The key phrase in Michael Fleming‘s report about Michael Mann‘s next film, a period war romance based on Susana Fortes‘ “Waiting for Robert Capa,” says that Mann “intends to make a gritty, low-budget film.” In other words, I’m surmising, Columbia has told him “yes for but for a price.” I think that creatively this will prove an excellent thing. Good filmmakers are always inspired by financial limitations.

It’s also interesting that there are strong similarities between the story, largely set during the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s and dealing with a hot-and-heavy affair between war photographers Robert Capa and Gerda Taro, and Ernest Hemingway‘s For Whom The Bell Tolls. Mann wanted to make an adaptation of the classic novel a couple of years ago with Leonardo DiCaprio in the Gary Cooper role.