1967–1978: Rise to prominence Mann graduated from the
University of Wisconsin with a BA in 1965. He later moved to London in the mid-1960s to go to graduate school in cinema and went on to receive a
graduate degree at the
London Film School in 1967. 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
Jaunpuri which won the Jury Prize at
Cannes in
1970. Mann returned to the United States after divorcing his first wife in 1971. He went on to direct a road trip documentary,
17 Days Down the Line (1972). Three years later,
Hawaii Five-O veteran
Robert Lewin gave Mann a shot and a crash course on television writing and story structure. This led to Mann writing four episodes for
Starsky and Hutch between 1975–1977 (three in the first season and one in the second), two episodes for
Bronk in 1976, and an episode for
Gibbsville in 1976. Between 1976–1978, he wrote four episodes for
Police Story (as well as directed one for the spin-off series
Police Woman in 1977) with cop-turned-novelist
Joseph Wambaugh.
Police Story concentrated on the detailed realism of a real cop's life and taught Mann that first-hand research was essential to bring authenticity to his work. In 1976–1977, Mann worked on a screenplay originally titled
The Last Public Enemy but later re-titled
Karpis, based on Canadian-American criminal
Alvin Karpis's autobiography,
The Alvin Karpis Story. The film was scheduled to be made at
Paramount Pictures for producers
Harold Hecht and Robert L. Rosen, and was to be directed by
John Frankenheimer (who had previously directed a similar film,
Birdman of Alcatraz, for Hecht), but it was never produced. Mann also wrote an early draft of the 1978 film
Straight Time, which was based on real-life criminal-turned author
Edward Bunker's novel
No Beast So Fierce. He then created and wrote the pilot episode for
Vegas (1978–1981).
1978–1999: Career breakthrough and acclaim Mann's first feature movie was the sports-themed
Swan Song starring
David Soul for
ABC, which was filmed in April 1978. However, it was only broadcast in February 1980, after his second feature,
The Jericho Mile, had been released.
The Jericho Mile was also made for ABC for television broadcast in the United States but was released theatrically in Europe. The movie was filmed on location at the
Folsom State Penitentiary, and won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Limited Series or a Special in 1979 and the Directors Guild of America award for Best Director. Mann's debut feature in cinema as director was
Thief (1981) starring
James Caan, a relatively accurate depiction of thieves that operated in New York City and Chicago at that time. Mann used actual former professional burglars to keep the technical scenes as genuine as possible. His next film was
The Keep (1983), a supernatural thriller set in
Nazi-occupied
Romania. Though it was a commercial flop, the film has since attained cult status amongst fans. His television work in the mid-1980s includes being the executive producer on
Miami Vice (1984–1990) and
Crime Story (1986–1988). Contrary to popular belief, he was not the creator of these shows, but the executive producer and
showrunner, produced by his production company. His production company also produced
Paul Michael Glaser's 1986 film
Band of the Hand. In 1986, Mann was the first to bring
Thomas Harris' character of serial killer
Hannibal Lecter to the screen with
Manhunter, his adaptation of the novel
Red Dragon, which starred
Brian Cox as Hannibal. 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 him to complete a film; Petersen believes that this is why Mann does not make films very often. In 1989, he wrote, produced and directed the crime television film
L.A. Takedown. He then wrote and produced the three-part miniseries
Drug Wars: The Camarena Story (1990), and its 1992 follow-up
Drug Wars II: The Cocaine Cartel. Mann gained widespread recognition in 1992 for his film adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper's novel into the
epic historical drama The Last of the Mohicans starring
Daniel Day-Lewis. The film is set during the
French and Indian War. Film critic
Owen Gleiberman of
Entertainment Weekly described Mann's directorial style, writing that "Mann, at his best, is a master of violence and lyrical anxiety".
Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone praised Mann's directing, writing that "the action is richly detailed and thrillingly staged." This was followed by crime drama
Heat (1995) starring
Al Pacino,
Robert De Niro, and
Val Kilmer. The film, a remake of his TV movie
L.A. Takedown, was a critical and commercial success.
Kenneth Turan of the
Los Angeles Times called the film a "sleek, accomplished piece of work, meticulously controlled and completely involving. The dark end of the street doesn't get much more inviting than this."
Todd McCarthy of
Variety wrote, "Stunningly made and incisively acted by a large and terrific cast, Michael Mann's ambitious study of the relativity of good and evil stands apart from other films of its type by virtue of its extraordinarily rich characterizations and its thoughtful, deeply melancholy take on modern life." In 1999, Mann filmed
The Insider about the
60 Minutes segment about
Jeffrey Wigand, a whistleblower in the
tobacco industry.
Russell Crowe portrayed Wigand, with Pacino playing
Lowell Bergman and
Christopher Plummer as
Mike Wallace. The film showcased Mann's cinematic style and garnered the most critical recognition of his career up to this point.
The Insider was nominated for seven
Academy Awards as a result, including a nomination for Mann's direction. Critic
Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times praised the film writing, "
The Insider had a greater impact on me than ''
All the President's Men'', because you know what? Watergate didn't kill my parents. Cigarettes did."
2001–present With his next film,
Ali (2001), starring
Will Smith, Mann started experimenting with digital cameras. For his action thriller film
Collateral, which was released in 2004, Mann cast
Tom Cruise against type by giving him the role of a hitman. Mann shot all of the exterior scenes digitally so that he could achieve more depth and detail during the night scenes while shooting most of the interiors on film stock.
Jamie Foxx was nominated for an
Academy Award for his performance in
Collateral. Also in 2004, he produced
Martin Scorsese's
The Aviator, based on the life of
Howard Hughes, which he had developed with
Leonardo DiCaprio.
The Aviator was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Picture but lost to
Million Dollar Baby. After
Collateral, Mann directed the film adaptation of
Miami Vice which he also executive produced. The film starred
Colin Farrell as
Don Johnson's character
James "Sonny" Crockett, and Foxx filling
Philip Michael Thomas' shoes as
Ricardo Tubbs. Mann directed the 2002 "
Lucky Star" advertisement for
Mercedes-Benz, which took the form of a film trailer for a purported thriller featuring
Benicio del Toro. In the fall of 2007, Mann directed two commercials for
Nike. The ad campaign "Leave Nothing" features football action scenes with former
NFL players
Shawne Merriman and
Steven Jackson, as well as using the score "Promontory" from the soundtrack of
The Last of the Mohicans. Mann directed the 2008 promotional video for
Ferrari's
California sports car. Mann was producer with
Peter Berg as director for
The Kingdom and
Hancock.
Hancock stars Smith as a hard-drinking superhero who has fallen out of favor with the public and who begins to have a relationship with the wife (
Charlize Theron) of a public relations expert (
Jason Bateman), who is helping him to repair his image. Mann makes a cameo appearance in the film as an executive. In 2009, Mann wrote and directed
Public Enemies for
Universal Pictures, about the
Depression-era crime wave, based on
Bryan Burrough's nonfiction book, ''Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933–34''. It starred
Johnny Depp and
Christian Bale. Depp played
John Dillinger in the film, and Bale played
Melvin Purvis, the FBI agent in charge of capturing Dillinger. In 2009, Mann signed a petition calling for the release of film director
Roman Polanski, who had been arrested in Switzerland in relation to his
1977 charge for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl. In January 2010, it was reported by
Variety that Mann, alongside
David Milch, would serve as co-executive producer of new TV series
Luck starring
Dustin Hoffman and
Dennis Farina. The series was an hour-long
HBO production, and Mann directed the series' pilot. Although initially renewed for a second season after the airing of the pilot, it was eventually cancelled due to the death of three horses during production. In February 2013, it was announced that Mann had been developing an untitled
thriller film with screenwriter Morgan Davis Foehl for over a year, for
Legendary Pictures. In May 2013, Mann started filming the action thriller, named
Blackhat, in
Los Angeles,
Kuala Lumpur,
Hong Kong and
Jakarta. The film, starring
Chris Hemsworth as a hacker who gets released from prison to pursue a cyberterrorist across the globe, was released in January 2015 by Universal. It received mixed reviews and was a commercial disaster, although several critics included it in their year-end "best-of" lists. Mann directed the first episode of the 2022 crime series
Tokyo Vice for
HBO Max, his first directing work since
Blackhat. In August the same year, Mann released
Heat 2, a novel he had co-written with
Meg Gardiner. The book takes place from 1988 to 2000, covering events that happen before and after the 1995 film. The same month, Mann began shooting
Ferrari starring
Adam Driver and
Penélope Cruz in
Modena. The film premiered at the
80th Venice International Film Festival and was released in the US in December 2023.
Ferrari received generally positive reviews from critics and attained moderate box office success in the United States, while under-performing in overseas box office. Mann intends for his next film to be
Heat 2, which will be distributed by Amazon MGM Studios and United Artists. Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale are currently understood to be playing the two male leads. == Directorial style ==