Editing Michael Mann (section)

===1967–1978: Rise to prominence ===
Mann later moved to London in the mid-1960s to go to graduate school in cinema. He went on to receive a [[graduate degree]] at the [[London Film School]] in 1967. He spent seven years in the United Kingdom going to film school and then working on commercials along with contemporaries [[Alan Parker]], [[Ridley Scott]] and [[Adrian Lyne]]. In 1968, footage he shot of the [[May 1968 events in France|Paris student revolt]] for a documentary, ''Insurrection'', aired on [[NBC]]'s ''First Tuesday'' news program and he developed his '68 experiences into the short film ''Jaunpuri'' which won the Jury Prize at [[Cannes Film Festival|Cannes]] in [[1970 Cannes Film Festival|1970]].

Mann returned to the United States after divorcing his first wife in 1971. He went on to direct a road trip documentary, ''17 Days Down the Line'' (1972). Three years later, ''[[Hawaii Five-O (1968 TV series)|Hawaii Five-O]]'' veteran [[Robert Lewin (screenwriter)|Robert Lewin]] gave Mann a shot and a crash course on television writing and story structure. This led to Mann writing four episodes for ''[[Starsky and Hutch]]'' between 1975–1977 (three in the first season and one in the second), two episodes for ''[[Bronk (TV series)|Bronk]]'' in 1976, and an episode for [[Gibbsville (TV series)|''Gibbsville'']] in 1976. Between 1976–1978, he wrote four episodes for ''[[Police Story (1973 TV series)|Police Story]]'' (as well as directed one for the spin-off series ''[[Police Woman (TV series)|Police Woman]]'' in 1977'')'' with cop-turned-novelist [[Joseph Wambaugh]]. ''Police Story'' concentrated on the detailed realism of a real cop's life and taught Mann that first-hand research was essential to bring authenticity to his work.  

In 1976–1977, Mann worked on a screenplay originally titled ''The Last Public Enemy'' but later re-titled ''Karpis'', based on Canadian-American criminal [[Alvin Karpis]]'s autobiography, ''The Alvin Karpis Story''.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=1977-09-17 |title=Tucson Citizen from Tucson, Arizona |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/583096134/ |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en-US}}</ref> The film was scheduled to be made at [[Paramount Pictures]] for producers [[Harold Hecht]] and Robert L. Rosen, and was to be directed by [[John Frankenheimer]] (who had previously directed a similar film, [[Birdman of Alcatraz (film)|''Birdman of Alcatraz'']], for Hecht), but it was never produced.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1976-09-13 |title=The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/383201541/ |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1977-01-01 |title=Anderson Daily Bulletin from Anderson, Indiana |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/973041699/ |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en-US}}</ref> Mann also wrote an early draft of the 1978 film ''[[Straight Time]]'', which was based on real-life criminal-turned author [[Edward Bunker]]'s novel ''No Beast So Fierce''.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Straight Time (1978)|url=http://thisdistractedglobe.com/2008/10/23/straight-time/|access-date=May 27, 2020}}</ref> He then created and wrote the pilot episode for ''[[Vegas (1978 TV series)|Vega$]]'' (1978–1981).