The Auteurs #73: Michael Mann (Part 2)

 

Part 2 (2000-2025)

Ali

After two decades of filmmaking and TV, Mann was offered many projects to helm yet it was a script about the life of boxing legend Muhammad Ali that intrigued Mann as a bio-pic on the boxer had been in the works since 1992 by producer Paul Ardaji as it went through years of developmental hell with Gregory Allen Howard writing an initial draft on the script that focused on Ali’s life from the age of 12 to the age of 40 and his relationship with his father that was meant to be produced by Jon Peters. The script got the attention of actor Will Smith who found the idea to be a big break from him starring in big-budgeted summer blockbuster films as the 1999 Barry Sonnenfeld film Wild Wild West was a massive flop. Sonnenfeld was among those offered the project as was Ron Howard and Spike Lee, yet Smith felt that Mann should direct the film as he also looked at another script written by Stephen J. Rivele and Chris Wilkinson had as it would be re-written by The Insider co-screenwriter Eric Roth who would simplify the story as it would focus on Ali’s life from his win against Sonny Liston in 1964 as he changed his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali right up to his 1974 win in Zaire against George Foreman at the legendary Rumble at the Jungle fight.

With Mann officially attached to direct and Smith starring in the film as Ali, Mann would go into great lengths to ensure that Ali’s story would be filled with events that are important in the man’s life such as his 1971 fight with Joe Frazier, joining the Nation of Islam in 1964 where he befriended Malcolm X, his relationships with women, and other thing that culminated with winning the world championship for the second time in 1974 at Rumble in the Jungle. Mann also took the time with Roth to make sure that nothing goes to waste in the story they needed to tell with Smith spending time gaining pounds to play Ali along with learning about Islam and dialect training. Apart from editor William Goldenberg, sound editor Gregory King, and music composers Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke, Mann would work with a group of new collaborators for the film as Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki was tasked to be the film’s cinematographer as both he and Mann began to have interest with the emergence of digital photography in film.

The film’s ensemble cast would include Jamie Foxx as Ali’s assistant trainer/friend Drew Bundini Brown, Ron Silver as Ali’s trainer Angelo Dundee, Mario Van Peebles as Malcolm X, Barry Shabaka Henley as Ali’s manager Herbert Muhammad, Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith as one of Ali’s lovers, and Jon Voight as Howard Cosell. Shooting officially began in January of 2001 with a $105 million budget that included a $20 million salary for Smith as Mann shot the film on various locations with Mozambique serving as both Ghana and Zaire since neither country were suitable for what Mann wanted. Mann also wanted to provide a sense of realism into the fighting as well as playing into the many conflicts that Ali was facing at that time where he was stripped of the world heavyweight championship because of his refusal to fight in the Vietnam War. Mann’s usage of digital photography for some scenes in the film gave Mann some new ideas of what he wanted to do visually as he felt there were some constraints in shooting on film. His experimentation with Lubezki saw the many possibilities that Mann could do with digital photography as it would allow him to give him new ideas in the stories he wanted to tell.

The film was released on Christmas Day in 2001 to high anticipation as the film did receive stellar reviews though there was criticism towards how Ali is presented as well as the choices in relation to the narrative. Commercially, the film was released on the same day the first part of Peter Jackson’s adaptation of Lord of the Rings in The Fellowship of the Ring came out. The film only made $88 million against its final budget at around $107-118 million as the film’s distributor Columbia Pictures lost money on its release. Despite the polarizing reaction, the film did receive two Oscar nominations for Best Actor to Smith and Best Supporting Actor to Jon Voight while Mann would re-cut the film several times as he expanded the film’s 157-minute theatrical cut to a 165-minute cut for its 2004 DVD release and then a 152-minute version in 2017 a year after Ali’s death.

Lucky Star



Mann’s fascination with digital cinema led him to create a commercial for Mercedes while developing his next project. Mann created the commercial as if it would be a feature film starring Benicio del Toro and Ana Cristina shot on location in Los Angeles as a man being chased by the LAPD. The commercial was typical of Mann’s visual style as it was shot at night as the commercial aired only in Britain.

Collateral

While trying to find his next project, Mann was approached about directing a project that had been through developmental for years with various filmmakers and stars attached to this project from a screenplay by Australian writer Stuart Beattie. The script revolved around a cab driver who gets a hitman as a passenger as he reluctantly accompanies the hitman to various stops to kill his many targets as the night becomes more intense. The script was a hot property with filmmaker/producer Frank Darabont attached to the production while he would remain an executive producer on the project. Filmmakers like Mimi Leder and Fernando Meirelles attached only to drop out during the developmental stages. Several actors were attached to the project including Russell Crowe who told Mann about the script as Mann agreed to direct the film with Crowe originally going to star in the role as the hitman Vincent only for countless delays forcing him to drop out. Mann would then approach Tom Cruise for the part of Vincent as he agreed to do the role while the role of the cab driver Max Durocher was more difficult to find.

Beattie suggested that Robert de Niro should play the role but studio heads at Dreamworks said no wanting someone younger as Cuba Gooding Jr. and Adam Sandler were approached but the latter was unavailable due to working on another film project while the former felt he would be miscast. Mann went to Jamie Foxx for the role of Max after having a fruitful collaboration together on Ali with Jada Pinkett Smith as a potential love interest for Max in Annie as she had also been in Ali along with Foxx and Barry Shabaka Henley who would be a jazz musician Max and Vincent would meet. Val Kilmer was attached to the role of a detective in Fanning but dropped out to star in Oliver Stone’s film Alexander as Mark Ruffalo would be cast as Fanning while the ensemble would also include Javier Bardem as a Mexican drug lord and Jason Statham in a cameo appearance in the film’s first scene with rumors believing that he was playing Frank Martin from the Transporter franchise.

Production began in 2003 as Mann would work an entirely new crew that included cinematographer Paul Cameron who would shoot the film for three weeks as Mann wanted to shoot much of the film on digital as he used the Viper FilmStream High-Definition Camera for its production. Due to creative differences, Cameron was fired from the film as he would be replaced by the Australian-South African cinematographer Dion Bebe who had recently been collaborating with Jane Campion and shot Chicago for Rob Marshall. Bebe’s work gave Mann a lot of ideas of what he wanted to digitally as the film was shot on location in Los Angeles where Mann was able to get everything he needed to shoot as it reminded him of his early work in documentary film as they would on available light and everything else apart from a nightclub scene that was shot on 35mm. Mann would also maintain this sense of improvisation during the making of the film as it added to the manic tone of the film as it would also reflect in the film’s editing as well as in some of the music choices where Mann worked with James Newton Howard for the film’s score while also mixing an array of different music to play into the atmosphere of Los Angeles.

The film premiered in the U.S. on August 6, 2004, to great acclaim as well as grossing more than $100 million against its $65 million budget in North America while its overall worldwide gross reached over $220 million. The film would also garner a lot of critical notices as a lot of it went to Jamie Foxx who would receive a nomination for Best Supporting Actor while also nominated for Best Actor for his performance in Taylor Hackford’s bio-pic on Ray Charles in Ray in which Foxx would win the Oscar for. The film also received an Oscar nomination for its editing by Jim Miller and Paul Rubell while other notices went to its cinematography with both Cameron and Bebe getting several award nominations including a win for Best Cinematography from the BAFTAs.

Miami Vice

During a party for Ali back in 2001, Jamie Foxx chatted with Mann about doing a film version of the 1980s TV show that Mann had produced as Mann thought about creating a film version of the TV series. Following the success of Collateral and Foxx becoming a major player in Hollywood after his Oscar win, the two began get the project in development with Mann writing a brand-new screenplay that expands the premise of the series in which two Miami police detectives go undercover to catch a drug dealer who has been doing some drug trafficking in and out of Miami. With Foxx playing the role of Rico Tubbs and Mann retaining several collaborators from his previous films in cinematographer Dion Bebe, editors Paul Rubell and William Goldenberg, casting director Francine Maisler, set decorator Jim Erickson, and co-sound designer Elliot Koretz. Mann would get Irish actor Colin Farrell in the role of Sonny Crockett while the ensemble would include Naomie Harris, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Domenick Lombardozzi, Justin Theroux, and Barry Shabaka Henley as other characters that were from the original series.

The rest of the cast would include Gong Li as Crockett’s love interest in Isabella as well as Luis Tosar, John Ortiz, Isaach de Bankole, John Hawkes, and Ciaran Hinds. Shooting began in 2005 as it would be shot on location in Miami as well as additional locations in Uruguay, Paraguay, and the Caribbeans where Mann and Bebe agreed to shoot a large portion of the film on digital with underwater and high-speed shots were shot on 35mm film. The production would be a difficult experience for all involved not just due to Mann’s meticulous approach and need for realism. It was also due to Jamie Foxx’s behavior as he felt he was not paid the same salary as Farrell did and wanted more money while having some demands on what he wanted including a private plane and other compensations. Foxx’s antics would prove to be troubling with many though Mann would keep things intact as plans to shoot in the Dominican Republic for its ending were moved to Paraguay due to a violent encounter. Things worsened as seven days of shooting were lost due to the events of various hurricanes around Miami and the Caribbean.

The troubled production would escalate to $135 million though some claim it ballooned to $150 million due to the hurricane and other issues. Still, Mann pressed on as he was also fully aware of the audiences expecting something akin to recent films being based on TV shows like McG’s film versions of Charlie’s Angels in the early 2000s as well as Todd Phillips’ 2004 film version of Starsky & Hutch. Mann chose to not go on that route as he wanted to move away from what made the show great into something entirely different. Even with its music soundtrack as he hired music composer John Murphy and music supervisor Vicki Hiatt to create a soundtrack that was the antithesis of what made the show famous. Notably Murphy brought in a more ambient-based score with elements of electronic beats while Hiatt would help Mann to bring in a reminder of the show in a nu-metal cover of Phil Collins’ In the Air Tonight by Nonpoint for the film’s closing credits.

Released on July 20, 2006, in the U.S., the film would be released to mixed reviews as well as a decent box office where the film made only $63.5 million in North America though it would fare better worldwide with a final gross of $164 million. The mixed reaction both critically and commercially would hurt the film though the film would gain a cult following in the years following its release. Although Mann would release an expanded cut of the film a year later for DVD and the short-lived HD-DVD format from its 132-minute cut to 140-minutes and later for Blu-Ray in 2008. Mann felt the film did not live up to his expectations as he felt the ending did not satisfy him as he could not shoot at the Dominican Republic. Colin Farrell would also express disappointment for the film years after its release, feeling like it could have been better despite the growing acclaim the film would get in the years to come.

Leave Nothing NIKE commercial/Ferrari California commercials



While on a break between projects, Mann would spend some time doing a couple of commercials as one of them was for NIKE in which he would have Shawn Merriman and Steven Jackson run through players while wearing NIKE shoes. Mann would create a commercial in which the two players would run and push through other players in a game of American football while he would use a score piece from The Last of the Mohicans to add some drama to the action on the field. Another commercial Mann would make would be the California branch for Ferrari cars as Mann is an admirer of Ferrari’s cars as he agreed to do a commercial for their cars. The commercial would have two different cars driving through three different locations in California where the two cars would meet and race each other as they are driven by professional drivers as Mann put in a lot of detail into the sound design in those engines would sound.



Public Enemies

In 2004, nonfiction writer Bryan Burroughs was set to publish a book about the birth of the FBI in relation to the pursuit of John Dillinger led by Melvin Purvis as he pitched the project to Robert de Niro as a TV mini-series. Although Burroughs was an untrained film/TV writer, he did try to write a script as the project eventually fell apart where Burroughs was given the film/TV rights back from HBO who were going to produce the project through de Niro’s Tribeca Productions company. Mann got a hold of Burroughs’ book through his own representative as he would spend years developing it while doing other projects. Yet, he would also go back to a script he had written about one of Purvis’ pursuits in Alvin Karp as it was project, he had been developing since the 1980s but never got made. Mann would hire Ronan Bennett to co-write the script with him following a failed project about Che Guevara that failed to get off the ground where it would into a two-part made by Steven Soderbergh in 2008. Bennett would write several drafts with Mann only to leave the project as Mann would get Ann Biderman to help do re-writes just before Mann was to start shooting in March of 2008.

Reuniting with cinematographer Dante Spinotti and casting director Bonnie Timmerman for the project as the latter would share casting duties with Amy Kaufman. Mann also brought in Paul Rubell to co-edit the film with Jeffrey Ford as well as Elliot Goldenthal who had worked with Mann in Heat. For the film’s ensemble cast, Johnny Depp was cast as John Dillinger with Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis and French actress Marion Cotillard is cast as Dillinger’s lover Billie Frechette as she got the part when Rob Marshall’s film version of Nine was postponed. The ensemble would include Giovanni Ribisi as Alvin Karp, Channing Tatum as Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd, Stephen Lang as Texas Ranger Charles Winstead, Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover, and many others in film that would require a huge ensemble. Production began in March of 2008 in Wisconsin as Mann wanted to maintain a sense of authenticity to the locations of where Dillinger did his many exploits with additional locations in Indiana and Illinois.

The film would be among the first major Hollywood films to be shot entirely on high-definition digital photography instead of the traditional 35mm as Mann wanted something to be urgent and stylish. Mann and Spinotti also wanted to create something that was against the conventions of gangster films in terms of its realism as Mann also hired production designer Nathan Crowley who had been known for his work with British filmmaker Christopher Nolan who cited Mann as an influence. Mann wanted to use some of the locations that played into Purvis’ pursuit of Dillinger including the alley were Dillinger was killed by Winstead as they would dress it up to what it looked like back then. Mann also wanted to play into the feel of the times in terms of its music as it a way to capture the energy of that period as he, Goldenthal, and a team of music supervisors wanted to find the right piece of music that would have been played in those times.

The film made its premiere in Chicago on June 19, 2009, as it would later screen at the Los Angeles Film Festival a few days later before going wide in the U.S. on July 1, 2009. Despite going against the many blockbusters around that time, the film managed to make $97.1 million in North America with an overall worldwide gross of $214.1 million against its $100 million budget The film would also receive good reviews with some praising the film for its unconventional presentation as well as its ensemble though some criticized the film for being unconventional. Even though some of the criticism was towards its cinematography though Mann was satisfied with the film’s results.

Blackhat

Following a break between projects in which he teamed up with showrunner David Milch in creating the HBO series Luck that revolved around horse races and gambling where Mann shot the show’s pilot for its season premiere in early 2012. The show only lasted one season following the death of three horses as plans for the second season dropped as Mann decided to focus his attention on a new film project which he announced in February of 2013 with writer Morgan Davis Foehl as it relates to the world of cyber hacking as Mann had been intrigued by the subject matter ever since reading about the Stuxnet worm that hacked into one of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges. Mann brought in former hackers in senior editor Kevin Poulsen of Wired News and Christopher McKinlay as consultants to get a sense of realism into the world cyberterrorism and cyber security. Realizing that it is a new world that Mann had not really explored while could also become a fascinating suspense thriller. Mann decided to make the project much bigger as he would shoot the film in Los Angeles as well as Jakarta, Hong Kong, and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

Apart from longtime casting director Bonnie Timmerman, Mann would work with an entirely new crew that included cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh who had recently shot Texas Killing Fields that was directed by Mann’s daughter Ami Canaan Mann. Mann and Dryburgh decided to shoot the film all on digital camera to maintain the sense of realism as well as to keep the budget modestly small at around $70 million. The film’s ensemble cast would be diverse as it would feature Australian actor Chris Hemsworth in the lead as hacker Nicholas Hathaway, Viola Davis, Taiwanese-American actor Leehom Wang, Taiwanese actress Tang Wei, Holt McNally, Ritchie Coster, and Yorick van Wageningen. Production began in May of 2013 on various locations where Mann wanted to give the film a worldly feel as it plays into the world of cyberterrorism and how cyberterrorists would shake the world with the press of a button.

Mann would also bring in production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas who had also worked previously with Christopher Nolan in 2010’s Inception in creating sets in Hong Kong including the nuclear reactor meltdown sequence. Mann also was aware of the complexities of the world of cyber-hacking and cyberterrorism as he went to visual effects supervisors Phil Brennan, Joe Farrell, and John Nelson in creating unique visuals that play into this 21st Century world of a digital universe and how things can destroy a nuclear powerplant or cause disruption in the stock market. Mann would hire Harry Gregson-Williams to provide the score for the film but much of Gregson-Williams’ work would not be used as Mann brought in other music including new score pieces from Atticus and Leopold Ross.

Though there were plans for a late 2014 limited release in consideration for the Oscars, Mann felt the film was not finished as he would create different versions of the film as he shifted sequences in the way he would open the film. Mann would release two different versions of the film in January of 2015 as the first theatrical version was released during one of the worst periods to release a film wide as it bombed badly at the North American box office. The film’s final tally in North America was $4.4 million against its $70 million budget as the film’s distributor Universal pulled the film from wide release after two weeks only to disappear quickly. An international cut that was released worldwide did slightly better giving the film an overall gross of $19.7 million but it did not do enough to save the film financially. Critically, the film was not well-received by many who thought the film was muddled though there were some who did like the film for its exploration of cyberterrorism. More than a year later after its theatrical release, Mann presented a new cut of the film at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of a career retrospective as the new version was well-received as it would be shown on the cable TV channel FX in 2017 as well as getting a home video release on Blu-Ray in November of 2023 through Arrow Video along with its two theatrical releases.

Ferrari

Taking a break between projects in which Mann would produce other films including Ford v Ferrari for James Mangold in 2019 and shooting the pilot for J.T. Rogers crime drama Tokyo Vice in 2022. It was working on Ford v Ferrari where Mann expressed renewed interest in making a film about Enzo Ferrari as it had been a project he had been developing since 2000 with Sydney Pollack collaborating in its development. Mann would also collaborate with writer Troy Kennedy Martin on the film as it would be based on a 1991 biography about Ferrari. Yet, the project would languish during its development as the respective deaths of Pollack in 2008 and Martin in 2009 would halt Mann’s attempts to get the film off the ground. In 2015, Mann would make another attempt on the project with some revisions of Martin’s script by Mann and David Rayfiel as Christian Bale was interested in playing Ferrari only to leave the film over weight requirements as its planned shooting start in summer of 2016 was halted for more than a year when Hugh Jackman expressed interest in playing Ferrari with Noomi Rapace as Laura Ferrari. Unfortunately, the film’s original distributor in Paramount would back out forcing Mann to put the project on hold again.

In June of 2020, STX Entertainment would pick up the project though its development would remain shaky as Jackman left the project in early 2022 as Mann eventually chose Adam Driver in the role of Enzo Ferrari with Penelope Cruz as Laura, Shailene Woodley as Ferrari’s mistress Lina Lardi. Frequent Mann collaborator in casting director Francine Maisler would help Mann in getting other actors involved in the film including Gabriel Leone, Jack O’Connell, Sarah Gadon, and Patrick Dempsey as Mann wanted the film to be set in the province of Modena where the Ferrari headquarters is. While working with a $95 million budget and a new crew that includes cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt and editor Pietro Scalia. Shooting finally began in the summer of 2022 where Mann wanted to maintain that sense of authenticity in not just its location but also creating a moment in time as it relates to Ferrari in the summer of 1957 where was on the brink of bankruptcy while also dealing with personal loss in his life. Even as Mann would place the film in a historical moment for the Ferrari brand as it relates to the Mille Miglia race that Ferrari’s team would win but with some controversy over what happened at the race.

Given Mann’s love towards Ferrari’s cars as he had shot a commercial for the car back in the late 2000s, Mann also wanted to go into detail about Enzo’s love in making cars as well as his relationship with both Laura Ferrari and Lina Lardi with the latter being the mother of Enzo’s son Piero who at the time of production is the vice chairman for Ferrari. Mann also played into the rivalry between Ferrari and Maserati with the latter being a threat to Ferrari in being the car that best represents Italy during the post-war economic boom the country was experiencing. Mann also wanted to play into Laura Ferrari’s importance in the company even though she and Enzo were estranged following the death of their son Dino the year before from muscle dystrophy. Mann also went to sound editors Tony Lamberti and Bernard Weisner as well as sound designer David Werntz to capture the realism of how the engines sounded as he and the technical advisors he hired wanted to make sure that everything felt right.

The film made its world premiere at the 2023 Venice Film Festival on August 31, 2023, where it was well-received at the festival while it would be released in the U.S. on Christmas Day of that year through its U.S. distributor Neon with STX Entertainment releasing worldwide in the next year. The film would receive excellent reviews with Penelope Cruz getting a lot of rave reviews for her performance. Despite being voted as one of the 10 best films of the year by the National Board of Review, the film was overlooked during the awards season while only grossing $43.3 million worldwide against its $95 million budget. Still, Mann considered it a success as he felt the film did better than he expected it to be both financially and to his own expectations.

Heat 2/Veteran

With many other projects either in development or in the works, there are two projects that are in the running on what Mann will do next as the first of which is a sequel to the 1995 film Heat. In 2022, Mann and writer Meg Gardiner released a novelization of the sequel that is both a prequel set in the late 1980s and a sequel with a part of the story set in the aftermath of the events in the film. It is a story filled with complexities as it plays into the lives of Neil McCauley, Vincent Hanna, and Chris Shiherlis before the events of the film and the events after where Hanna pursues Shiherlis as some of the action is set in Mexico. While the project is currently in development with Adam Driver, Austin Butler, Ana de Armas, Jeremy Allen White, and Channing Tatum attached along with Al Pacino reprising the role of Vincent Hanna even though he is in his 80s. The film would mark Mann’s first film to be shot on film since Ali as a way for Mann to replicate the look of the original film as he hopes to have it for a possible 2025 release. Another project that is in the works is a remake of Ryoo Seung-wan’s 2015 film Veteran about a police detective who pursues a corporate executive who is secretly running a crime syndicate as he is about to inherit his own corporate empire. Although the project is made with South Korea’s CJ ENM film/TV conglomerate, not much has been said about the project that remains in development though Mann hopes to make the film after he finishes Heat 2.

Unrealized Film Projects

Throughout Mann’s career, there have been many projects that never got off the ground as well as films he had been attached to only to helmed by other filmmakers such as the Howard Hughes bio-pic The Aviator that was directed by Martin Scorsese and released in 2004 though Mann was credited as a producer and won a BAFTA for Best Film as one of its producers. Still, there had been a lot of projects that he had pitched or tried to get off the ground since the 1970s such as an adaptation of Pete Hamill’s novel Dirty Laundry and a project about the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia where one of the largest productions of heroin had been created. In the 1990s, Mann was attached to helming Good Will Hunting only for the project to be directed by Gus Van Sant in 1997 while other projects included bio-pics on James Dean, Armenian arms merchant Sarkis Soghanalian, and Hollywood detective Anthony Pellicano.

During the 21st Century, Mann had tried to develop a bio-pic on Julius Caesar with Tom Hanks in the role along with stories about the Hatfield & McCoy feud from a script by Eric Roth that was to feature Brad Pitt. Other projects included stories about Cynthia Ann Parker, Tony Accardo, Billy Fiske, and arms dealer Viktor Bout as they were projects with big films stars attached to them. Yet, these were among many films that never passed the development stage as is often common in the film industry with Mann being one of many filmmakers who tried to get these films made to keep themselves working in the industry.

Having been in the film and TV industry since the early 1970s and with a few projects in development including Heat 2. There is no question about Michael Mann’s status as one of the great filmmakers working today in cinema right now as he has already made a body of work that continues to influence many. Whether it is through crime films, compelling character studies, or films about men trying to maintain control in their lives. They always have something to offer that does not match the conventions expected in Hollywood films though Mann has used the Hollywood system to make films his way through varying degrees of success. What sets him apart from other filmmakers is his emphasis on realism as lesser filmmakers prefer to rely on artificiality to get audiences engaged. That is not what Mann does as he does not just want to engage the audiences but also get them to be invested in things that is like what is happening in the real world. That is why Michael Mann is one of the best filmmakers the world of cinema has right now.

Part 1

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