First Trailer for Michael Mann's BLACKHAT

It has been five years since director Michael Mann has made a film and in that time he has transitioned from telling tales of old school crime to cybercrime. It is somewhat difficult to pull off this kind of story while keeping things tense as you can only do so much to enhance the menace of someone typing hysterically behind a keyboard, but Mann has the experience in crime dramas and so we trust he has an interesting take. Though the previously referred to Public Enemies wasn't the highlight of his career and 2006's Miami Vice wasn't necessarily all it was expected (or even meant) to be, my introduction to Mann was 2004's Collateral which is one of my favorite films of the last decade and thus why I have so much excitement each time he prepares a new project. I'd of course seen Last of the Mohicans and would go on after Collateral to finally absorb Heat (though I still need to see The Insider), but the Tom Cruise vehicle is the one that really made me sit up and take note of who was driving the vision. I loved the grainy visuals of LA night life and the story simply unfolded with such genuine tautness it was impossible to ignore how it pulled you in. I really hope Mann has returned to this type of story and execution with his latest though January release date is a bit worrisome. Still, despite the fact the trailer looking pretty plain there is always a certain degree of credibility that comes with Mann's films. Chris Hemsworth leads a cast that also includes Viola Davis, John Ortiz, William Mapother, Tang Wei, and Wang Leehom. Blackhat opens January 16, 2015.


Synopsis: Set within the world of global cybercrime, Legendary’s Blackhat follows a furloughed convict and his American and Chinese partners as they hunt a high-level cybercrime network from Chicago to Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Jakarta. Directed and produced by Michael Mann, the film stars Chris Hemsworth, Viola Davis, Tang Wei and Wang Leehom, and it is written by Morgan Davis Foehl and Mann. Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni produce alongside Mann, while Alex Garcia and Eric McLeod serve as the executive producers.