Meet the man Hollywood calls when it needs to find rare cars

Record ID: 1455934

  • Title: Meet the man Hollywood calls when it needs to find rare cars
  • Date: 31st January 2020
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (RECENT) (REUTERS) 'CAR FINDER' MICHAEL HOBACK, WHO FOUND CARS USED IN THE OSCAR-NOMINATED MOVIE 'FORD V FERRARI' IN HIS DRIVEWAY WHERE A FERRARI AND TWO ROLLS ROYCE CARS ARE PARKED; HE APPROACHES A ROLLS ROYCE WITH A SHAMMY VARIOUS OF HOBACK WIPING DOWN ROLLS ROYCE WITH SHAMMY (SOUNDBITE) (English) 'CAR FINDER' MICHAEL HOBACK, 65-YEARS-OLD, SAYING: "One of the coordinators at Sony Pictures called me and said Mike you should know about this movie, they're starting production now on Ferrari and I jumped out of my seat and I thought, finally. Because my house payments are due, my cars, my dogs need to be fed, so I thought oh man, finally I got a new Batman movie." FERRARI PARKED IN HOBACK'S YARD CLOSE-UP OF FERRARI SIGN ON CAR BONNET (SOUNDBITE) (English) 'CAR FINDER' MICHAEL HOBACK, SAYING: "Well, being that I am 65 now and I've been doing this since I was basically 15 and started out by taking care of people's cars, and private collectors and some of the collectors that had three and four cars at the time now have 20 and 30. And I've got one guy that has got over 300 cars. So to say I've got access to 25(00) to 3,000 cars really is no big of a deal when one guy could have 300, another guy's got 50, another guy's got 140."
  • Embargoed: 14th February 2020 19:51
  • Keywords: Academy Awards California Ford v Ferrari Oscars best picture car finder
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES/UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATIONS
  • City: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES/UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Film
  • Reuters ID: LVA002BYJ69FX
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: When Hollywood needs cars, it calls Michael Hoback. Like a casting agent but for cars instead of actors, 65-year-old Hoback has put hundreds of priceless motor vehicles on screen in some of the industry's biggest movies.
    Having always had a soft spot for vintage Ferraris, Hoback hit gold when he was approached to scout cars for this year's best picture Oscar contender, "Ford v Ferrari."
    "I jumped out of my seat," recalled Hoback, when he heard the film was going into production.
    Starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale, the movie is based on the little-known true story of the American and British car designers and engineers who built the Ford GT40 to take on Italy's fabled Ferrari team at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race.
    "Being that I am 65 now and I've been doing this since I was basically 15 and started out by taking care of people's cars and private collectors ... I've got access to 2,500 to 3,000 cars," says Hoback, on how he is able to sources such rare vintage vehicles.
    As a teenager growing up in the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles, Hoback would spend most of his time drawing and reading about cars. Then he started skipping school to spend time Ferrari and Rolls Royce dealerships.
    "I used to draw cars at school and spent more time drawing cars and looking at car magazines than I ever did my homework," he said.
    "My grandmother lived in Hollywood, and I used to take days off of school and go to the dealerships, Ferrari, I would go to the Rolls Royce dealerships and just hang out."
    Hoback made inroads into the film industry when he began taking care of the cars of movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn and TV producers Aaron Spelling and Quinn Martin whose officers happened to be located near his grandmother's house.
    Hoback now runs his business, Cars on Camera, from his home in the San Fernando Valley.
    Driving around his neighborhood in a vintage Rolls Royce belonging to his friend, the director, Richard Donner, Hoback reveals his dislike of new cars.
    "New cars look like refrigerators, there's no style, there's no workmanship into them. This car is built by hand, it is all hand assembled, the Connolly leather, the burl walnut, and they all have a distinctive drive and feel to them," he says.
    "Same thing with a Ferrari, a Ferrari has got a certain sound, like a patented sound only exclusive to Ferrari," he added.
    Hoback has worked on films including "Batman & Robin," "Gone in 60 Seconds," and "The Green Lantern".
    (Production: Omar Younis, Jack Ferry)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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