Johnny Depp and producer-director Michael Mann will be having discussion about developing a film about the Depression-era crime wave, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Mann has long been interested in developing a screen adaptation of Brian Burrough's nonfiction book "Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34" for Universal. Mann -- who has considered taking the helm of Columbia's spy thriller Edwin A. Salt but has not committed to that project because he believes it needs a rewrite -- has an open slot.

As for Depp, he was to have starred in Warner/Initial Entertainment's Shantaram followed by Warner Independent's "The Rum Diaries," but both of those projects were postponed last month, leaving the star with an opening in his schedule.

Depp and Mann are will be discussing this week the possibility of working on the project. Depp is said to be eyeing the role of bank robber John Dillinger. Robert De Niro and his partner Jane Rosenthal, who originally optioned the book, have been involved as executive producers; and the studio is looking at a March start in Chicago if all the elements come together.