Michael Mann to adapt WAITING FOR ROBERT CAPA

Director Michael Mann intends to make a gritty, low-budget film based on the story of renowned war photographer Robert Capa, centering on his torrid two-year romance with fellow photog Gerda Taro during the Spanish Civil War.

Mann will produce through his Forward Pass banner, and Columbia Pictures will distribute.

Mann has tapped play-write and screenwriter Jez Butterworth(Jerusalem/Fair Game) to adapt Susana Fortes' Spanish-language novel Waiting for Robert Capa.

The book begins in Paris in 1935, where Capa, a refugee from fascist Hungary, met Taro, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany. The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War a year later began Capa's emergence as the most renowned war photographer ever, and established Taro as the first frontline female battle photographer. She was killed in the Battle of Brunete in 1937. Capa was shattered by Taro's death, and though he'd later romance the likes of Ingrid Bergman, Capa never married.

I like Mann, I still have faith in him and always look forward to seeing his film. But his last two films didn't come anywhere near expectations, and his biopics have been extremely lack luster. Ali missed the mark, and I hope "gritty and low-budget" doesn't mean he'll be using those digital cameras that he's so fond of. They completely took you out of his last pic, Public Enemies, and they made Miami Vice somehow worse than it was... that's saying a lot.

What do you guys think of Michael Mann making a film based on the life of Robert Capa?

Source: Variety