Michael Mann

(It’s a book, not a movie.)

The director is giving us another glimpse into the world with a prequel book.

With the 25th anniversary of Michael Mann's ‘The Last of the Mohicans,’ we examine the film's most enduring legacy: its music.

As currently working American directors of action cinema go, you can‘t do a whole lot better than Michael Mann. And in Mann’s filmography, you can‘t do a whole lot better than Heat. His 1995 magnum opus is a gem of committed masculine performance, from the robbers’ finely tailored robbin’ suits to the concluding note of man-to-man camaraderie. And in between the hyper-masc displays of honor and strength, Mann stages some of the most technically accomplished set pieces of his career, all but putting the audience’s nerves through a paper shredder. Heat will get a re-release later this year with a full director’s cut (though the changes will be mostly limited to image processing), but today brings the news that another Mann film is taking on a second life.

Now that Hugh Jackman has hung up his adamantium claws, the Logan actor is setting his sights on another project, and one that might finally allow him to eat some carbs. After eating nothing but air and grass for 17 years to stay buff as Wolverine (just kidding, he probably ate chicken and broccoli or something slightly more appetizing), Jackman is now in talks to play Enzio Ferrari in Michael Mann‘s upcoming biopic.

Michael Mann has always been a skilled translator of prose to the screen, having adapted such literary standards as The Last of the Mohicans, Manhunter, and Collateral for moviegoers too cool to be bothered to crack open a book, because reading is for nerds...

Christian Bale has become something of a pro when it comes to transforming his body for movie roles, which makes his decision to exit Michael Mann’s Enzo Ferrari biopic due to “health concerns” somewhat shocking. When you can’t get Bale, of all people, to reshape his body for your film, perhaps you’re asking just a little too much. Or maybe “flabby” is one body shape Christian Bale just can’t get down with, aesthetically.

For a movie about a guy who developed neck-snappingly fast cars, Michael Mann’s Enzo Ferrari has been making progress at an extremely gradual pace. Mann first started toying with the idea of chronicling the life of the Italian auto pioneer (a concept first realized fictitiously on the HBO series Entourage, with the world’s greatest thespian Vinny Chase in the title role) fifteen years ago, but the film only shifted into gear earlier this year.

Michael Mann has been developing his Enzo Ferrari biopic for about 15 years — in the meantime, he’s directed films like Collateral, Miami Vice and the recent Blackhat. But now it looks like Mann is finally gearing up to commit to the Ferrari project, with Christian Bale in the driver’s seat as the iconic racer and entrepreneur.

On the list of uncinematic activities, computer hacking has to rank near the top, somewhere between small-business accounting and taking a nap. It’s tedious, static, and solitary work, and what little’s interesting about it is largely incomprehensible to those without advanced degrees in computer science. In a lesser filmmaker's hands, a hacker movie like ‘Blackhat’ would be terminally boring. But ‘Blackhat’ is in the hands of Michael Mann, and that means it’s also stylish, moody, and punctuated by intense action scenes.