Editorials > Johnny Depp and Michael Mann to Team Up?

There may be a silver lining to this writers strike after all. Johnny Depp had been scheduled to star in Mira Nair's Shantaram followed by Bruce Robinson's The Rum Diary, but both projects have been put on hold due to incomplete screenplays. Depp's suddenly free dance card has led to some meetings between Depp and director Michael Mann.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mann is "interested in mounting a screen adaptation of Brian Burrough's nonfiction book Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 for Universal." Depp is reportedly eyeing the part of legendary bank robber John Dillinger. How Mann plans to approach the historical book about the prohibition era crime wave is uncertain yet. Though on thing is for sure, to quote Paul Thomas Anderson, there will be blood.

Kevin Misher will produce with Mann. Robert De Niro and his partner Jane Rosenthal will serve as executive producers.

-David Morgan