Michael Mann Going to War on a Shoestring Budget

· After receiving relentless crap from the Hollywood establishment for daring to spend $100 million on what amounted to an art-house gangster movie (and a modestly performing one at that), Michael Mann will downsize with Columbia for a biopic of war photographer Robert Capa on the cheap. Adapted from the novel Waiting for Robert Capa, the film would focus on his two-year affair with fellow photographer and fascism refugee Gerda Taro. Mann promises a "gritty, low-budget film," which probably just means he'll try to talk Leonardo DiCaprio down to $10 million and a few points. [Variety]

The Next Three Days moves closer to casting all of Hollywood, remembering Miramax, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.

· Liam Neeson is now joining the cast of The Next Three Days, the Paul Haggis film about which we've posted casting news about a dozen times in the last month. Neeson will play an ex-con who counsels Russell Crowe's character on how get his wife (Elizabeth Banks) sprung from prison. I'm pretty sure this is the last role to be filled; Haggis started shooting Friday. [Variety]

· Disney's Friday news-dump about shrinking Miramax didn't elude Steven Zeitchik, who read the specialty label its last rites: "While there's a remote chance Miramax could thrive sheltered from the high expectations that come with being a standalone, it's more likely that the absorbed division gets [Paramount] Vantage-ized, the current talk of centralization little more than a speed bump on the road to dissolution." Kleenex? [THR]

· Speaking of Disney, it added ex-senator Fred Thompson, Kevin Connolly, A.J. Michalka and a cluster of others to its Secretariat ensemble. Rumor has it Thompson will play the horse shit. [THR]

· OMG! The Hollywood Reporter has breaking news that Mitch Hurwitz is working on the script for an Arrested Development -- huh? You already knew that? Oh. Sorry. [THR]