PUBLIC ENEMIES Featurette

Universal Pictures has released a new featurette for the upcoming “Public Enemies” which stars Johnny Depp and Christian Bale among the others. Director Michael Mann talks about the character of John Dillinger and is joined by Johnny Depp and Christian Bale as well. Bale talks about Dillinger and how he became idolized in America. The film is based on Brian Burrough’s book “Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34.″ The screenplay based on Burrough’s book was adapted by Ronan Bennett. Later, Michael Mann and Ann Biderman wrote a revised screenplay before shooting. Channing Tatum plays outlaw Pretty Boy Floyd, Giovanni Ribisi – Alvin Karpis, Stephen Dorff – Homer Van Meter, and Jason Clarke stars as John “Red” Hamilton. That quartet comprised a Dillinger gang that knocked off banks all over the Midwest during the Depression. Christian Bale stars as Melvin Purvis, who was tapped by FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover to lead a manhunt that established the FBI as the country’s first federal police force after the G-Men killed Dillinger outside the Biograph Theater in 1934. The movie which also stras David Wenham, Marion Cotillard, Leelee Sobieski, Emilie de Ravin, Branka Katic and Billy Crudup is set for release on July 1, 2009.