DiCaprio and Mann to go Noir

A spate of vintage detective dramas hit our screens last year. We had Adrien Brody trying to unravel the death of Superman, Josh Hartnett trying to figure out why Mia Kirshner was impersonating The Joker and now, it seems, Michael Mann has been bitten by the noir bug.

He’s adopting a nostalgic nuance; trading semi-autos and speedboats for Tommy Guns and bullet-holed Buicks.

The Collateral helmer’s next project will reportedly be an LA Confidential style crime thriller scribed by Aviator wordsmith John Logan and starring Scorsese muse Leonardo DiCaprio.

The story unfurls on the old MGM lot during the 1930s. DiCaprio will play a private dick that’s a go-to-PI for studios looking to sanitise star scandals. The main thread of the story will focus on a bleeding starlet who callously murders her husband and Leo’s investigation of the case.

The film’s story will needle-in screen greats such Judy Garland and Bugsy Siegal and anyone worried that being a period piece it might have to forgo one of Mann’s disorientating shoot-outs, worry not. A congested bullet swap-meet inside the Trocadero club on Sunset Boulevard will play the centrepiece of the film.

The script has been handed to studio execs and shooting will begin in February.