Johnny Depp and Michael Mann May Plan Crime Wave

The Hollywood Reporter says that Johnny Depp and Michael Mann will sit down this week to discuss teaming up for a film about the Depression-era crime wave.

Mann has long been interested in mounting a screen adaptation of Brian Burrough’s nonfiction book “Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34” for Universal.

Mann — who has considered taking the helm of Columbia’s spy thriller Edwin A. Salt but has not committed to that project because he believes it needs a rewrite — has an open slot. And Depp was to have starred in Warner/Initial Entertainment’s Shantaram followed by Warner Independent’s The Rum Diaries, but both of those projects were postponed last month.

The trade says Depp is said to be eyeing the role of bank robber John Dillinger. Along with Mann, Kevin Misher is on board as producer; Robert De Niro and his partner Jane Rosenthal, who originally optioned the book, have been involved as executive producers; and the studio is looking at a March start in Chicago if all the elements come together.