MICHAEL MANN (Producer) Hancock

MICHAEL MANN (Producer) has earned numerous honors for his work as a director, writer and producer, including four Academy Award® nominations for The Insider and for producing The Aviator. A Chicago native, Mann is recognized for his groundbreaking and cinematically captivating dramas, including Thief, Manhunter, The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider, Ali and Collateral.

In the mid-1970s, Mann began a career as a television writer, working on Police Story, the first episodes of Starsky & Hutch and the series Vega$, which he created. In 1979, he directed and co-wrote his first dramatic movie-of-the-week, The Jericho Mile, starring Peter Strauss. It garnered four Emmys and a Directors Guild Award for Best Director.

In 1981, Mann made his theatrical film debut with Thief, a crime story starring James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Willie Nelson and Jim Belushi that was nominated for the Palme d'Or Award at Cannes. He followed this in 1983 with The Keep, starring Gabriel Byrne, Scott Glenn and Ian McKellen. In 1986, he directed Manhunter, from the first of Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter books, Red Dragon, featuring William Petersen, Joan Allen, and Brian Cox as Lecter.

Throughout the 1980s, Mann continued to work in television with the revolutionary series Miami Vice and the acclaimed Chicago and Las Vegas drama Crime Story, starring Dennis Farina. In addition, he produced the 1990 Emmy-winning miniseries Drug Wars: The Camarena Story and the 1992 Emmy-nominated sequel, Drug Wars: The Cocaine Cartel.

In 1992, Mann directed, co-wrote and produced The Last of the Mohicans, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeleine Stowe. He next directed the 1995 film Heat, from his original screenplay. The film depicted the taut relationship between an obsessive detective (Al Pacino) and a professional thief (Robert DeNiro) and also starred Jon Voight, Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Ashley Judd and Amy Brenneman, the latter two having their first major roles in the film.
In 1999, Mann earned Oscar® nominations for co-writing, directing and producing The Insider, starring Russell Crowe and Al Pacino. Based upon Marie Brenner's "Vanity Fair" article, the film tells the true story of Jeffrey Wigand, a tobacco-industry executive who blew the whistle on the tobacco industry and 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman's conflict with CBS.

In 2001, Mann took audiences into the heart and struggles of Muhammad Ali in Ali, starring Will Smith and Jon Voight, both of whom received Oscar® nominations for their performances. Additionally, in 2002, Mann produced Robbery Homicide Division for CBS, which starred Tom Sizemore.

In 2004, Mann directed Collateral, starring Tom Cruise and Academy Award® winner Jamie Foxx. Mann earned numerous awards and nominations for this film, including the David Lean Award for directing at the 2004 BAFTAs.

Also in 2004, Mann produced the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett. This film led the 2004 Academy Awards® contenders with 11 Oscar® nominations, including Best Picture. Blanchett won a Supporting Actress Oscar® for her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn.

More recently, Mann wrote, produced and directed the big-screen version of Miami Vice, starring Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx, Chinese actress Gong Li and Naomie Harris.

He is currently in production directing, producing, and co-writing Universal Pictures' Public Enemies, about the Depression Era's gangsters and the formation of the FBI, starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, Channing Tatum, Giovanni Ribisi, and Stephen Graham.