Man Of The People

Genre: Drama.

Studio: Touchstone Pictures.
Production Company: Forward Pass Inc.

Project Phase: In The Can.

Who's In It: Al Pacino (Lowell Bergman); Russell Crowe (Jeffrey Wigand); Christopher Plummer (Mike Wallace); Diane Verona; Lindsay Crouse (Sharon Bergman); Gina Gershon; Rip Torn; Bruce McGill (Ephraim Margolin).
Who's Making It: Michael Mann (Director); Eric Roth (Screenwriter); Michael Mann, Pieter Jan Brugge (Producers); Dante Spinotti (Director of Photography); Based on "The Man Who Knew Too Much", a Vanity Fair article by Marie Brenner.

Premise: The true story of tobacco executive-turned-whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand and his relationship with 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman. Wigand, the former head of research and development for Brown & Williamson, was fired from his $300,000-a-year job under questionable circumstances and has since become a key witness in lung cancer cases against tobacco companies across the country. It focuses on the relationship between two men trying to reveal the truth -- tobacco execs claimed they were unaware smoking is addictive or cancer-causing -- against great odds and under great pressure.

Release Date: 1999.

Comments: One of the weirdest thing of this project is the fact that Christopher Plummer is playing famous 60 Minutes reporter Mike Wallace. The question we ask is: Why the hell can't Wallace play himself on the big screen?

But the fact that this is Michael Mann's next flick should perk up your interest. Creator of Miami Vice, the television series that defined the Eighties fashion style, Mann's rejuvinated both his cinematic style and career in the Nineties with his last outing, Heat. Whether you loved or hated that film, its fifteen-minute gun fight in Los Angeles' downtown core was riviting, chilling and also quintessential Mann filmmaking.

(And we don't care what you say -- The Keep and Band of the Hand were cool to us. Nyah.)

Rumors: Unknown.

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