Editorial: Hey Hollywood...What About Elon Musk?

by Wallace Wyss –

Having watched Michael Mann’s Ferrari I was wondering which of the 20th or 21st century’s auto executives have lives that, a portion of which, would be fodder for a good movie?

I nominate John Z. DeLorean from around the time he was developing the Pontiac GTO, and ending after the DeLorean company folded. I could include that two seater he tried to get Pontiac to make.

Another would be Jerry Wiegert. I knew him from the ’70s, always trying to work a miracle to get a backer for his mid-engine Vector. Long after his firm folded, I was going to call him and congratulate him for selling two old prototypes for a million each but then found out he had died.

But by far the most influential automaker today is Elon Musk. I’d start when he makes a few million selling PayPal and meets the original founders of Tesla who are stuck on how to get a car into production. He joins the firm, arranges with Lotus to supply a chassis for the first Tesla model and the rest is history. The fascinating part is he borrows from another firm he started as a side hustle–Space-X, to keep Tesla going.

And then his workforce problems–when he goes to the factory and sleeps on the floor to work out the problem. Then you could show the nay-sayers, a chorus, saying he will never make it, and throw in a little racetrack footage from race modified ones blowing off million dollar Ferraris. And of course appearances by actresses playing his several wives & girlfriends (a lot more than Enzo Ferrari).

But the rub is where do you end? The Chinese EVs haven’t underpriced him enough to kill off his brand and the world is not tired of the dated styling yet. There’s a debate over Full Self Driving with no hint yet if that will be outlawed or just re-named. It’s always risky to do an epic on someone whose story is still continuing. If he keeps going at warp speed, we may soon be seeing Teslas driven on Mars!

So with Musk’s intense business drive, I don’t know where the story will go; but he’s one man whose life certainly has enough drama. To play him I nominate Brad Pitt–you might have to “age” him to match 52-year old Musk though Pitt”s already 60!

Let us know what you think in the Comments.

THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss is still out there pitching his action thriller Ferrari Hunters.