The Drivers TV Series Announced: Local Boy Makes Good

Also in the announcement, Ridley Scott was quoted as saying “I grew up in the North of England at a time when Stirling Moss was a hero. Everyone wanted to be a racing driver. This is a hugely ambitious project and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tell the story of these iconic and legendary men who risked everything to win at Le Mans. It’s an epic story of courage and ambition and a history of racing which has never been told on such a grand scale.” Scott grew up in the UK and his company, ScottFree Films, is also based in London.

Wyss also explained that when an option is taken, the producers pay a fee on the work every six months and currently the option has been extended to the year 2014. An option fee does not buy the film rights to a book but prevents the author or publisher from selling those rights to anyone else until the option lapses. Wyss thinks the Scotts may have announced the decision to create the series because of competition hot on their exhaust pipes. On January 26th, TV Guide’s Michael Schneider reported that the Scotts are “locked in a race against rival filmmakers Wolfgang Petersen (Air Force One) and Ron Shelton (Bull Durham) as they compete to capture the mid-20th century international auto racing circuit via two separate TV projects”.

But as Wyss said, film producers often have a clause that states that they don’t have to pay until the day principle photography begins…a traditional practice in the film industry.

So we’ll keep our Hollywood fingers crossed.

In the meantime, Brian Winer got to Wyss (you don’t think he talks to us anymore, do you?) and asked him a few questions about how he became instantly famous.

WINER: When did you get the news about the Scotts?
WYSS: Late in January, from Michael Cannell, a writer in New York City who pays close attention to show biz news because he himself is writing a book on Phil Hill and von Trips, a book that’s already been optioned for a feature film.

WINER: How did your Shelby book come about?
WYSS: Over 30 some years ago, I wrote a book called Shelby’s Wildlife: the Cobras and the Mustangs. It sold over 50,000 copies because it was the first book recounting Shelby’s adventures with the Cobras, the Shelby Mustangs and GT40s other than his own book,The Cobra Story. It finally went out of print after 17 years and for the next two and a half decades I kept wondering how to do another book on Shelby from another angle. I finally got the idea for the new book after reading Brock Yates book Outlaw Machine: Harley-Davidson and the Search for the American Soul In that book he managed to tell an interesting story without talking about tire sizes and valve gear and all that technical detail. He was more interested in who bought Harleys and the image they convey when riding one. In fact my original title when I submitted the book was SHELBY: The Search for the Soul of the American Musclecar. But the publishers changed it and I like their subtitle better.

WINER: But the film company isn’t doing a Shelby bio?
WYSS: No, not per se. It’s more the story of the racers of that era, in fact I am not sure if it’s going to be more on the ‘50s or the ‘60s and of course Shelby stopped racing himself in 1960 but then the mid-‘60s is when the epic Ferrari vs. Ford battle happened which we covered in my book Ford GT40 and the New Ford GT, written with Al Axelrod and you.

WINER: Why is that era so fascinating to today’s fans?
WYSS: Because it was American brawn and huge unsophisticated engines pitted against European high technology and sophistication. Yet, at LeMans in 1966, Ford won, with an iron block pushrod engine originally developed for 3000 lb. NASCAR stock cars.

WINER: What about Enzo Ferrari? Do you think the series will portray him, and how?
WYSS: I think it will be fun to see if the scriptwriters can portray Enzo Ferrari anywhere close to the accounts I’ve read. I saw him in person in Italy but never talked to him. But I understand Ferrari could have tutored Machiavelli.

WINER Why do you think the producers chose your book when there’s many histories of ‘50s and ‘60s racing?
WYSS: I think because of several things. The cover picture is fascinating. I bought it in a swap meet for $50—and it shows four drivers and Shelby at Sebring in 1965. Three of the drivers later on ended up being killed at the wheel. When you look at a picture like that, you want to know what happened to them. Only Shelby, of the five men pictured on the cover, is still alive. Also I think the fact that I started each chapter with a cinematic fly-on-the-wall description that made it easy to visualize what certain scenes would be on film. For instance, I start out explaining Henry Ford II’s interest in LeMans with a story about him on his yacht anchored off the Cote d’Azur inspecting his crewmen’s attire. It was because HFII fell in love with the idea of Ford competing in Europe that the whole Ford vs. Ferrari thing happened.

WINER: Any other thoughts on why the book was chosen?
WYSS: I have read hundreds of automotive histories but few write about the people in much depth as opposed to long lists of specifications. Even one of the books on Shelby that outsells mine goes into paint choices and such, but now that there is the Internet, you can find out the specifics of any production car in seconds, so why bother to list it? I would much rather know the answer to something like “why did Lee Iacocca put out $25,000 to build the first Cobra?”

WINER: What else are you involved in?
WYSS: I am trying to find an agent to market my suspense thriller that I call “the world’s first Ferrari detective novel.” I can say that since I got that e-mail about the TV show that agents appear to be more interested than they were before the Scotts made their decision.

WINER: Where can we get the book Shelby: The Man The Cars The Legend?WYSS: Iconografix, Hudson, WI or you can order it at most bookstores.