Depp & Mann are ‘Public Enemies’

Its official- Michael Mann & Johnny Depp are teaming up on Public Enemies over at Universal. This comes about a week after the announcement that Depp’s long gestating project Shantaram was going to be delayed do to script issues- which over course cannot be remedied until after the writer’s strike. Mann’s been circling a few projects the last few months, including the potential Will Smith vehicle, Empire, and the Tom Cruise project- Edwin A. Salt.  

Depp will be playing the notorious outlaw John Dillinger in “Enemies”- which is said to focus around the early days of the FBI, when Dillinger was public enemy no.1. The film is on the fast track- and shooting is slated to start March 10^th in Chicago. Mann himself wrote the script- based on the book by Bryan Burroughs. Mann will also produce alongside Kevin Misher, and Tribeca’s Jane Rosenthal. 

This sounds like a seriously exciting project. It’s no secret that I’m a huge Michael Mann fan (heck- I even liked The Keep), and this sounds like a project that’s right up his alley. Depp is probably one of the most interesting actors working today- and he’s great casting as Dillinger, who was renowned in his day as one of the more handsome outlaws. This is definitely a project I’ll be tracking closely.