A student of London's International Film School, Michael Mann began his career in the late 70s, writing for TV shows like Starsky and Hutch. He directed his first film, the award-winning prison drama The Jericho Mile, in 1979. He followed that in 1981 with his first theatrical release, Thief starring James Caan as a safecracker who falls under the spell of the mob. He followed with The Keep, an adaptation of F. Paul Wilson's novel about a mysterious force within a Nazi fortress. He hit it big in 1984, when he produced and created the long-running TV series Miami Vice, which made Don Johnson a household name. He followed that up in 1986 with a disastrous, lesser-known TV series, Crime Story, and the superb thriller Manhunter a precursor of The Silence of the Lambs. He spent the next few years involved in television, directing films like Crimewave and producing films like the Emmy-winning Drug Wars: The Camarena Story. In 1992, he returned to feature film with the box-office hit The Last of the Mohicans, which starred Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeleine Stowe.
Ali (2001): $5,000,000

Often uses music by Einsturzende Neubauten. Born at 12:45am-CWT Attended the University of Wisconsin - Madison and the International Film School in London. Unlike most directors, likes to operate the camera himself to get much of his photography, as he did in Heat, shooting almost 60% of it. Was Will Smith's personal choice to direct Ali. Spike Lee campaigned vigorously against Mann, saying that only a black director could do Ali's story justice. Father of Ami Canaan Mann Got an impressive knowledge about criminality and police procedures. Is a close friend of legendary author Edward Bunker since they both worked together on the adaptation of the novel No Beast So Fierce. Is one of Robert De Niro's favourite directors. Often uses the color blue for dramatic reasons. Is a close friend of independent film director Abel Ferrara. Directed the first Hannibal Lecter film (Manhunter), and produced The Aviator, which at one point he had been attached to direct. Jonathan Demme, who directed The Silence of the Lambs, also directed Melvin and Howard, which also featured the character Howard Hughes. Family lived in Chicago when the first controlled atomic reaction was produced, along with Harrison Ford Tom Berenger and Chase Hoyt. Member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Directors Branch) [2000-2006] In 1985, sued William Friedkin for plagiarism, claiming that Friedkin stole the entire concept of Miami Vice when he made the movie To Live and Die in L.A. (which, ironically, starred William L. Petersen, who later played Will Graham in Manhunter). Mann lost the lawsuit. Is the director of Miami Vice. He was executive producer of the Miami Vice TV series and among other things greatly responsible for the show's unique look and feel. Despite suing William Friedkin in 1985 for "stealing the concept of Miami Vice for To Live and Die in L.A.", the two directors are close friends nowadays. Friedkin even tease Mann in several interviews by saying "Michael Mann is one of my favourites directors because he tries to make films like mine!". Tried to make an epic film about drug-trade in Southern California with screenwriter Shane Salerno. But they abandoned the project after Steven Soderbergh's rival project, Traffic, got green-lighted. His favourites films are John Ford's My Darling Clementine, Sergei Mikhailovitch Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, Friedrich Wilhem Murnau's Faust, Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalyspe Now, Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, Alain Resnais' Last Year in Marienbad, Carl Theodore Dryer's The Passion of Joan of Arc, Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull, Orson Welles' Citizen Kane and Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. Frequently uses the "thumbs up" sign after he feels that last take was the one. Directed Brian Cox, Dennis Farina, and Peter Dobson in one of two roles that they each share with Anthony Hopkins, Harvey Keitel, and Val Kilmer. Cox and Farina played Hannibal Lecter and Jack Crawford in Manhunter, roles played by Hopkins and Keitel in Red Dragon. Farina and Keitel had both played Ray Barbone in Get Shorty. Hopkins was playing King Lear with the Royal Shakespeare Company while Manhunter was in production. Brian Cox was doing the same when The Silence of the Lambs was in production. Dobson plays Chris Sirhelis in L.A. Takedown, which was remade as Heat, with Val Kilmer. Heat was also directed by Mann. Kilmer played Elvis Presley in True Romance, while Dobson played him (except for the voice) in Forrest Gump. Mann has re-edited every single one of his feature films for home video. With the exception of Warner Home Video's Region 2 release and the Fox NTSC laserdisc release of The Last of the Mohicans, none of his films are available on video or DVD in their theatrical versions. The alterations vary from using alternate takes and lines in Heat and The Insider to adding and deleting scenes: he has re-edited Manhunter at least three times.