Michael Mann is hardly wanting for further attention, at least when it comes to almost any cinephilia-centered website. (When it comes to critics appreciating his work and audiences paying to see it, well…) Yet a retrospective at New York’s BAMcinématek — which included the unveiling of a new cut of Blackhat — has made him a particularly bright object of attention in recent weeks. Although his career-spanning discussion held at the esteemed theater hasn’t been put online (you can read a recap here), a different talk of a similar sort has been made available in podcast form — and as much as you might know about Mann’s work and perspectives on his career, there will be a number of new, fascinating tidbits to take from this.
Josh Horowitz hosted the writer-director on his podcast, Happy Sad Confused, and in (wisely) letting his guest do much of the talking, covers a good deal of ground. For one thing, the impetus behind recutting Blackhat is explained in rather frank detail, thus only increasing the desire to actually see the thing for oneself. Most interesting to me, though, are the things Mann wants to do. Ferrari is touched upon — and apparently moving forward, despite Christian Bale’s exit — as are the hopes to make a sci-fi feature and return to television, seemingly unfazed by the relative financial disaster that was HBO’s Luck. But I won’t recap; I’ll just let you hear for yourself.
The conversation begins at around 8:15 and can be listened to below: