Michael Mann Turned a 60 Minutes Story into a Masterful Thriller

In 1999, Michael Mann followed up Heat, a masterful depiction of the intersecting lives of two sides of the law in Los Angeles, with a quiet, thrilling drama about a tobacco industry cover-up. The film is The Insider, starring Russell Crowe and Al Pacino. Written by Mann alongside Eric Roth, the film is based on a 1996 Vanity Fair article penned by Marie Brenner. The article covers the story of Jeffrey Wigand, a Louisville, Kentucky chemistry teacher who worked with the Brown & Williamson tobacco company, and first blew the whistle in a public manner on the tobacco industry's knowledge and subsequent cover-up of cancer-causing, addictive additives being put in cigarettes. It also covers the 60 Minutes coverage of the story, which itself became a major scandal for CBS, calling into question the journalistic integrity of a prestigious news organization.