Dozens of historic Maseratis recreated for movie about Italian car company | Film

Dozens of Maseratis of 1920s and 1930s designs have been built specially for a feature film about the Italian car company’s earliest days, with a cast headed by Anthony Hopkins.

Maserati: The Brothers tells the story of siblings driven by their love of cars to create an automotive company from scratch. It all began in a little garage in the Italian city of Bologna: in 1914 they founded a sports supercar company that went on to make some of the fastest vehicles on the planet.

As many as 60 cars have been made for the film, a vast investment within a budget thought to be well over £90m, far in excess of most independent movies.

Hopkins, who has a passion for classic cars, plays the key role of an Italian financier who bankrolls the Maserati brothers. The Oscar-winning actor said it was “an intriguing, strong character to portray”.

The film is directed by another Oscar winner, Bobby Moresco, who described it as “a story of resilience, innovation and the human spirit”. The cast also includes Al Pacino, Michele Morrone, Andy García and Jessica Alba.

Set in early 20th-century Italy, it focuses on the eldest brother Carlo, the ambitious Alfieri and their siblings Bindo, Ettore and Ernesto, as they pursue the idea of building innovative cars that combine art and technology.

Tensions escalate with financial struggles, the risks of racing and a forbidden love affair. Carlo strives to unite the family around the shared goal of founding Maserati but he dies of tuberculosis before he can see his dream come true. Alfieri dreams of racing and winning prestigious competitions but he dies in 1932 from complications arising from injuries sustained years earlier in a crash.

The film is produced by Andrea Iervolino, an Italian-Canadian who has become one of Hollywood’s leading independent film-makers, working with some of the industry’s biggest stars, including Pacino in the acclaimed The Merchant of Venice.

Iervolino said of Hopkins: “He’s really artistically involved in this movie. He’s worked a lot on the script. He also changed some of his own lines to deliver a better message. So he really cares about this movie. Sometimes when you work with such a big star, they care only about the paycheck. But this is not the case. Anthony’s really an amazing artist.

“He plays a very important role in the movie because at that time you could be a dreamer but you needed to find people who had money. At that time it was hard to find people who had money because the financial industry was not developed as today.”

Although Hopkins plays an Italian character, he does not speak with an Italian accent. Iervolino said: “I think faking an accent is only a problem. What, for example, they’ve done in the Gucci movie was too much. If you want to see the real Italian then it’s better to shoot a movie in the Italian language. Why do you need to fake an accent with this level of artist? A little bit is OK, but when you do too much you become like a parrot. This is a serious movie.”

Italy is famed for its high-performance cars, with marques such as Maserati, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Alfa Romeo and Lancia.

Iervolino has produced two other well-received motoring films: Moresco’s Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend, and Micheal Mann’s Ferrari starring Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz. He is also planning one on Bugatti.

“Italy was – and is – like the Silicon Valley of cars,” he said. “Maserati, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Lancia. If you drive from Bologna to Milan, this is where all these car manufacturing companies come from. At that time, each of them was dreaming of the fastest car, the number-one car, the most luxurious car. But not many people know the history behind them. Behind the legacy was a ‘dreamer’. So this is very inspirational as a movie genre.”

The cars have been built in a workshop authorised by Maserati. The exteriors are the original designs but their engines meet modern standards, while recreating the original sounds.

The film is scheduled for release in cinemas later this year.