Michael Mann spends a lot of time developing films but he doesn’t really get around to making them. His upcoming film Farrari is the first movie that he’s made in nine years! The last movie he made before that was Blackhat.
During a recent interview with Uproxx, Mann talked about a couple of other projects that he would like to make one day. One of them is a Vietnam-set project. This is most likely the adaptation of Mark Bowden’s Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam, which he’s been looking to make.
The report refers to the project as Battle of Wai, and it was initially planned as a 10-part FX series. There’s no word on if the series is still the plan or if it’s been retooled as a feature film.
Hue 1968 is the story of the “centerpiece of the Tet Offensive and a turning point in the American War in Vietnam. In the early hours of January 31, 1968, the North Vietnamese launched over one hundred attacks across South Vietnam in what would become known as the Tet Offensive. The lynchpin of Tet was the capture of Hue, Vietnam’s intellectual and cultural capital, by 10,000 National Liberation Front troops who descended from hidden camps and surged across the city of 140,000. Within hours the entire city was in their hands save for two small military outposts. American commanders refused to believe the size and scope of the Front’s presence, ordering small companies of marines against thousands of entrenched enemy troops. After several futile and deadly days, Lieutenant Colonel Ernie Cheatham would finally come up with a strategy to retake the city, block by block and building by building, in some of the most intense urban combat since World War II.”
That would make a great series or movie! The filmmaker also brings up a sci-fi feature that he wants to make, but when asked about it responds succinctly: “I can’t talk about it!”
Mann has confirmed that his next film will be Heat 2, and he’s also developing a remake of the Korean crime thriller, Veteran. It doesn’t seem like it’ll be another nine years between films as Mann continues to develop his film projects.
Hopefully, he gets to make all of these! I’d love to see Mann make a sci-fi movie! I’m curious to see what that will end up being.
