I want to say that Michael Mann's Public Enemies cannot possibly get any better -- but this could be one of those movies where so much awesome has come together that the universe must destroy it in order to keep us all in balance.

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that David Wenham and Stephen Graham have joined the cast -- which is led by Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, and Christian Bale as the famed FBI Agent, Melvin Purvis, who hunted him down. These two actors can do no wrong, and it is going to be a lot of fun watching them go head to head.

Wenham, who was last seen as Dilios in 300, will be playing Pete Pierpont, a member of Dillinger's gang who is violently opposed to authority. Graham will be playing the famous gangster, Baby Face Nelson. They round out Dillinger's gang, which already includes Marion Cotillard, Giovanni Ribisi, Stephen Dorff, and John Ortiz. (Is the Reporter a misprint, by the way? Wikipedia lists a Henry Pierpont in Dillinger's gang, not a Pete.)

If you've seen Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose, you've seen one heck of a great performance. But will we see another from the actress, or was playing Edith Piaf the role of a lifetime? While I can't imagine her ever making such a huge transformation or giving such a notable, career-defining performance again, I'm excited to see where her Oscar nomination takes her and I hope that she can at least follow it up with some interesting parts. We've already heard that her next major role will be in Rob Marshall's Nine, an adaptation of the musical inspired by Fellini's 8½. After that, she could be heading to Chicago (not Marshall's Chicago, the real city) for Michael Mann's Public Enemies. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Cotillard is in negotiations to play Billie Frechette, the torch singer girlfriend of John Dillinger, who will be played by Johnny Depp. Channing Tatum, Giovanni Ribisi, Stephen Dorff and Jason Clarke have also joined the cast.

As Monika relayed last week, Billie will be a major character in the plot of Public Enemies, which also stars Christian Bale. The movie will reportedly balance between Dillinger's crime story and his love life while also focusing on FBI agent Melvin Purvis (Bale), who famously pursued and caught Dillinger in the mid-1930s. It is interesting to note that Public Enemies will be another singing role for Cotillard, who did not actually perform any of the Piaf songs in La Vie en Rose. But while the actress is not a born singer nor a long-trained one, she did sing in in the 2001 French film Les Jolies Choses (Pretty Things) and will be singing in Nine. Also, if you think Cotillard is suddenly getting work just because of her La Vie en Rose acclaim, you're mistaken. You may have seen her in either of her two English-language movies (Ridley Scott's A Good Year and Tim Burton's Big Fish), in any of the three Taxi movies, as the female lead in the sweet Amelie wannabe Love Me If You Dare, in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie follow-up, A Very Long Engagement or in any of the many other French films in which she has appeared.

First, Depp thought about becoming Dillinger. Then, he became Dillinger. Then, Bale signed on to battle him. Personally, I don't need any more information for the upcoming Michael Mann flick Public Enemies. It focuses on old-school criminals and the birth of the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover's notoriety, and features two of the most talented, irresistible actors today -- Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. Then again, stories have ruined flicks before, so it's probably a good idea to wait and get word about the script.

If sources over at Latino Review are right, this will be one sweet, dramatic, crime-filled ride. Their source, Caxe, says: "I wasn't too excited about this project after Miami Vice, but now that I've read it -- sh*t, I cannot wait until 2009, because it seems Michael Mann might actually be back in top form with Public Enemies." He says it's not a biopic, but will detail Dillinger's desperation as his ways become obsolete and Purvis tracks him. "We have a great, twisting plot that balances Dillinger's crime story and his love affair [with a young girl named Billie] with the overall picture of organized crime in the 1930s and how the government was trying to stop it." Topping that off, he says it's filled with great characters, historical accuracy, slick dialogue, and "flat-out fantastic action sequences." We have to wait until 2009 to see if he's right, but for now, you can get more details over at Latino Review.

Two of the hottest actors on the planet right now are Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. And I don't mean "hottest" as in "sexiest," honest, although I'm sure there are a few women out there who might disagree. So who is the director that could bring Batman and Captain Jack Sparrow together in one movie? Scorsese? Spielberg? Uwe Boll? Nope, it's Michael Mann, a filmmaker who clearly knows a little something about getting the most out of his leading men.

According to Variety, Mr. Depp and Mr. Bale will co-star in Mann's Public Enemies, with the former playing infamous bank robber John Dillinger and the latter portraying persistent FBI agent Melvin Purvis. Damn. Already I want to see this movie. Production on the Universal project (which is based on a book by Bryan Burrough) is expected to begin in March ... which means the film could be ready for the end of the year! (Couldn't it?)

Check out Chris Campbell's earlier report on this project right here. Obviously we'll bring you more news on this one as soon as it comes in.

Considering how hard it is to get people to go see a Tom Cruise movie these days, it wouldn't be surprising if it was also hard to get a director who'll work with the guy. Of course, Cruise's waning bankability isn't the reason that his spy movie, the weakly titled Edwin A. Salt, has already lost Terry George and Michael Mann as potential directors. I'm not sure why they aren't doing the film (Mann apparently picked Public Enemies instead), but it can't be fears of a potentially low gross. No matter; they are out and Peter Berg (The Kingdom) is in, according to Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider Blog. Well, he's not quite in yet; Columbia Pictures is only reportedly wooing the guy, though in the end it's supposedly up to Cruise's approval whether or not he gets the gig. Interestingly enough, Berg can almost be viewed as a Mann protégé, since he produced The Kingdom and Berg's follow-up, next summer's Will Smith vehicle, Hancock (the trailer of which hit the net this week). However, it doesn't appear that Mann will have any involvement with Edwin A. Salt.

I won't admit to being the biggest fan of Berg's work (who could, really?), but I will admit that The Kingdom was one of my top ten movies of 2007. Though it's mainly on my list because all critics have to have that one obligatory mainstream Hollywood pick, I do think it was directed quite well, with a tone that perfectly suited what it was really about (American dreams of an '80s action-movie-type response to 9/11). Also, his Friday Night Lights (the film; I haven't seen the TV pilot he did) was better than most high school football movies. So, I'm excited to see what he can do with Cruise, a script from Kurt Wimmer (Equilibrium) and the beginning-to-get-tired world of spies.

Two days ago it was a question; today it's a reality: Johnny Depp will indeed portray John Dillinger in Michael Mann's Public Enemies. According to Variety, the actor and director sealed the deal yesterday a few hours prior to Depp's appearance at the Sweeney Todd premiere. This is one of those rare situations in which something good came as a result of the writer's strike (not that it means the writer's strike is a good thing, of course), because Depp was only able to take this role after his Shantaram gig was postponed. Mann, too, has had other projects in his pipeline lately, including Empire with Will Smith, Frankie Machine with Robert De Niro, a Hollywood noir with Leonardo Dicaprio, Edwin A. Salt with Tom Cruise and one of two dueling biopics about ex-KGB Alexander Litvinenko (with the competing movie expected to star Depp, interestingly enough). None of those films have been reported as being passed over due to the strike, though.

Public Enemies was scripted by Mann himself, adapted from Bryan Burrough's book "Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34." In addition to Dillinger, the non-fiction tome goes into the stories of gangsters Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, the Barker gang and Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. There's no indication, however, that the movie will be focusing on any story except Dillinger's. Maybe the others will show up in passing, while Dillinger features as the main concentration. With a star like Depp in the guy's shoes, it's hard to imagine him sharing the screen with anyone expected to be taken as significant as he. Then again, it is called Public Enemies plural ...

Mann and Depp are set to begin shooting in Chicago in March.

Before the strike, Johnny Depp had a pretty sweet schedule set. From the bloody steps of Sweeney Todd, he'd jump into Shantaram -- the strange story of a Aussie heroin addict who flees to India and becomes a doctor in the slums, then somehow finds himself being a counterfeiter, smuggler, and gunrunner, before heading to Afghanistan and battling Russians, as we all come to do. However, the script needed some work, and with writers striking, the project had to be delayed. After that, he was planning to one again take on Hunter S. Thompson in The Rum Diary, which would be all sorts of great, but again, it's been delayed.

So, Depp's schedule is wide open, and The Hollywood Reporter has posted that he just might fill it with a passion project stewing with Michael Mann -- giving the actor an entirely different type of violence. The filmmaker has been interested in bringing Bryan Burrough's nonfiction work Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 to the big screen. Previous plans had Leonardo DiCaprio attached, but he's headed for the Island, so the coast is clear. Since Mann is also free (he won't commit to Edwin A. Salt), this could be the time to make it happen. They're reportedly going to meet this week to discuss the possibility of bringing the production together this March, with Depp looking at playing famous robber John Dillinger.

The book follows the crime wave that came about during the Depression, sporting all the famous names we know today -- Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and so on. Beyond traversing the bloody waves of these crime figures, the book details how good ol' J. Edgar Hoover molded the FBI into what it is today. Is Depp a good fit? And who would you nab to portray the other epic names?

Putting together last week's list of my favorite screenplays of the 2000's was relatively easy. I came up with about ten worthy candidates and narrowed from there. When I started putting together this week's list -- my favorite screenplays of the 1990's -- things got a lot more complicated. I had a much larger list of worthy candidates to choose from. It made me realize that a) the 90's, particularly the late 90's, was a genuinely incredible time for film, and b) I was going to have to split my list into two halves: 1995 -- 1999 and 1990 -- 1994.

So, in support of all the great screenwriters currently on strike, what follows is my favorite screenplays produced between 1995 and 1999. Read that last sentence carefully! If you've got movies you'd add to or subtract from my list, I would love to hear them, but make sure your choice fits the criteria. On my 2000's list, I was getting comments like "How DARE you not include Citizen Kane, you freaking idiot?"

Now then, with all apologies to the scripts it killed me to leave off (Office Space, A Simple Plan, As Good As it Gets, Chasing Amy, Lone Star, Three Kings, Swingers, Jackie Brown, Kingpin, I could go on and on), here is my alphabetical list:

Any fan of modern crime fiction has got to be a little jazzed about this news: The long-in-development adaptation of Don Winslow's crime novel The Winter of Frankie Machine now has a star and a director -- and it's the same team who gave us the modern crime classic Heat. Variety reports that Paramount's production, which has been on their development slate since the studio bought the rights to Winslow's novel pre-publication back in 2005, is moving forward with Michael Mann on-board to direct the long-attached Robert De Niro in the lead role. Winslow may be the best crime writer you've never heard of; his California Fire and Life is certainly my pick for one of the best page-turning thrillers of the past 20 years, and his decades-spanning, border-crossing drug epic The Power of the Dog is a knockout as well. The Winter of Frankie Machine will be shooting from a script adaptation by Brian Kopplman and David Levien (Rounders, Oceans 13), following the reluctant re-criminalization of Frank Machianno -- veteran, small businessman, surfer and ex-killer -- as all his old allegiances and alliances draw very close around him.

In a lot of ways, Winslow's book is about how easily civilized, upstanding San Diegan Frank Machianno goes back to being Frankie Machine, descending Dante-style into Hell to try and get out; it's a juicy part for De Niro, one similar to some of his more iconic roles and yet very different; Winslow's book makes no bones about the age of its protagonist, and Frank's sense of honor will make for ripe stuff in the hands of the men who created the principled-yet-predatory jewel thief Neil McCauley in Heat. With Mann on board as the director, this film just moved up several notches on my radar; now, if we can just get Peter Berg to return to that film version of California Fire and Life he was supposedly attached to, it'd be a very good time to be a fan of California crime on the big screen. ...

I may have initially hated Miami Vice, but it might be time to take another look. Especially because it's taking Michael Mann a long time to make a follow-up (though it's normal for him to take a few years between films). Lately he's been concentrating on producing, overseeing such pics as The Kingdom, which is currently in theaters, and the upcoming Hancock, which stars Will Smith. According to Variety, though, Mann has found a project that he's interested in directing next year, and it's to be another vehicle for Smith, who Mann previously directed to an Oscar nom in Ali. The drama, titled Empire, will also reunite Mann with screenwriter John Logan, with whom he worked, as a producer, on The Aviator. The plot involves a "contemporary global media mogul."

Other than that job title for (I'm assuming) Smith's character, little is known. But with such a great team involved, I don't think we need to worry. They're all very talented and respected (even if Logan did write the recent version of The Time Machine), Columbia apparently dished out at least a million bucks for the must-be-amazing pitch and I trust that Mann will not disappoint me again in the future. Something about this project -- perhaps the hint of corporate and media dealings -- makes me think it will be most in line with Mann's The Insider, which I think is his best film, even though it doesn't have a lot of action nor does it have Pacino and DeNiro face to face. Empire also won't feature classic Hollywood icons, like the film noir Mann and Logan were recently said to be making, but with that in mind, I think I'm anticipating this new project on less-kitschy grounds. Meanwhile, I'm also hoping that Smith make this a priority over Seven Pounds, his presumed next film (following Hancock) that returns him to the care of Pursuit of Happyness director Gabriele Muccino. I guess it all could come down to which film Smith thinks offers him a better chance at another Oscar nom for 2009.