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Variety has got some casting news that will pit The Dark Knight against that pirate you’ve heard of, Jack Sparrow. In Michael Mann’s upcoming film Public Enemies Bale will take the role of Melvin Purvis, a sometimes maligned sometimes praised FBI Agent who made a career of bringing down Public Enemies and, often, putting them six feet under. Depp will star as John Dillinger, famed Depression-era Bank Robber and one of the most recognizable names in crime. Now, before Googling these chaps, remember this is based on a real life incident, so you may spoil yourself on the film, but needless to say Bale’s FBI Agent is out to take down agile crook Dillinger.

Mann will, of course, script, direct, and produce the film, so we can be assured that it will have at least one awesome gun fight and have an initial run time of something like 4 hours, before being cut down to a brisk 140 minutes. I kid. Sort of.

Filming starts in March for a late 2009 proposed release. As always, anything by Mann is worth keeping an eye on, and when you add in top tier talents like Depp and Bale, this movie has potential stamped all over it.