Report: Tom Cruise to play Carroll Shelby in movie

A couple of decades after he played a NASCAR racer in "Days of Thunder," Hollywood trade newspaper "Variety" reports that actor Tom Cruise is set to get back behind the wheel on the big screen to play the legendary Carroll Shelby in "Go Like Hell."

Although Variety says the production has not been given the green light from 20th Century Fox, the film would be directed by Joseph Kosinski and be based on the 2009 book "Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari and their Battle For Speed and Glory at Le Mans" by A.J. Baime, which relates the story of the grudge match at Le Mans in the 1960s Ford and Ferrari, which followed Henry Ford II's unsuccessful attempt to purchase the Italian marque. Shelby was a key player on the Ford side in that fight, and was interviewed by Baime extensively for the book.

tips production to start next year pending final approval, with a theatrical release anticipated sometime in 2015.