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Michael Mann To Direct A Movie About War Photographer Robert Capa!?
Merrick here...
Michael Mann is developing a movie about war photographer Robert Capa, which screenwriter Jez Butterworth (THE LAST LEGION) will adapt from a novel by Susana Fortes.
The studio has acquired “Waiting for Robert Capa,” a Spanish language novel by Susana Fortes, and set Jez Butterworth to adapt it.
[EDIT]
The story begins in Paris in 1935, where Capa, a refugee from Fascist Hungary, met Taro, a refugee from Nazi Germany, met with the intention to become photographers. The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War one year later began Capa’s emergence as the most renowned war photographer ever, and established Taro as the first frontline female battle photographer. She was killed in the battle of Brunete in 1937.
...says Variety HERE.
I was a photo major in college for a while (ultimately shifted to a different field) - Capa's work was an enormous inspiration. I don't know much about him personally (although I guess I'm about to find out), but his images left indelible impressions on me...
[EDIT]
The story begins in Paris in 1935, where Capa, a refugee from Fascist Hungary, met Taro, a refugee from Nazi Germany, met with the intention to become photographers. The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War one year later began Capa’s emergence as the most renowned war photographer ever, and established Taro as the first frontline female battle photographer. She was killed in the battle of Brunete in 1937.
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Sounds nice
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But I guess after Public Enemies, Mann won't be directing anything with a big budget for awhile.
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Spanish Civil War...Who can resist the fight against fascism?
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Oct 05, 2009 2:05:38 PM CDT
Make the film look like a moving Capa photo, and I'm in.
by knuckleduster
That would require you to quit using shitty digital cameras, Mr Mann. Think you can handle that? After Public Enemies' horrible digital look, I think you have all the motivation you need.
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...The Insider, and Manhunter, and Ali, and, of course, muthfuckin' Heat. And I'd love to know more about Capa, of which I know almost nothing. He's clearly a real talent, but it always amuses me that his most famous photo is more a matter of dumb luck than any particular skill.
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thats just the only other war photographer movie I know;)Knuckleduster I like the moving photo idea. The world needs more modern black/white
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Kinda quiet, this talkback... anyway, saw the banner ad up top for the 10th Anniversary edition of "The Audition" on DVD. What a truly fucked-up work of Asian horror. Genius. Imma have to buy that DVD...
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I had not heard that Capa's iconic photo was perhaps staged... then I googled it, and sure enough, there seems to be some leaning in that direction. Maybe that'll be the crux of Mann's take on the dude.
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So weird. This is something like the fourth Capa biopic to go into development since 2003. Many years ago, I read Menno Meyjes's screenplay, which nearly got made with Adrian Brody in the lead and Natalie Portman as Gerda Taro. Good casting, but the script was basically a greatest hits take on Capa's life.If anyone has it in them to make a less conventional Capa biopic, it's Mann. Love what he did with ALI. And while Capa may have staged the Spanish Civil War photo, I doubt he had time to fake a damn thing while he was dodging bullets on Omaha Beach. Too bad some moron developer melted the bulk of Capa's snaps.
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3.5 of the 4 rolls got ruined, and of those that survived most came out fuzzy.Will John Steinbeck be there?
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Nothing wrong with those cameras. Mann just likes getting ugly images out of them. Wish I knew why.
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IIRC, Steinbeck was in Meyjes's draft. He definitely covered that portion of Capa's life.
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One of the best directors around, love to see his work.
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Perhaps Javier Bardem in the lead, would love to see him and Mann work together
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you may want to check out the documentary 'The War Photographer' about James Nachtwey. Powerful stuff.
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No, wait... I see it. Everything is the greatest story ever!!
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http://tinyurl.com/y9mrbdtColin Farrell, or maybe Jon Hamm, although I'm sure everyone involved would be more than happy with Johnny Depp.
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movie one of the best movies I've ever seen, then I will give him the benefit of the doubt on this one even though it doesn't sound too interesting on paper... But we don't know the story, so it could be great material.
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I love Mann, but this sounds terrible...maybe next we'll get Ansel Adams - The Movie!
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Because a bio pic about a famous photographer shouldn't be shot on film- that would be weird and not immediate enough.
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... about the time he incorporated clips of "Paths of Glory" into his infamous Academy Awards montage about Americana in movies. Then there was "Miami Vice", with all its lingering shots of ... oh, not much at all, really. And "Public Enemies", in which a lucid narrative is a shameful thing to be riddled full of bullets and buried in a shallow grave. So you can tell what this Capa film will be like without seeing it: dreamy, beautifully designed, remote, confusing, and a crushing bore.
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...just saw Zombieland and is following one of the rules: Limber up.
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Mann is the man and I love the digital. Check my review of Public Enemies @ http://sickpicks.blogspot.com/
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This sounds like it could be his best film since Collateral (which was his best film since Insider) Nothing else matters before that (with the exception of Mohicans).
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If the guy who made gunfights look and sound as dangerous as he did in Heat tackles WW2, then sign me up.
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.. and The Public Eye doesn't count.
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seriously. perfect director for such a project. Bring it.
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Natalie Portman, I bet.
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If any of you are interested, check out "Slightly out of focus" really good book about Capa
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FREE POLANSKI petition.
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THERE IS EVERYTHING WRONG WITH PUBLIC ENEMIES.
Mann just needs to stop trying to find some hidden power of digital cameras, and simply use them to be a cheap, efficient way to mimic film. Collateral was fun, it was duck in LA, we get it. it looked cool, but it was not a period piece, it was not a real drama, it was an action short film stretched to 90 minutes. and it worked, it was fun. but Public Enemies was a travesty. he took a compelling story, amazing art direction and costumes, and unbelievable performances, and made a movie that almost made me throw up in my popcorn. the film looked that bad. it's not going to be nominated for a single goddamn oscar because of that, and that's a shame, because it had by FAR the best costume work of any movie this year. if Mann wants to shoot a movie about photography, set in the middle of the 20th century, on digital, he better stop trying to experiment, and just use it to save money and shoot REALLY long takes that actors like. no more with the low light grayscale grainy bullshit. and OVERCRANK WHEN YOU'RE GOING TO DO SLOW-MO!! shit, I can do it on my HMC150, and that costs $3000. I love Michael Mann, Heat and Last of the Mohicans are outright masterpieces, but this phase has got to end for him. -
he's a dead ringer for Capa on the wikipedia page.
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Let's face it...Public Enemy isn't a good movie. I'm a huge Mann fan but Public Enemy was a long and boring movie that was basically Heat in the 30's but no where near as good. I love Mann's use of Digital because no one shoots it like he does but that said I wish he would shoot this one on film or the Red Camera. The images above are so powerful and full with complete visual impact that his film would need to reflect that too. I'm still hoping Mann has another Heat, The Insider, or Thief left in him. This could be it.
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Oct 05, 2009 9:18:16 PM CDT
I know I'm in the minority, but I fucking love Miami Vice
by theneonsamurai
I was a little mixed the first time, but as a guy who like guy movies (and a photographer) I've come to believe Miami Vice is one of the greatest "guy" movies ever made, and I absolutely love the grainy, dirty, video look of the flick. ... I do agree that the video look is rather jarring in a period movie like Public Enemies, but lets not forget that he used video for portions of Ali and it worked fine.
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I admit I haven't seen PUBLIC ENEMIES yet, but as for his other works, I have no complaints (maybe Jamie Foxx should not be cast ever again in a film, but that's a separate issue... man that guy sucks).
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because it doesn't slow down or stop to try and explain things to you. If you don't listen, you miss it. No crappy exposition at all.
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Quality, little-seen noirish film starring a thankfully-toned-down Joe Pesci as Wee Gee - the famed New York crime scene reporter.
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Weegee did it all the time in his famed photos. The guy who did that infamous "Crash" book certainly did it. Hell, even Iwo Jima flag picture was re-staged.
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too bad he's still doing his faux-rap thing.
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...knows nothing about him, he was the *man* on the battlefield and in Hollywood. There are few people with a more colourful life story.
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what a bag of flour that snoozefest was.
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Better a movie about people photographing the war then about people dancing about architecture.
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Lots of neo-cons resent the fight agaisnt fascists. Because the other side of the spanish War, the fighters were communists and socialists, and neo-cons are absolutly unable to sympathise and relate to those left-wingers, even if the bad guys are fascists. They rather side with the fascists, as it has been proved time and again.
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Dunno why, but somehow looking at most of his pics I can't help recall Jude Law from Road to Perdition.
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One of the best American filmmakers - and DEFINITELY one of the best who has the balls to make BIG films... All the hater confuses me, I think it's because people want his films to be something they're not, maybe?
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I won't argue that Heat is the better film (objectively speaking), but I have such a soft spot for Ali. Lubezski's photography was stunning and Smith's performance was just perfect. And that ending still gets me every time. I agree that Mann's worst film is probably still better than what most other directors come up with, but I was really disappointed with Public Enemies (and it's not even a bad film). I'm guessing it was Spinotti's first work on digital, because a lot of those shots look more like behind-the-scene footage than proper feature cinematography. It was a bad decision to shoot a period piece on digital, and I can't help thinking that it's making some filmmakers lazy. It worked in Collateral and Miami Vice (which I loved), but that's because Beebe knows what to do with a Sony camera and it suited the world those films took place in. Digital just doesn't work on everything, I'm afraid. Just imagine Malick not shooting on film. The Horror...
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You want to know a definition of an idiot? People who have tolerance for Michael Bay's and Roland Emmerich's movies and yet find things to bitch about a Michael Mann movie.
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I'm affraid i'll have to go with the cliché answer, but truly for me Heat is my favorite of Mann's movies. Because it's his best, as i'm sure many will agree. But i alos have a very soft spot for Last Of The Mohicans. I really love that movie. Though, i have to point out, it's the international version i love, not the american one, which i find inferior.And yes, i agree, for some weird reason, Ali is terribly underrated in here, for reasons science is yet to explain. Suffice to say, it's one of the very few movies i can tolerate Will Smith, and not only is he ok in the movie, he's really very very good at the job. I fucking hate Will Smith and i say he was justly nominated for best actor for his work on Ali. Proof, if need be, of Ali's quality as a movie and Mann's as a filmmaker.
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So he just told some guy on cue to shoot him ?
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many famous war photographers were known to "enhance" some of their works. The American Civil War's Winslow Homer did it on occasion as did others.
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Mathew Brady. Duh. Not Winslow Homer. Not the first time Ive got them names mixed up.
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difference between the US and Int'l versions of LOTM? I love that movie. great battle scenes. great music.
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I like Mann, he's a solid film maker. I love how he keeps things REAL, and is willing to experiment. After watching the Insider, I'll never doubt his ability to make a seemingly dull story engaging and interesting. He never insults the intelligence of his audience either, he just tells the story like it is.
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I forgot to mention it in the Mann films I actually like. Heat, I've grown to hate though. Because it's Michael Mann at his most boring. Long angry staredowns with Moby music in the background. Last of the Mohicans was great because it really didn't feel like what you would expect a Mann film to be like. Insider is still my favorite though.
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