Did Johnny Depp And Michael Mann Butt Serious Heads On The Set Of ‘Public Enemies’?

Director Michael Mann is a notorious stickler for details. He painstakingly recreates scenarios and will reshoot a scene over and over again until it is just thusly perfect and to his liking. It’s probably what make most of his movies (with some pointed exceptions) pretty great.

EW interviewed Johnny Depp earlier this year about his work on Mann’s upcoming Depression-era John Dillinger gangster movie, “Public Enemies” with Christian Bale and we innocently made jokes that Depp’s semi-diplomatic comments about the director were veiled code for “obsessive asshole.”

“[Mann is about] the details of the details of the details. They should invent a word to describe it because it’s not just details, it teeters on microscopic obsession with every molecule of every moment. Which is admirable, you know? You got to salute that.”

The actor tried to put a positive spin on it all and we wrote, “If we were feeling like bigger assholes, we’d swear this Depp quote was a euphemism for “Michael Mann is an anal twat.”

“How often do you get to stand on the running board of an old 1932 Buick blasting a 50-round clip from a Tommy submachine gun? When do you get to do that without getting in trouble? And with Michael, you do it again and again and again.”

Maybe we weren’t just reading too deeply into things? Niki Finke heard about skirmishes on the set between the two and wrote, “Let’s talk about the constant battling I heard took place between always combative Michael Mann and Johnny Depp.”

And Finke was fishing around for stories too ostensibly to write about them. Google cache doesn’t lie and she originally wrote, “On the other hand, if you’ve got details about the constant battling I heard took place between Michael Mann and Johnny Depp on Uni’s Public Enemies coming out July 1st, please email me.”

And then she changed it. Maybe someone at the studio asked her to do so? Either way, it sounds like Depp wasn’t kidding when he threw these veiled barbs at Mann. With Finke doing digging for salacious dirt, we’re sure something will turn up soon enough.

“Public Enemies” hits theater July 1, 2009 and is rounded out by a stellar cast that includes Billy Crudup, Leelee Sobieski, Giovanni Ribisi, Channing Tatum, David Wenham, Stephen Graham, Emilie de Ravin, Marion Cotillard and Stephen Dorff.