Michael Mann Launches Book Venture, HEAT Prequel Novel In The Works
In a nutshell, I’m pretty much of the opinion that director Michael Mann’s cyber-hacking thriller, Blackhat, deserved WAY more love than it got back in 2015. It was a great, suspenseful action thriller and a mark of someone who knows his way around constructing a good few hours of worthy cinema for your money.
Needless to say, Blackhat won’t be the end for Mann and that pleases me. That said, I’m even more pleased that he’ll be seuging into another venture with his name attached for Michael Mann Books, in which he’ll be loading up on a slew of content with other authors in conjunction with presenting some of its literary products on the big screen. One such project now moving forward is a prequel novel for his celebrated 1995 crime pic, Heat.
The announcement from Wednesday has more:
LOS ANGELES, March 16, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Michael Mann – the four-time Oscar-nominated writer-producer-director of classics such as The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, Manhunter, Collateral, Public Enemies and the Oscar-nominated dramas Ali and The Insider as well as the award-winning executive producer of Miami Vice, Crime Story, Drug Wars and Luck – is integrating publishing into his longstanding practice of translating literary material into film and television.
Under his imprint, Michael Mann Books, Mann will have a core group of major authors to collaborate on fiction and non-fiction books and may share cover credit on certain properties. The literary properties will be simultaneously developed for film and television.
Conversations with publishers are expected to begin shortly.
Existing film properties will also be explored, including a prequel novel to Mann’s seminal crime classic Heat featuring the characters portrayed by Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Val Kilmer and Jon Voight.
Mann has an exceptional history of adapting fiction and non-fiction works into iconic feature films, including The Last of the Mohicans, The Insider, Public Enemies and Manhunter. In television, Mann executive produced the Emmy award-winning NBC miniseries Drug Wars: The Camarena Story and the Emmy-nominated Drug Wars: The Cocaine Cartel from Desperados, the international non-fiction bestseller by Elaine Shannon.
In the late 80’s, Michael Mann wrote and directed the adaptation of Thomas Harris’ global bestseller Red Dragon. The film Manhunter featured the first screen appearance of Hannibal Lecter, opposite forensic investigator Will Graham, played by William Petersen, and the influential cult classic set the standard for countless film and television crime procedurals to follow.
In 1999, The Insider was adapted from a Vanity Fair article by Marie Brenner and was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including three for Mann as director, co-writer and co-producer.
In 2004, Mann developed and produced the Martin Scorsese-directed The Aviator starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The film was written by John Logan from Howard Hughes: The Secret Life by Charles Higham and was nominated for eleven Academy Awards.
In 2009, Mann co-wrote, produced and directed Public Enemies starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, adapted from the New York Times bestseller Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-1934 by Bryan Burrough.
The films and television series that Michael Mann has directed, written and/or produced have been nominated for a combined 23 Academy Awards, 55 Emmys and 33 Golden Globes.
The Michael Mann Books publishing venture will be represented by Shane Salerno at The Story Factory. Mann is represented by CAA, LBI and Attorney Harold Brown.
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