Michael Mann is back at it. The director is making a triumphant return to the film world after a less-than-stellar reception to his 2015 tech thriller, Blackhat, which starred Chris Hemsworth. This year marks the release of Ferrari, his biopic of Enzo Ferrari starring Adam Driver, which is already generating positive word-of-mouth, including talk of a Best Supporting Actress nod for Driver’s co-star Penelope Cruz. Mann also has said that he will be moving on to a film adaptation of his crime novel sequel to his prolific 1995 drama, Heat. That project is also rumored to star Adam Driver.
According to Variety, Michael Mann is already at work on another project as he is now developing a remake of the Korean action-thriller-comedyVeteran from Ryoo Seung-wan. It is not yet known if Mann plans to direct the film or only be attached as a writer and producer. He is currently working with the U.S. and Korean wings of CJ ENM, Korea’s leading film and TV conglomerate, on the development of the project. A source that is close to CJ ENM tells Variety, “We are developing a script with Michael Mann, but his role and our schedule are not fixed yet.”
The development of the remake was halted due to the writers’ strike taking place earlier this year. While Mann focuses on Heat 2, it’s not known when he plans to pick back up with developing Veteran. According to Variety, Veteran “had its international premiere in a sidebar of the 2015 Toronto festival, was named best film at the Sitges genre festival in Spain and earned over $85 million at the South Korean box office — roughly equivalent to $400 million in North America.”
Meanwhile, Ferrari debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and earned a bevy of solid reviews out of the NYFF. Amazingly, a film with a scope and star power like Ferrari was made independent of Hollywood studios, which made it stand apart from other projects that had been delayed a release due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Mann even managed to secure an interim agreement with SAG-AFTRA so that the stars were permitted to do promotion for the film.
Ferrari is slated to open on December 25.