SUBMITTED BY Kit-Kat

January 28, 2008 — Borys Kit reports; "Marion Cotillard, who was nominated for an Oscar for her star turn in "La Vie en Rose," is in negotiations to join Johnny Depp and Christian Bale in "Public Enemies," Universal's Depression-era crime drama being directed by Michael Mann.

An adaptation of Brian Burrough's book "Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-43," the story follows the government's attempt to stop the criminals John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd. Depp is playing Dillinger to Bale's famed FBI agent Melvin Purvis.

Cotillard will play Billie, Dillinger's torch singer girlfriend. Mann, Ronan Bennett and Ann Biderman wrote the script. Production is due to start later this winter in Chicago and other Midwest locales.

Mann and Kevin Misher are producing. Robert De Niro and his partner Jane Rosenthal, who originally optioned the book, are exec producing.

"Enemies" is not Cotillard's first English-language feature. The French actress has appeared in, among other English productions, "A Good Year," with Russell Crowe. Cotillard is repped by CAA."