While Daniel Bruhl got a lot of praise for playing Fredrick Zoller in Inglourious Basterds, he hasn’t found the Hollywood success of some of his castmates from that film. However now Ron Howard is eyeing him for the role of Niki Lauda in a biopic of his rivalry with fellow F1 driver, James Hunt.
Rush will follow the story of English sports car racer James Hunt and his vicious on-track rivalry with Niki Lauda. In 1976, Lauda crashed his Ferrari, lost his ear, and fell into a coma while Hunt walked away victorious from this German Grand Prix race, and eventually went onto take the World Driver’s Championship away from his fallen competitor.
Chris Hemsworth is set to play James Hunt and according to ScreenDaily Bruhl is now in talks to join him as Lauda. The current plan is for Rush to shoot in Germany and the UK later in the year, with Hemsworth fitting it in between The Avengers and Thor 2 (and which Ron Howard is taking on due to delays in The Dark Tower schedule).