Mann’s got Luck?

Fans of director Michael Mann and HBO’s “Deadwood”, here’s a little nugget that should rightly get you giddy.

Mann is in final negotiations to direct the hour-long pilot episode of the new HBO drama “Luck”. The new show, from “Deadwood” creator David Milch, is about horse racing culture. Milch elaborates: “The pilot is about a bunch of intersecting lives in the world of the horse racing track. It’s a subject which has engaged and some might say has compelled me for 50 years. I’ve joked that if I just can make $25 million on this show, I’ll be even on research expenses. I find it as complicated and engaging a special world as any I’ve ever encountered, not only in what happens in the clubhouse and the grandstand, but also on the back side of the track, where the training is done and where they house the horses.”

The yet-to-be-cast lead, known as Ace Bernstein, is described by Milch as “a guy versed in all the permutations of finance, elicit and otherwise. When he is released from jail for securities violations, he resumes his place at the race track, where he is a figure of long-standing repute.”

Mann apparently leaped at the idea of working with HBO after receiving positive feedback from another famous film director you may have heard of: Martin Scorsese. Marty, as you may or may not know, directed the pilot episode of the upcoming “Boardwalk Empire” for HBO, about the rise of gambling and organized crime in Atlantic City.