Everything about Michael Mann Film Director totally explained
Michael Kenneth Mann (born
February 5,
1943 in
Chicago) is an
American film director,
screenwriter, and
producer. He has been nominated for four
Oscars for writing, directing and producing during the
72nd and
77th Academy Awards in 1999 and 2004 respectively.
Biography
His father, Jack, was a
Russian immigrant and
World War II veteran and his mother, Esther, a girl from a family native to Chicago. Mann was close to his father and his paternal grandfather, Sam Mann. Mann grew up in the Humboldt Park neighborhood and immersed himself in the burgeoning Chicago blues-music scene as a teenager.
He studied English at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was an active member of the
Pi Lambda Phi fraternity, and developed interests in history, philosophy and architecture. It was at this time that he first saw
Stanley Kubrick's
Dr. Strangelove and fell in love with movies. In a recent
L.A. Weekly interview, he describes the film's impact on him: "It said to my whole generation of filmmakers that you could make an individual statement of high integrity and have that film be successfully seen by a mass audience all at the same time. In other words, you didn’t have to be making
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers if you wanted to work in the main stream film industry, or be reduced to niche filmmaking if you wanted to be serious about cinema. So that’s what Kubrick meant, aside from the fact that
Strangelove was a revelation."
Mann later moved to London in the mid 1960s to go to graduate school in cinema. He went on to receive a
graduate degree at the
London International Film School
. He spent seven years in the
United Kingdom going to film school and then working on commercials along with contemporaries
Alan Parker,
Ridley Scott and
Adrian Lyne. In 1968, footage he shot of the
Paris student revolt for a documentary,
Insurrection, aired on
NBC's
First Tuesday news program and he developed his '68 experiences into the short film "Juanpuri," which won the Jury Prize at
Cannes in 1970.
Mann returned to
United States after divorcing his first wife in 1971. He went on to direct a road trip documentary,
17 Days Down the Line. Three years later,
Hawaii Five-0 veteran Robert Lewin gave Mann a shot and a crash course on television writing and story structure. Mann wrote the first four episodes of
Starsky and Hutch and the pilot episode for
Vega$. Around this time, he worked on a show called
Police Story with cop-turned-novelist
Joseph Wambaugh.
Police Story concentrated on the detailed realism of a real cop's life and taught Mann the essential for first-hand research to bring authenticity to his work.
His first feature movie was a
made-for-TV special called
The Jericho Mile, which was released theatrically in Europe. It won the Emmy for best MOW in 1979 and the DGA Best Director award. His television work also includes being the executive producer on
Miami Vice and
Crime Story. Contrary to popular belief, he isn't the creator of these shows but the executive producer and the showrunner. They were produced by his production company. However, his cinematic influence is felt throughout each show in terms of casting and style.
Mann is now known primarily as a
feature film director and he's considered to be one of America's top
filmmakers. He has a very distinctive style that's reflected in his works: his trademarks include unusual scores, such as Tangerine Dream in
Thief or the
New Age score to
Manhunter.
Dante Spinotti is a frequent cinematographer of Mann's pictures. Mann has an affinity for stark
urban landscapes and a visual style which often places an emphasis on soft blues and harsh, sterile whites.
Mann's first cinema feature as director was
Thief starring
James Caan - a commercially overlooked gem that set the blueprint for many of Mann's later works and has a central performance that Caan has said he's most proud of after
The Godfather.
1983's
The Keep was in retrospect an uncharacteristic choice, being that it's a supernatural thriller set in
Nazi occupied
Romania. It was a commercial flop and provoked almost universal confusion in those who did manage to see it. Though it's believed that the 96 minute released cut was significantly shorter than Mann had intended.
Mann was the first to bring
Thomas Harris's character of
Hannibal Lecter to the screen with his adaptation of novel Red Dragon, as
Manhunter, the film was quite different from the future, more successful entries to the series and starred
Brian Cox as a more down-to-earth Hannibal. The story was remade less than 20 years after it came out by
Brett Ratner presumably because
Anthony Hopkins reprisal of the role in
Ridley Scott's Hannibal had made the character a highly lucrative property. In an interview on the
Manhunter DVD, star
William Petersen comments that because Mann is so focused on his creations, it takes several years for Mann to complete a film; Petersen believes that this is why Mann doesn't make films very often.
He gained wide spread recognition in 1992 for his film adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper's book
Last of the Mohicans (1992 film). His biggest critical successes in the 1990s began with the release of
Heat in 1995 and
The Insider in 1999. The films, both of which featured Al Pacino along with Robert DeNiro in
Heat and Russell Crowe in
The Insider, showcased Mann's cinematic style and adeptness at creating rich, complex storylines as well as directing actors.
The Insider was nominated for seven
Academy Awards as a result, including a nomination for Mann's
direction.
With his next film
Ali starring Will Smith in 2001, he started experimenting with digital cameras. Smith was nominated for an Academy Award. On
Collateral he shot all of the exterior scenes digitally (with the
Viper Video Stream camera) so that he could achieve more depth and detail during the night scenes while shooting most of the interiors on film stock. The film helped catapult
Jamie Foxx to greater fame, and he was nominated for an
Academy Award for his performance.
In 2004, Mann was nominated for producing Best Picture nominee
The Aviator, a film he'd developed with
Leonardo DiCaprio with Mann at the helm, he then decided it was too similar in content to the biopic Ali, decided to direct Collateral and left the director's chair to now-frequent DiCaprio collaborator
Martin Scorsese
Since
Collateral Mann has made
Miami Vice, the film adaptation of the hit TV series of the
same name which Mann executive produced. It stars a completely new cast with
Colin Farrell in
Don Johnson's role and
Jamie Foxx filling
Philip Michael Thomas' shoes.
He will act as producer and
Peter Berg as director for the upcoming movie
Hancock which stars
Will Smith hard-drinking superhero who is fallen out of favor with the public begins to have an unlikely relationship with the wife (
Charlize Theron) of a public professional (
Jason Bateman) who is trying help repair his image.
Mann will direct
The Few, a war/drama based on the true-life story of American pilot Billy Fiske, who ignored that his country (the USA) is neutral in the early days of WWII and flew and fought against the Germans. Also he'll direct
Frankie Machine about an ex mob hit man (
Robert De Niro) who is lured back into his professional job from living in rural comfort by a son of a Mafia Don.
On
May 2,
2007,
Variety magazine revealed that Mann's next project would be a 1930s film noir starring
Leonardo DiCaprio, however he was unable to find a studio to finance it. On
October 10,
2007,
Variety reported that Mann would be re-teaming with Will Smith on a film entitled,
Empire for
Columbia Pictures, written by John Logan. Smith will "play a contemporary global media mogul."
Variety confirmed that Mann's next film will be called
Public Enemies for
Universal Pictures and is about the
Depression-era crime wave, based on Brian Burrough's nonfiction book,
Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34. It will star
Johnny Depp and Mann has written the screenplay and will direct. The actor will play
John Dillinger in the film. DiCaprio was originally attached to the project, but he's scheduled to appear in Martin Scorsese's
Shutter Island.
Public Enemies will start filming in
Chicago on March 10, 2008. reports that
Christian Bale is in talks for the role of Melvin Purvis in
Public Enemies.
Awards and honors
Mann received an
Emmy in 1979 for Outstanding Writing in a Limited Series or a Special for
The Jericho Mile. The following year he was honored by the
Directors Guild of America for Outstanding Directorial Achievement for
The Jericho Mile. In 1990, he won another Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries for . Mann was the recipient of the
Humanitas Prize in 2000 for
The Insider. In 2005, he received the BAFTA Film Award for co-producing
The Aviator.
To date he's received four
Academy Award nominations: in 2000, the
Best Adapted Screenplay,
Best Director and
Best Motion Picture of the Year all for
The Insider, in 2005 Mann received nomination for production of Scorsese's
The Aviator.
Select filmography
Television
Mann has created two television series,
Vega$ and
Robbery Homicide Division.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Michael Mann Film Director'.
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