This weekend Michael Mann will be trying to interest moviegoers in a saga of American crooks, but if that doesn't work, I suppose there's always Havana. Three producers-- Eric Eisner, Gil Adler and Shane McCarthy-- are teaming up to adapt the book Havana Nocturne, about American mobsters in 1950s Havana whose idyllic life is ended by the rise of Castro.
Matt Cirulnick, creator of the short-lived TV series South Beach, will write the screenplay, according to THR. Apparently the goal is not to just tell a story about mobsters and all their badassery, but get a picture of Cuban life as a whole. "We really want to show Havana and Cuba as a character at a time that it's booming," Eisner told THR. "This is about mobsters who don't only control a few business but try to control an entire country, and the tension that results when their plans go awry."
Honestly, all I can think about for this project is those photos that surfaced a few months ago of Johnny Depp driving a tiny car on the set of The Rum Diary. Yes, that movie is set in Puerto Rico, not Cuba, and Depp will presumably not sign on for yet another crime movie so soon after Public Enemies. And sure, crime movies are generally interesting no matter who's in them. But Johnny Depp sure doesn't hurt.
