Mouton biopic? Yes! The hijinkks of three comedy legends tearing across the country in Corvettes? Absolutely! Without further ado, here are the best casting ideas you all had to offer:
Tom Cruise as Darrell Waltrip
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Now that Days of Thunder 2 is a thing, if I’d known about it I’d have tried to work up a treatment that was essentially the retelling of the Darrell Waltrip 1998 DEI dalliance. Cruise would play the Waltrip character; he had his glory, but it’s been a long, slow decline into mediocrity as he aged, and poor business decisions basically cost him his ride. Rooker would play the Earnhardt character – he’d played the game and went on to sustained success even into his older years. He got the funds and the sponsorship to start his own Rowdy Racing. Rather than cast a Steve Park role, we’ll put Rowdy’s brash and inexperienced son in the #1 car – I really don’t have a choice to play him but obviously a younger dude – but the kid crashed and broke his leg. He’ll be out for months. Sponsors need that car to run or they’ll walk, Rowdy calls Cole. Cole does a “Brad Pitt in F1” NASCAR-style. Applause, tears, roll credits….
Woulda never got past Cruise. “Wait, me declining into mediocrity?? Screw that!!”
“Yes, but you need to fall in order to rise again.”
Submitted by: DungBeetle62
Sean Duffy as himself, no notes
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Stanley Tucci as Cesare Florio
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Would love to see a dramatization of the Audi vs. Lancia WRC 1983 that Grand Tour did a while ago. Have Stanley Tucci be Cesare Florio, and Christoph Waltz as someone on the Audi team. Will Poulter would also make a good Walter Rohrl.
Submitted by: Tahoe Guy
Ana de Armas in a one-woman Lambo show
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90 minutes of nothing but a pedal box POV of Ana de Armas rowing the gears and driving a Lambo Miura. Directed, of course, by Quentin Tarantino. 😉
Runner-up: Charlton Heston and Eartha Kitt in a mismatch-turned-buddies road trip through the West. Driving a ’65 Coupe deVille like the one Don Draper rocked in Mad Men.
Submitted by: GR M
Tadanobu Asano as Drift King Keiichi Tsuchiya
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I’ve been saying Keiichi Tsuchiya needs a movie about his life. There’s not a lot of people in the world you can point at and say definitively started an entire culture. Tadanobu Asano could play the Drift King.
Submitted by: Marcus C
Will Forte as a novice Miata dad
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Will Forte in a movie about a dad who doesn’t know cars helps his daughter build a K-powered Miata drift car to show up some high school bullies or something.
Submitted by: Minivanman
A French up-and-comer as Michele Mouton
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A biopic of Michele Mouton would be cool. You would get a bunch of period-cool race cars, and you could cast all the Group B racers with young actors. I would just hope they do real driving rather than all CGI. I have no idea who should have the role of Mouton, but I’m sure there is a good young French talent that has not gotten a break into a role I would know.
Submitted by: bb1313
Bruce Campbell as Bill Grumpy Jenkins
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How about a movie about Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins starring the inimitable Bruce Campbell?
Submitted by: Stillnotatony
Taron Egerton as Helge Meyer
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I’d like to see a movie about the Ghost Camaro that ran humanitarian aid into the war zone during the Bosnian civil war. The role of Helge Meyer would be played by Taron Egerton, rather than some action star, because even though he had served with Denmark’s Jaeger Corps (similar to Delta Force or Green Berets) Meyer was motivated by his faith and belief that he had a moral obligation to help. He refused to carry a gun on his self-assigned missions, arming himself only with a dagger and an axe. The car would be the action star, not the driver.
Submitted by: Norm DePlume
Fozzie Bear replacing Vin Diesel
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Fozzie Bear and his Studebaker starring in The Fozz and the Furryous.
Submitted by: TN Cyclist
Will Ferrell, Jim Carey, and Steve Carell as Corvette Cannonballers
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For some reason, I’d love to see Will Ferrell, Jim Carey, and Steve Carell as stereotypical Corvette owners, wiping their cars with diapers. A reclusive billionaire offers a $50M prize to race each other across the US in a Cannonball-style in a madcap adventure. By the end, they are all better drivers and realize how capable their cars are. The post-credit scene shows them at a track event with stickers and dirt on their cars, and no more jean shorts.
Submitted by: DTEL77