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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Among the key filmmakers who would emerge in the final years of New Hollywood and then be a key figure in the world of crime films and television into the 21st Century, Michael Mann is a filmmaker who has a unique visual style but also an approach that is gritty and intense. Even as he would often make films that often push the edge of what could be told visually while also exploring stories of men who are often in a place where they have no control as well as showing their obsessions of being in control or to reach a goal. While much of his work is based on crime and suspense, Mann has also flirted with other genres to reveal so much more to him as he’s about story and characters rather than sticking to one genre and a medium as he also is known for his work in television such as developing the hit 1980s show Miami Vice. Most recently, Mann has also become a novelist writing a sequel to his 1995 film Heat which will become his next feature film.
Part 1 (1943-1999)
Born on February 3, 1943, in Chicago, Illinois, Michael Kenneth Mann was the son of Jack and Esther Mann as his father was a Russian-Jewish immigrant who went to America in 1922 a decade after Mann’s grandparents had fled Russia. Jack Mann fought in World War II and, like his father before him, saw the horrors of war as the young Mann would find support from his family in his interest in film. Yet, Mann’s environment in Chicago would also take notice of the crime underworld that had occurred in the decades before which also played into Mann’s interest in crime and suspense. Notably as he reads about the stories of gangsters running wild during the days of Prohibition with Chicago being a prominent backdrop where Mann would learn more about these stories from people in the city.
After graduating from Roald Amundsen High School in the early 1960s, the same school that had another famous alumnus in Bob Fosse, Mann attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study literature. Still, Mann’s interest in film would grow as he graduated in 1965 with a bachelor’s degree as he would then attend the London Film School in London where he would discover more about cinema. Notably a different array of films from all over the world including the films of Sergei Eisenstein, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Stanley Kubrick, and Jean-Pierre Melville. In 1967, Mann would graduate with a master’s degree from the school as he would spend much of his time in Britain directing commercials as well as a few documentary shorts including shooting footage of the events of May of 1968 in Paris for a short film called Insurrection that would appear on a new program for NBC in the U.S. Mann would re-cut his short and would re-title it as Jaunpuri where it premiered at the 1970s Cannes Film Festival where it would win the festival’s jury prize in its short film section.
Jaunpuri would be among one of two early short films of Mann that are not available publicly as only two copies were made with one owned by Mann and other belonging to the American Film Institute. The other short Mann made in the early 1970s was a road documentary called 17 Days Down the Line that starred Marvin Kupfer as it would be this short film where a man travels from the American east coast to the west coast in 17 days. Mann would make the film around the time his first marriage had ended while he would meet a woman named Summer whom he would marry in 1974 as they would have a family including his daughter Ami Canaan Mann who would later become a filmmaker for both film and television in the 2000s and beyond. It would be around this time that Mann’s career would start to rise in meeting TV writer Robert Lewin who would teach Mann how to write scripts as Mann would write for TV shows such as Starsky & Hutch and the pilot for a show called Vega$ that he would create but clashes with the network and the pilot’s director Richard Lang forced him to leave the show.
While writing for the TV series Police Story in 1976 in its third season with a few more in its next two seasons, Mann would take part in a re-writing an adaptation of Edward Bunker’s novel No Beast So Fierce into a film project that would later become Straight Time by Ulu Grosbard with a script written by Bunker, Jeffrey Boam, and Alvin Sargent starring Dustin Hoffman. Mann would not receive credit for his work yet the research from Bunker’s book would allow him to create a project that would become his first feature film.
Despite not receiving credit for re-writing Straight Time, Mann was able to get his foot in the door as he was selected to make a TV movie for ABC in Swan Song starring David Soul about a skier, but the project was delayed due to Soul recuperating from a spinal injury. Due to the research, he had used for the script to Straight Time, Mann would get a script by Patrick J. Nolan about a prisoner serving a life sentence yet gets attention for his running as he gets the chance to get a spot at the upcoming 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. Mann would collaborate with Nolan in creating a new script that would also play into prison politics within different race factions. With the support of producer Tim Zinnemann, who was also the producer for Straight Time, Mann would be given a $60,000 budget to make the TV film as Mann would shoot the film on location at Folsom Prison.
With a crew that included cinematographer Rexford L. Metz, editor Arthur Schmidt, art director Stephen Myles Berger, and music composer Jimmie Haskell, Mann would also utilize real prison inmates at Folsom State Prison to use as actors to give the film an extra ounce of realism with help from Eddie Bunker in sorting out whatever issues happening with real-life prison factions for the time. It would be a method that Mann would use prominently in all his films while he still also used real actors with Peter Strauss in the lead role of Larry Murphy and an ensemble cast that would include noted character actors in Geoffrey Lewis, Billy Green Bush, Ed Lauter, and Brian Dennehy. Mann also brought in former convict turned playwright Miguel Pinero to play the leader of the Latin gang faction as he was proven to be immensely popular with the inmates at Folsom where it helped make the production easier to deal with. Still, Mann wanted to tell a story about this man who is dealing with his actions and wants to do his time while he proves that he has what it takes to be in the Olympics.
Still, Mann does highlight that a place like Folsom State Prison could be considered a place of peace in comparison to the chaos in the real world where the film’s post-climax following Murphy’s trial run deals with the rigidness of bureaucracy in the International Olympic Committee. Even as it displays that the IOC cared more about their image than Murphy’s chances where its ending symbolizes Murphy taking control of his own time in his running where Mann creates this great final image of a stopwatch being thrown at a prison wall where it smashes to pieces. The film premiered on NBC on March 18, 1979, where it was ranked 7th that week in the Nielsen ratings against many regular shows airing at that time. The film would get a theatrical release in Britain followed by various film festival screenings in Europe where the film would receive good reviews. The film would receive three Emmy awards for its editing, teleplay, and an acting award to Peter Strauss while Mann would also receive an award from the Director’s Guild of America.
Mann’s success in television would give him some influence in getting projects made where he wanted to continue his venture into film as the research, he had made for his last film prompted him to do something more cinematic. Notably as he read Frank Homier’s memoir about his life as a thief that inspired him to write a new screenplay that would be about an ex-con safecracker who agrees to do one more job in a diamond heist only to realize that he cannot escape the criminal life. Through the research he had done in his previous film as well as his own experiences reading about Chicago’s history with crime to create something that is filled with a lot of diligence in how heists are created and the step-by-step work into breaking a safe. The script attracted the attention of actor James Caan who agreed to do research for Mann on the life of being a thief where Cann starred in the film with his brother Ronnie serving as a producer where he would share duties with Jerry Bruckheimer who had been rising the ranks in the film industry before he would become a key player in Hollywood with Don Simpson in the kind of films that would later define 1980s blockbuster cinema.
With Caan taking the lead role of Frank with Tuesday Weld as his love interest Jessie, Mann brought in Vic Ramos to manage the casting as it would include James Belushi as Frank’s partner Barry as it would be his film debut. The film would also feature several actors that Mann would continuously work with in the coming years that would include William Petersen, Dennis Farina, and Robert Prosky as the crime boss Leo that Mann based the character on real-life mob figures in Felix Alderisio and Leo Rugendorf and country music singer Willie Nelson as Frank's friend Okla. Production would be based in Chicago with additional locations in Los Angeles as he gained the services of cinematographer Donald E. Thorin, production designer Mel Bourne, and editor Dov Hoenig who would become a recurring collaborator for Mann. Mann also brought in former criminals as technical advisors to help bring in some authenticity in how criminals perform heists.
Much of Mann’s direction and approach to the visuals would often have him shooting scenes at night to play into the sense of atmosphere with Thorin’s camera work adding some unique lighting as it would be a style that would define a look for the 1980s. It would also be a style that Mann would often utilize for the entirety of his work in the years to come. Even as his approach to suspense would add to his continuous exploration of men trying to maintain some control in their lives only to encounter something that they have no control of. It would be something that the character of Frank would endure once he realizes his life has no control as it plays into a level of violence that is intense but with an element of realism. For the film’s music, Mann wanted Chicago-based blues for the film but realized that it would not be enough since that is the music that only Frank listens to where Mann needed another style of music that would play into the drama and suspense. He would hire the German electronic group Tangerine Dream, who had previously did score music for William Friedkin’s 1977 film Sorcerer, as they would create sound textures and moods that gave Mann what he wanted.
The film premiered in the U.S. in March of 1981 through United Artists where the film did modestly at the box office making $4.3 million against its $5.5 million budget in the U.S. yet it would gross over $11.5 million following its European premiere at the Cannes Film Festival that May in competition for the Palme d’Or. Though the film did not receive any accolades other than an undeserving nomination from the Razzies for Worst Musical Score. It would gain considerable praise in the years to come as it would help solidify Mann as a filmmaker to watch out for.
After gaining some clout with Thief and through his work with television, Mann was able to get funding for his next project with the help of producers Gene Kirkwood and Howard M. Koch Jr. in an adaptation of F. Paul Wilson’s novel The Keep about a group of Nazi soldiers who go to a fortress in Romania where an unknown entity is about to break out and wreaking havoc on everyone. While horror was a genre Mann is unfamiliar with, he decided to take the chance since the film is set during World War II, and it would be something different. With editor Dov Hoenig and Tangerine Dream taking part on the project as well as Robert Prosky in a role as the Romanian priest Father Mihail Fonescu. Mann would also gain the services of Alex Thomson who had just received acclaimed for his work in John Boorman’s Excalibur as well as shooting Nicolas Roeg’s 1983 film Eureka. Another key figure Mann would get for the film’s visual effects in Wally Veevers who had also worked on Excalibur as well as doing lots of special effects for films like Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Strangelove.
With a cast that would include Scott Glenn, Ian McKellan, Gabriel Byrne, Jorgen Prochnow, W. Morgan Sheppard, and Alberta Watson, shooting began in the fall of 1982 in Wales as well as some interior scenes shot at Shepperton Studios in London with a secondary crew shooting some scenes in Spain as Nazi-occupied Greece. The shooting that was meant for 13 weeks expanded to 22 due to the Welsh weather as Mann and Thomson shot a lot of footage as well as material that Veevers would need for the visual effects. Despite some of the bad weather, the shoot was pleasant as Mann received the services of historian Andrew Mollo as a consultant in wanting to maintain an authentic look of the Nazi uniforms where Prochnow and Byrne played Nazi leaders who go into conflict with each other with the former realizing that the monster they’re dealing with a reflection of the Nazi ideology that he would renounce.
After some reshoots were completed in early 1983, the film’s post-production began but the sudden death of Wally Veevers put everything on hold as special effects supervisor Nick Allder, effects designer Nick Maley, and visual effects supervisor Robin Browne into a tough position with Mann having to be more involved with the visual effects. Mann’s original ending for the film, involving a climatic fight between Scott Glenn’s character Glaeken Trismegestus and the monster had to be simplified as the budget had escalated into $6 million which made the executives at Paramount Pictures unhappy. Mann would finish the film with a running time of 220-minutes which made Paramount unhappy as Mann did agree to cut the film into a length of two hours with the film’s original release date of June 13, 1983, pushed to December where test screenings followed. The test screenings were disastrous, forcing executives at Paramount to take over and re-cut the film themselves against Mann’s wishes as he was pushed out of the film as it was re-cut again into its final 96-minute film version.
Released on December 16, 1983, in a limited theatrical release, the film bombed at the box office grossing only $4.2 million against its $6 million budget with reviews being lukewarm with critics taking shot at the film’s confusing story, sound mixing, and visual effects. Mann was hardened by the experience of the film although the film would gain a cult following with some wanting Mann to go back to the film and release his version. In the years since its release, Mann in interviews had stated he had no interest in reconstructing his original version as fans still want a director’s cut of the film as of 2024 with a petition created in 2022 made for that version to be released.
Following the horrible experience over the release of The Keep, Mann retreated to the world of television where he would become a showrunner for one of the 1980s most popular TV series in Miami Vice when it premiered in September of 1984. Another show Mann got involved in is Crime Story which he also had a hand in as an executive producer as he got Dennis Farina a lead role in the TV series even though it only lasted two seasons. Mann’s work as a producer would give him the chance to make another film as Italian film producer Dino de Laurentiis asked him to create an adaptation of Thomas Harris’ novel Red Dragon. The film was meant to be directed by David Lynch who turned down the project following his own troubled experience with de Laurentiis in the 1984 film Dune. Mann agreed to take on the project while also agreeing to de Laurentiis’ request in giving the adaptation a new title.
Bringing in his collaborators in editor Dov Hoenig and production designer Mel Bourne, Mann received the services of cinematographer Dante Spinotti who would become another recurring collaborator along with casting director Bonnie Timmerman. Timmerman’s casting would be crucial as Mann brought in William Petersen for the lead role of retired FBI profiler Will Graham as well as Farina in the role of Graham’s friend/supervisor Jack Crawford and Stephen Lang from Crime Story as tabloid reporter Freddy Lounds. For the role of the killer known as the Tooth Fairy/Francis Dollarhyde, Tom Noonan was cast as the ensemble would also include Kim Griest as Graham’s wife and Joan Allen as Dollarhyde’s blind love interest Reba McClane who would work with the New York Institute for the Blind to play a blind woman. One key role in the film that is crucial to Harris’ novel and subsequent works is the character of Dr. Hannibal Lecktor as several actors including John Lithgow, Mandy Pantinkin, and Brian Dennehy auditioned though Dennehy told Mann to audition Scottish actor Brian Cox for the role as Mann ultimately casted Cox who would base his performance on Scottish serial killer Peter Manuel.
Shooting began in 1985 on various locations such Atlanta, Miami, Chicago, St. Louis, Washington D.C., and areas in Alabama to give the film a sense of urgency into Will Graham’s pursuit of this mysterious killer. Even as Petersen spent some time with the Chicago Police Department to prepare for the role, Noonan would isolate himself throughout the production to make Dollarhyde a fearsome character. While Cox only appeared in three scenes in the film, Mann wanted to maintain this presence of Dr. Lecktor as the man that pushed Graham to the edge as there’s a simple scene where Graham is at a supermarket talking to his son about what happened to him while not revealing too much as it showcases the mental descent that Graham went through. Mann also wanted the film to have a unique look as a lot of it was shot at night when Spinotti created some unique visuals including the usage of blue lights to create a mood for the film.
For its soundtrack, Mann hired Michel Rubini and the group the Reds for the film’s score while its soundtrack would feature an array of music ranging from ambient, new wave, and rock music from Red 7, the Prime Movers, and Shreikback while Mann also go to use Iron Butterfly’s In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida for the film’s climax. Released on August 15, 1986, the film received mixed reviews from critics with some praising the visuals while some thought it was too stylish like Mann’s work on Miami Vice. Commercially, the film only grossed $8.6 million against its $14-$15 million budget as it was another commercial disappointment for Mann. Yet, the film’s reputation would grow following the release of Jonathan Demme’s 1991 adaptation of Harris’ novel The Silence of the Lambs that won Best Picture at Oscars as well as a Best Actor Oscar to Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter. The film would be remade in its original title in 2002 by Brett Ratner to mixed reaction despite also being shot by Dante Spinotti as it only made Mann’s film be seen as a classic.
Returning to television after another commercial flop, Mann would retrieve a script he had written in the late 1970s based on the works of former Chicago police officer Chuck Adamson whom Mann hired as a consultant in his TV projects. Mann offered the script to Walter Hill in the early 1980s who politely declined until NBC in the late 1980s wanted Mann to create a new TV pilot for a TV series. Mann would use this script about police detective and his conflict with a criminal who is trying to find a fellow robber who had been killing other people. Mann wanted to create something to something set in Los Angeles involving its robbery-homicide division, but NBC decided to not pick up the series when Mann decided to cast Scott Plank in the lead role of Sgt. Vincent Hanna though they would allow Mann to shoot the project as a TV film. With only 10 days in pre-production and a 19-day shooting schedule which was unusual for Mann, he would gather editor Dov Hoenig and casting director Bonnie Timmerman for the project while also hiring Ronald Victor Garcia to shoot the TV movie. For its cast, Mann and Timmerman would use actors who had been working on several of Mann’s TV shows including Plank and Alex McArthur as the professional criminal Patrick McLaren.
The ensemble would also include Michael Rooker, Daniel Baldwin, Ely Pouget, and Xander Berkeley in the role of the wildcard criminal Waingro. Production began in late 1988 where Mann would shoot on location in Los Angeles as he would use his limited schedule to maintain something that is like guerilla filmmaking as he had done previously for some scenes in Manhunter. Notably as it gave the film something that is not often seen in TV movies where Mann wanted to create something that is intense. Tim Truman would be on board to score the music as he would create an ambient score like the music that Mann had used in previous films while would gain access to an early mix of Billy Idol’s cover of the Doors song L.A. Woman. The TV film premiered in August of 1989 where it received some good reviews though some critics complained that it was too much like Miami Vice as it was style over substance. The film would gain some positive notices when it arrived in Europe a year later as Mann would take some time off to help develop the TV miniseries Drug Wars: The Camarena Story in 1990.
With the 80s ending with Mann having already achieved a lot in television though remained unfulfilled with his career in film having made several features that were not financially successful. Going back to a film he loved as a child in an adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper novel The Last of the Mohicans from 1936 by George B. Seitz starring Randolph Scott, Binnie Barnes, and Henry Wilcoxon. Having bought the rights for the novel while also gaining access to the 1936 script written by John L. Balderston, Paul Perez, and Daniel Moore. It was a project that Mann had been developing since the late 1980s with co-writer Christopher Crowe as he brought to the project to then-20th Century Fox chairman Joe Roth about making a new film version of the story being that it would be the 12th time Cooper’s story had been adapted into film. Even through the many details about Cooper and material relating to that period of the French & Indian War in the mid-18th Century in North America where Mann wanted to get things right. Roth agreed to get the film greenlit as Mann was given a $24 million initial budget to get the film made.
For the lead role of Nathaniel “Hawkeye” Poe, Mann wanted British actor Daniel Day-Lewis for the role despite the studio’s belief that he is not a box office attraction, yet Mann would win that battle. With the help of his casting director Bonnie Timmerman, the ensemble would include Madeleine Stowe as Cora Munro, British actress Jodhi May as her younger sister Alice, Steven Waddington as Major Duncan Heyward, Russell Means as Poe’s adopted father Chingachgook, Eric Schweig as Chingachgook’s son Uncas, Maurice Roeves as Colonel Munro, Patrice Chereau as General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, and Wes Studi as Magua. Wanting to maintain some authenticity, Mann would have actors do some boot camp training to get ready for the physical demands of the film while also wanting to shoot on location at the Adirondack Mountains at upstate New York though the locations did not have the right look forcing the production to shoot at the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina.
The production began in the spring of 1991 though it was a difficult one due to Mann’s meticulous diligence while his original cinematographer in Douglas Milsome did not give Mann the look that he wanted as he was fired in favor of Dante Spinotti while also retaining Dov Hoenig to edit the film with Arthur Schmidt. Weather conditions, arguments with Union-based film crews, and other issues would plague the production as Mann would pull through not wanting to go over the same experiences he had with The Keep. Mann also amended the script as he would deviate from the source material while also doing more work to make Cora’s character much stronger which would please Stowe who had initial reservations in doing the film as well as how Cora was portrayed in Cooper’s book. After shooting finished in late 1991, Mann would work on the film with Hoenig and Schmidt while also going on another unusual route for the film’s music in hiring Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman to create an orchestral based score filled with bombastic percussions and woodwind as it marked a major change in Mann’s output.
Despite some battles with Roth over the final cut as well as a budget that escalated into $40 million, the film was released in France in late August of 1992 followed by its U.S. release a month later. The film would prove to be a surprising success critically and commercially as it would gross more than $143 million at the box office, giving Mann his first major commercially successful film. The film would also garner several critical notices and accolades including 7 British Academy Award nominations where it would win awards for Spinotti’s cinematography and the make-up work of Peter Robb-King. The film would yield an Oscar win for its sound work to Chris Jenkins, Mark Hemphill, Mark Smith, and Simon Kaye. Since its release, Mann would recut the film by expanding it from its 112-minute theatrical release to 117 minutes for its initial DVD release in November of 1999 and then trim it to 114 minutes for its Blu-Ray release in 2010.
The success of The Last of the Mohicans gave Mann some newfound power in whatever project he wanted to do as plans to make a film about James Dean fell apart as he went back to the script for L.A. Takedown and revised it into something much bigger. Notably as he felt the original TV movie only had the potential in what he wanted to do as he realized that TV was not the right medium to tell this story. Even as he brought the project to producer Art Linson who would share production duties with Mann gathering the research he had in making L.A. Takedown as a lot of it was based on the real-life exploits of Neil McCauley who was a master criminal that also served time in Alcatraz as Mann would name that character as one of the protagonists while the detective character in Lieutenant Vincent Hanna was also based on a real-life detective in Chuck Adamson as Mann learned that both Adamson and McCauley had met one time for a cup of coffee before a major robbery in the 1960s where the two men faced off with McCauley killed in the robbery.
Realizing the limitations that he had to work with for L.A. Takedown, Mann was given much more for his new version of the story as he would also expand some of the storylines as well as a minor character from the TV movie who would a major supporting player for Neil McCauley in Chris Shiherlis as Mann and his casting director Bonnie Timmerman offered the part to Keanu Reeves. Reeves turned it down as he was doing Hamlet for the Manitoba Theatre Centre in Canada as the part would be given to Val Kilmer. For the roles of Lt. Hanna and McCauley, Robert de Niro was offered the role for the latter which he accepted as he showed the script to fellow actor Al Pacino who lobbied for the role of the former as Mann did the impossible in having both Pacino and de Niro in the same film acting together. The cast would also include Diane Venora, Amy Brenneman, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Danny Trejo, Ashley Judd, William Fichtner, Natalie Portman, Hank Azaria, Mykelti T. Williamson, Wes Studi, Tom Noonan, and Xander Berkeley playing a different character instead of the rogue criminal Waingro which he had played in L.A. Takedown as that part was given to Kevin Gage.
Retaining Dante Spinotti for his cinematography as a Dov Hoenig to co-edit the film as it would be the last film him and Mann would work together as Hoenig was in his 60s as he would be aided by three other editors in Pasquale Buba, William Goldenberg, and Tom Rolf. Shooting began on location in Los Angeles in the summer of 1995 on a 107-day shoot which was preceded by de Niro, Kilmer, and Sizemore visiting Folsom Prison during pre-production to understand the intricacies of the criminal role. The shooting was intense as Mann avoided shooting everything on a soundstage and shoot on location with some of the interiors of the homes that the characters lived in designed by production designer Neil Spisak, set decorator Anne H. Ahrens, and art director Maggie Stone McShirley. Mann also emphasized on a guerilla style of filmmaking in his approach to shooting on location while also using multiple angles from afar and up-close to play into the drama and suspense.
After principal photography was completed, Mann, along with his editors and sound team consisting of sound editors Per Hallberg and Larry Kemp and sound designer Peter Michael Sullivan in wanting to create something realistic that plays into the suspense and drama. For the film’s music, Mann went to Elliot Goldenthal for the score as he mixed elements of ambient music with orchestral textures while Budd Carr would also give Mann a soundtrack filled with an array of music that fit in with the suspense and drama. Even as Mann would receive music from the U2/Brian Eno side project the Passengers as well as an instrumental cover of Joy Division’s New Dawn Fades by Moby who would also contribute another instrumental cut to the film.
The film made its premiere on December 15, 1995, during an intense holiday film season against such popular family films at the time in Jumanji by Joe Johnston and Pixar’s first feature-length film in Toy Story. Despite its intense competition, the film managed to gross more than $64 million in the U.S. against its final $60 million budget with an overall worldwide of $187 million. While it did give Mann another commercial hit, the film was also praised by critics despite not receiving many awards and critics prizes other than two Saturn Award nominations for Best Action/Adventure film and Best Supporting Actor to Val Kilmer. The film would have a cultural impact on popular culture with video games such as Grand Theft Auto being inspired by the film’s action while Christopher Nolan would cite the film as a key influence for his approach to action and suspense for his Dark Knight trilogy.
After a break between projects, Mann read an article from Vanity Fair by Marie Brenner about Dr. Jeffrey Wigand who worked as a science executive for Brown & Williamson who became a whistleblower over his discovery into the kind of chemicals they put in cigarettes that he believed is harmful to the public. Dr. Wigand would tell his story in 60 Minutes in 1996 despite the many battles that Dr. Wigand and CBS had to deal with as Mann thought it would be an interesting idea for his next film. While preparing research for the film, Mann also read Eric Roth’s script for The Good Shepherd about the founding of the CIA as he asked Roth to help him write a script on this project about Dr. Wigand. Roth agreed as he had just won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 1994 film Forrest Gump as he would also gather transcripts and material Mann needed for the film while Roth was also friends with then former 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman who produced the story about Dr. Wigand.
While Roth and Mann would also meet Dr. Wigand, their encounter with him was not what they expected since Dr. Wigand was under a confidentiality agreement that he could not break as well as the fact that Dr. Wigand was not as accessible towards them. Still, Roth and Mann wanted to present him in a fair way with the script as the latter was hoping to get Val Kilmer to play the role, yet it was producer Pieter Jan Brugge who suggested that Mann should get Australian actors Russell Crowe for the role after the buzz he had received for his work in Curtis Hanson’s adaptation of the James Ellroy novel L.A. Confidential. Crowe agreed to play Dr. Wigand even though he was in his early 30s and was too young to play Dr. Wigand yet did agree to do some extensive makeup and gain 35 pounds for the role. In the role of Lowell Bergman, Al Pacino agreed to work with Mann once again as he and Mann did considerable research into the world of journalism to gain some authenticity into what they needed to do.
With an ensemble that would include Debi Mazar, Michael Gambon, Colm Feore, Gina Gershon, Stephen Tobolowsky, Lindsay Crouse, Cliff Curtis, and Diane Venora who would play Dr. Wigand’s wife. For the role of 60 Minutes host Mike Wallace, Pacino suggested Christopher Plummer for the role as production began in late 1998/early 1999 with Dante Spinotti serving as the film’s cinematographer. Mann would shoot the film on multiple locations while he and his crew would also shoot the deposition scene on the actual court room in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The film’s initial budget at $68 million would balloon to $90 million due to Mann’s meticulous direction in wanting to maintain some realism in the film. Even as he would explore the corporate politics that nearly blocked this story from airing to the public as it would lead to Bergman’s departure from CBS after the story was finally aired in the mid-1990s. Mann also realized in his discoveries of what CBS went through in dealing with Brown & Williamson and other corporate entities as it played into a major change of what news had been in the 20th Century and what it would become in the next century.
The film premiered on November 5, 1999, by Touchstone Pictures, the film was released to rave reviews where Mann received the best reviews of his career as well as the film won 4 awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association for Best Film, Best Actor to Russell Crowe, Best Supporting Actor to Christopher Plummer, and Best Cinematography to Dante Spinotti. Despite the acclaim he would receive from critics and few other critics prizes, the film was not a financial success because it had a limited appeal during a season of blockbusters, family films, and other potential awards-bait films. Still, the film would receive seven Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director for Mann, Best Actor to Crowe, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound. Although it was not a financial success, Mann was able to end his 20th Century on a creative and personal high while looking ahead to what is next in the new century.
Based on the book Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races, the Machine by Brock Yates, Ferrari is the film about the Italian car manufacturer during a moment in time when his company is facing bankruptcy while mourning the loss of his son and his wife discovering about an affair that yielded another son with an upcoming race being a make-or-break moment for the company. Directed by Michael Mann and screenplay by Troy Kennedy Martin, the film is about a year in Ferrari’s life as he deals with the chaos around him as well as a crumbling marriage as well as trying to save something he had built a decade ago with Adam Driver playing the role of Enzo Ferrari. Also starring Penelope Cruz, Shailene Woodley, Sarah Gadon, Gabriel Leone, Jack O’Connell, and Patrick Dempsey. Ferrari is a rapturous and gripping film by Michael Mann.
Set in the summer of 1957, the film revolves around a crucial period in the life of Italian car manufacturer Enzo Ferrari as he deals with his company going into bankruptcy with a race set to start as he also deals with trying to shield his wife over the fact that he has another child in his relationship with his mistress. It is a film that plays into a man who is trying to maintain some control in his life even though his relationship with his wife Laura (Penelope Cruz) is crumbling even though she continues to handle the business end of their company where she would make a discovery about certain finances that have been kept from her. All this plays during a time where Ferrari and his team are trying to refine and perfect their Formula One car for the upcoming Mille Miglia race with the rival company Maserati trying to steal all the attention from Ferrari. The film’s screenplay by Troy Kennedy Martin, with additional work by Michael Mann and David Rayfiel, is straightforward in its narrative as it focuses on this summer of 1957 as it had been a decade since the founding of the company but also one year since the death of Enzo and Laura’s son Dino.
Throughout the film, Ferrari focuses on perfecting his car while he spends time with Laura for business as well as his mistress Lina Lida (Shailene Woodley) and their son Piero (Giuseppe Festinese) who lives in another house away from the city of Modena. The arrival of Spanish racer Alfonso de Portago (Gabriel Leone) would give Ferrari some new blood for his racing team that includes the veteran Piero Taruffi (Patrick Dempsey) and the British racer Peter Collins (Jack O’Connell) though Ferrari is uneasy over the fact that de Portago is dating actress Linda Christian (Sarah Gadon) as he believes that drivers accompanied by women are cursed. The film’s script also play into the drama in a brief flashback montage of Ferrari’s life with Laura early on with their son Dino but also how Ferrari saw Lina just in the aftermath of World War II as he met her during that time. It would play into this drama that would occur where Ferrari considers doing a partnership with either Fiat or Ford to resolve any of the financial matters while also making a deal with Laura over its future.
Mann’s direction is stylish in the way he opens the film with black-and-white stock footage with a young Ferrari driving his car in the race as it plays into a man who was a decent racer but knew a lot about cars. Shot on various locations in the city of Modena and Brescia as well as additional shots in Rome and parts of Northern Italy. Mann creates a film that plays into this crucial period just more than a decade after World War II ended as Ferrari is part of the reason for the post-war economic boom. Yet, Mann would infuse a lot of unique visuals to play into the drama as well as these intense moments during the driving scenes where Mann’s usage of the close-ups and the small details to locations and how fast a car was back in 1957 showcase a lot into what Ferrari wants as well as wanting to push the envelope of what can be done in racing. While there are some wide shots of the various locations including the scale of the races including Mille Miglia. Mann would emphasize close-ups and medium shots to play into the drama and the suspense in the film as it relates to Ferrari’s personal life such as Laura driving up to the home where Lida lives in as well as an opera scene that leads to a montage of flashbacks.
The racing scenes has Mann at his most meticulous where he plays into what the mechanics, engineers, and others do to ensure that not only the car works but also to ensure that nothing goes wrong. Even as the film’s third act that revolves around the Mille Miglia where Mann also goes into detail of the race itself as it is this open-road endurance race that goes on for a thousand miles throughout Italy. There is a key sequence in the film that does play into what happened at the race where it would have Ferrari face a lot of things over what had happened. It adds to the drama of a man that is trying to save his company where it would be Laura who would decide about what to do for the company but also in his personal life as it relates to Lida and Piero. Overall, Mann crafts an exhilarating and somber film about a period in the life of one of the greatest car manufacturers of the 20th Century.
Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt does brilliant work with the film’s cinematography with its usage of natural lighting for many of the daytime exterior scenes as well as some unique lighting schemes and textures for the interior/exterior scenes at night. Editor Pietro Scalia does excellent work with the editing with its usage of jump-cuts as well as some montages and allowing shots to linger to create some rhythmic cuts to add some intensity to the drama. Production designer Maria Djurkovic, with set decorator Sophie Phillips and supervising art director Stephan O. Gessler, does amazing work with the look of the home where the Ferraris live in as well as the villa that Lida and Piero live in and the raceway and factory that Ferrari works at. Costume designer Massimo Cantini Parrini does fantastic work with the costumes in the suits that Ferrari wears as well as the stylish dresses that the women wear at that time.
Hair & makeup designer Aldo Signoretti does terrific work with the look of the characters from the hairstyle of Ferrari including how he and his wife looked more than a decade ago along with the look of Taruffi with his white-haired look. Special effects supervisor Uli Nefzer and visual effects supervisor David Sewell do superb work with the visual effects from the opening shots of the film to the car crash scenes in the film. Sound editors Tony Lamberti and Bernard Weisner, along with sound designer David Werntz, do incredible work with the sound in the way an engine sounds up close and from afar as well as the way crowds are heard and other sparse sounds as it is a major highlight of the film. The film’s music by Daniel Pemberton is wonderful for its mixture of orchestral bombast along with some somber themes to play into the drama with the rest of its soundtrack featuring the Italian pop music of the time as well as opera music and other score pieces from Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke.
The casting by Francine Maisler is marvelous as it feature some notable small roles from Benedetto Benedetti as the Ferraris’ late son Dino, Gabriel Noto and Edoardo Beraldi as the younger versions of Dino from the flashbacks, Daniela Piperno as Ferrari’s mother who doesn’t like Laura, Jonathan Burteaux as King Hussein of Jordan who is at the Ferrari offices to buy a car, Ben Collins and Wyatt Carnell as a couple of Ferrari team drivers in Stirling Moss and Wolfgang von Trips respectively, Tommaso Basili as Fiat’s head Gianni Agnelli, Marino Franchitti as a Ferrari driver in Eugenio Castellotti, Valentina Belle as Castellotti’s girlfriend Cecilia Manzini, Giuseppe Bonifati as an executive at Ferrari, Domenico Fortunato as Maserati owner Adolfo Orsi, Lino Musella as car designer Sergio Scaglietti, Michele Savoia as engine designer Carlo Chiti, and Giuseppe Festinese as Ferrari and Lina Lida’s son Piero who begins to understand his identity while also interested in his father’s work as he would eventually become the vice chairman of Ferrari.
Sarah Gadon is fantastic in a small role as the actress Linda Christian who is also de Portago’s girlfriend at the time where she helps bring in some publicity but also a moment that would be remembered in infamy. Jack O’Connell is excellent as Peter Collins as the British driver who works for Ferrari as he is a skilled driver that prefers to keep his own personal life at a distance during racing season. Patrick Dempsey is brilliant as Piero Taruffi as a veteran driver who knows about what to do while also is an eccentric that likes to smoke while driving as Dempsey brings a lot of charm despite the awful hairdo he had to sport. Gabriel Leone is amazing as Alfonso de Portago as a Spanish driver who would join Ferrari as he is someone that knows how to beat the drivers at Maserati while is also determined to prove his worth despite having Christian around him. Shailene Woodley is incredible as Lina Lardi as Ferrari’s mistress whom he had met back in World War II as she is also the mother of their son Piero as she is concerned with her son being called Ferrari while also making sure that Enzo remains grounded despite not having met Laura.
Penelope Cruz is tremendous as Laura Ferrari as Enzo’s wife and business partner as she is a woman that manages and oversees all the business and financial transactions for the company while becomes unhinged over discovering some transactions she did not know about as it would lead to her discovery of Lina and Piero. Cruz’s performance is full of fire as a woman still consumed with grief over the loss of her son as it is a performance of immense intensity while also trying to figure out how to save the company where she would make a deal that would save the company but with a condition as it relates to her own life. Finally, there’s Adam Driver in a phenomenal performance as Enzo Ferrari as the car manufacturer who is dealing with a lot in his life while still reeling from the loss of his eldest son Dino a year ago as well as losing his own company. Driver’s performance displays a lot of nuances of a man that is trying to devote time to his other son but also his business as it is one of his finest performances of his career so far.
Ferrari is a sensational by Michael Mann that features great performances from Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz. Along with its ensemble supporting cast, intoxicating visuals, immense sound work, and study of a man facing grief and impending loss of everything. It is a film that does not play by the rules of the bio-pic while also being a study of a man trying to maintain some control despite his back against the wall as he tries to salvage all that he has left. In the end, Ferrari is a spectacular film by Michael Mann.
Based on the article from Vanity Fair entitled The Man Who Knew Too Much by Marie Brenner, The Insider is the story relating to a segment from 60 Minutes about a whistleblower in the tobacco industry where CBS producers deal with the chaos relating to what could be exposed. Directed by Michael Mann and screenplay by Mann and Eric Roth, the film is a drama that plays into a news story and the fallout that would endure in this news story that the tobacco industry does not want people to know. Starring Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, Bruce McGill, Diane Venora, Michael Gambon, Lindsay Crouse, Debi Mazar, and Christopher Plummer as Mike Wallace. The Insider is a mesmerizing and haunting film by Michael Mann.
Set in the mid-1990s, the film revolves around a former tobacco company executive who is fired as he sends documents to a producer for the CBS show 60 Minutes which leads to bigger things about what this man knows despite the confidentiality agreement, he had signed to not speak out against this corporation he worked for. It is a film that explores a man who knows something about what the tobacco industry is doing as he is aware of what he is risking but also feels like the public needs to know as this producer believes this is a story that the world needs to hear. The film’s screenplay by Michael Mann and Eric Roth is straightforward in its narrative while it is really a study of two men trying to get the truth out to the public amidst the many obstacles, they would endure including death threats, smear campaigns, legal maneuvering, and corporate pressure. Even as both men are pushed to extremes and their backs against the wall as the idea of truth and integrity becomes less valued in favor of greed.
The first act opens with producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) in a Middle East country trying to convince the head of Hezbollah in Sheikh Falladah (Cliff Curtis) for an interview with Mike Wallace which he succeeds as it establishes the kind of reasoning and level of comfort Bergman has on those who want to talk to the press. Upon getting a box of documents at his home, Bergman learns who sent the box in former Brown & Williamson executive Dr. Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe) as they meet in a hotel where Dr. Wigand only tells him some details about the documents and nothing else due to a confidentiality agreement he signed following his termination. Bergman realizes that Dr. Wigand knows more following threats from the people at Brown & Williamson forcing Dr. Wigand to reveal what he knows in an interview with Mike Wallace that doesn’t get aired as his family is forced to move from an upper-class home to something more modest as it would take a toll on his marriage to his wife Liane (Diane Venora) who doesn’t know what has been going on until the threats come in.
The second act plays into Bergman and Dr. Wigand dealing with Brown & Williamson’s attempt to block everything the latter is to say as they get help from Richard Scruggs (Colm Feore) who has been battling the tobacco industry as he would represent Dr. Wigand with his own team in the state of Mississippi. It would also be this moment where Dr. Wigand must settle for a new line of work in being a high school chemistry teacher while also teaching Japanese though he does feel like he would have influence through his testimony. However, the film’s third act plays into the world of corporate politics where CBS find themselves being bought as there are those who want to suppress the story leaving Bergman and Dr. Wigand in a bigger mess than they’re both in where the former does what he can to go public about what is happening as it would mark a major change in the way news is presented to the public.
Mann’s direction is intoxicating in its overall presentation where it is shot on various locations including New York City, Los Angeles, Lebanon, the Bahamas, Big Bear Valley in California, and Pascagoula, Mississippi to play into a moment in time when news brought a sense of awareness to the world. Mann’s direction is stylish as he shoots much of the film with hand-held cameras to get a sense of urgency into what is happening inside the offices, a news studio, and inside a house. While there are some wide shots in some of the locations including some gorgeous compositions where Mann places a character on a location whether it is on a beach or at a golf park. Much of Mann’s direction emphasizes medium shots and close-ups to create an intimacy as well as a sense of dramatic suspense for the characters in the situations they are in. Even in scenes during meetings where Mann would carefully create compositions where the actor is at the forefront and who is in the background.
Mann’s direction also has this element of realism such as the deposition scene as it takes place in the actual building where Dr. Wigand’s real deposition took place in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Mann does create this sense of tension where the Brown & Williamson legal team keep interrupting one of Dr. Wigand’s lawyers who mouths off at one of them over the gag order towards Dr. Wigand in his native Kentucky. The film’s third act takes a major tonal shift though the air of dramatic suspense is still in tact as it play into corporate politics and how they can suppress a story. Even to the point that a few of Bergman’s allies, including Wallace reluctantly give in except for Bergman as he believes that he must do what he can to get Dr. Wigand’s story out as he feels it is a threat to the free press. The film’s ending is about what needs to be done but it comes at a price where everyone loses something but something much bigger is lost as it relates to what the news is. Notably as it marked a major change where the truth becomes compromised by the ideals and interests of others who want to have things their way. Overall, Mann crafts an evocative and exhilarating film about a news producer trying to get a former tobacco corporate executive to tell the truth to the American public.
Cinematographer Dante Spinotti does phenomenal work with the film’s cinematography with its usage of low-key colors and lighting for some of the exterior scenes in the day and night including scenes in the rain as well as some stylish lighting for some of the interior scenes at CBS and at the different homes that Dr. Wigand would live in. Editors William Goldenberg, Paul Rubell, and David Rosenbloom do amazing work with the editing with its stylish usage of jump-cuts while also allowing shots to linger for a bit to play into the drama through some straightforward cutting as it is a highlight of the film. Production designer Brian Morris and art director Margie Stone McShirley do brilliant work with the look of the different homes that Dr. Wigand and his family live in as well as the interiors of the offices and studios for CBS in New York City and the other places that Bergman and his CBS crew go to. Costume designer Anna B. Sheppard does excellent work with the costumes as it is casual with the suits that Dr. Wigand wears as well as some of the clothing that Bergman wears.
Hair designer Vera Mitchell and makeup effects supervisor Keith VanderLaan do fantastic work with the look of Dr. Wigand in the grey hair that he has as well as the hairstyle of Mrs. Wigand. Visual effects supervisor Chris Watts does terrific work with some of the film’s visual effects in the usage of video as well as some set dressing for some scenes. Sound editors Gregg Baxter and Gregory King do superb work with the sound in the way cars sound up close and from afar in a suburb or in a city as well as the sparse textures in some of the sound mixes. The film’s music by Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke is incredible for its world music-based score filled with vocals and dissonant instruments that play into the atmosphere of some of the drama as it is a highlight of the film. The film’s soundtrack features some additional score pieces by Graeme Ravell as well as pieces by Gustavo Santaolalla, Jan Garbarek, Massive Attack, Einstürzende Neubauten, Curt Sobel, Avro Part, the Casbah Orchestra, and David Darling.
The casting by Bonnie Timmerman is wonderful as it feature some notable small roles and appearances from Evan Podell as Bergman’s son, Breckin Meyer as Bergman’s stepson, Wings Hauser as a Brown & Williamson attorney at the deposition, Willie C. Carpenter as a newspaper editor friend of Bergman, Paul Perri and Wanda De Jesus as a couple of FBI agents posing as geologists meeting Bergman for a source of the whereabouts of an infamous American terrorist, Rip Torn as a CBS executive leader in John Scanlan, Roger Bart as a hotel manager who tries to relay a message to Dr. Wigand in a scene in the third act, real-life attorneys Jack Palladino and Mike Moore as themselves who help out Dr. Wigand, Gary Sandy as an attorney for Brown & Williamson CEO Thomas Sandefur, Cliff Curtis as Hezbollah leader Sheikh Falladah, Renee Olstead as Dr. Wigand’s eldest daughter Deborah who suffers from acute asthma, Hailee Kate Eisenberg as Dr. Wigand’s youngest daughter Barbara, Stephen Tobolowsky as CBS News president Eric Kluster, Gina Gershon as CBS attorney Helen Caperelli, Bruce McGill as the attorney Ron Motley who is anti-tobacco crusader, Lynn Thigpen as a high school principal who hires Dr. Wigand, Pete Hamill as a reporter for the New York Times, Nestor Serrano as an FBI agent who tries to help Bergman over a few things, Linda Hart as an ex-wife of Dr. Wigand used for a smear campaign, and Michael Gambon in a superb small performance as the Brown & Williamson CEO Thomas Sandefur who makes some serious threats towards Dr. Wigand.
Lindsay Crouse is fantastic in a small role as Bergman’s wife Sharon Tiller who is also a journalist that understands the chaos that Bergman is going through while is also someone who ensures that he does not lose himself. Debi Mazar is excellent as Debbie De Luca as a CBS News employee who helps Bergman in gathering sources and such while also having connections of her own regarding legal matters. Colm Feore is brilliant as Richard Scruggs as an attorney battling tobacco as he learns about Dr. Wigand’s situation as he realizes he help Dr. Wigand over his issues while also having him take part in this big battle against tobacco. Philip Baker Hall is amazing as 60 Minutes creator Don Hewitt who is aware of the importance of Dr. Wigand’s story while also finding himself dealing with corporate pressure as it relates to those wanting to buy CBS. Diane Venora is incredible as Liane Wigand as Dr. Wigand’s wife whose life changes because of the death threats and change of lifestyle while being shielded into what her husband is going through to the point that she becomes unsure if him being a whistleblower is a good idea.
Christopher Plummer is great as Mike Wallace as the famed journalist/reporter for 60 Minutes who would interview Dr. Wigand as he is aware of how the story is while later dealing with pressures from corporate in suppressing the story where he becomes unsure to give in or have the interview aired. Russell Crowe is phenomenal as Dr. Jeffrey Wigand as a former Brown & Williamson science executive who gets fired while he knows things that he feels could be harmful to the public about cigarettes where Crowe brings this sense of restraint and weariness of a man being pushed to the edge. Even where he sacrifices a lot where Crowe brings in one of his career-defining performances of a man just trying to do the right thing. Finally, there’s Al Pacino in a tremendous performance as Lowell Bergman as a producer for 60 Minutes who learns about this story and wants it out for the world to hear while also trying to help Dr. Wigand and his family over their death threats. It is a somber performance from Pacino, who does bring in some charm and wit while is also someone who believes in something only to see what is happening to the news media as it head towards the 21st Century with a weariness that is a lot to bear.
The Insider is an outstanding film by Michael Mann that features two top-notch leading performances from Al Pacino and Russell Crowe. Along with its great supporting cast, intoxicating visuals, stylish editing, study of truth and what those are willing to suppress it, and a mesmerizing score by Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke. It is a film that explores two men trying to get something big known to the public while dealing with forces that does not want the people to know the truth about the dangers of tobacco. In the end, The Insider is a magnificent film by Michael Mann.
