Director Michael Mann has announced that he is interested in a number of high-profile projects, and because of the success of The Insider, which recently got an Oscar nomination, he might just be the man to do all of them.

Mann is vying with Spike Lee for the rights to shoot the Mohammed Ali biopic, starring Will Smith. The film has been languishing in development limbo since last autumn when Smith's collaborator, director Barry Sonnefeld, decided against making the film about the former heavy-weight boxer. Columbia Pictures says its shortlist comprises of Mann and Spike Lee, who has just signed to direct a film version of the comedy stand-up tour Kings of Comedy for MTV Films. But according to the Hollywood Reporter, Curtis Hanson, who won an Oscar for his screenplay adaptation of LA Confidential, is also in the running. A decision is expected soon.

Further down the road is another contested biopic, Mann's long-in-development version of the life of the late billionaire, Howard Hughes. The screenplay is up against a number of other potential Hughes projects, but Mann's co-developer, Leonardo DiCaprio, does give his version the immediate edge. Mann has also succeeded in aligning the star of The Beach to a number of other projects, including The Inside Man, the true story of a police union corruption scandal.

Mann has also met up with Brad Pitt with a view to casting him as a master sniper lured out of retirement only to be betrayed in Shooter, an adaptation of Stephen Hunter's novel Point of Impact. In addition, Mann is working on a film about the drugs trade with Armageddon screenwriter, Shane Salero, as well as working on an adaptation of Stephen Pressfield's novel Gates of Fire, about the Spartans' defence of Thermopylae against invading Persian forces in 480 BC. It could be a very busy year for Mr Mann if he wins that Oscar on March 26th.