Stepping off the elevator in the Wisconsin State Capitol, one almost feels out of place among the building's current occupants, who are all dressed in 1930s attire with hair so slick it reflects the light. In the next room over, actor Billy Crudup, playing FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover, is asking a committee for more appropriations for his G-men,"" clearly restraining the emotion that threatens to overtake him at any second. Suddenly, the meeting is over, and Crudup and his men, angry at the decision, storm out of the room.
And so ends a typical ""morning"" of shooting for director Michael Mann, who's in Madison this week to shoot his latest film, ""Public Enemies"" - due for release in July of 2009. While it's nearly midnight, the cast is now breaking for ""lunch"" and will be back to work in under an hour.
Mann is famously elusive while directing his films, preferring to concentrate on his work during shooting. But for Mann - writer and director of films like ""Collateral,"" ""Heat"" and ""Miami Vice"" - this is a special occasion; it's homecoming for the UW-Madison alum from a journey that started almost 40 years ago.
Mann said his love of film started at UW-Madison, with the introduction of the school's first film course and with a screening of Stanley Kubrick's ""Dr. Strangelove"" at the Orpheum Theater.
""I didn't really know what I was going to do after graduation. 'Dr. Strangelove' was a revelation. It knocked me out,"" Mann said. ""It was one of those moments where it just occurred to me: 'This is what you have to do. You want to make films.'""
That career trajectory has never failed Mann. He's been nominated for four Academy Awards, won an Emmy and directed some of the greatest actors of our time, including Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Daniel Day-Lewis and, in ""Public Enemies,"" Christian Bale and Johnny Depp.
One would think a director with Mann's reputation would be used to dealing with marquee names, but Mann approaches each actor he works with differently.
""What I am conscious of is my obligation to communicate to actors in the most telling way,"" he said. ""But what I do find in common in all of my actors is a sense of adventure about how they approach their character.""
Mann is also regarded for his outstanding eye for scenery and location shooting, which brought him back to Wisconsin to film segments of ""Enemies."" While scouting for locations to shoot, Mann was informed by his cousin, a prosecutor in La Crosse, that many of the towns in southwest Wisconsin have kept much of their architecture from the early 1900s, the perfect background for a Depression-era drama.
""Public Enemies"" marks the first time since Mann adapted and directed ""The Insider"" in 1999 that he has chosen to directly adapt a book rather than create his own story.
""Whether you write an original story or do an adaptation, you still have to find the story for the movie,"" Mann said. ""You have to ask yourself, 'what is the story for the movie?' You have to find your own psychology and your own attitudes.""
Mann added that it's necessary to make each character's emotional reasoning accessible to modern audiences to make the story worth telling.
""In 1933, they thought idiomatically; like 'there's a bullet somewhere with your name on it'- a certain kind of fatalism,"" he said. ""There are some good reasons why they'd have that way of thinking. But you have to decide your film's story.""
At about 12:30 a.m. it's back to work for Mann and his crew during this long night of shooting. It's no bullet, but ""Public Enemies"" is all the better for having Michael Mann's name on it.
