Dicing with Dillinger   Ronan Bennett, the Irish author of
Zugzwang and writer of acclaimed TV film The Hamburg Cell, saw
his first Michael Mann movie, The Jericho Mile, at the Scala in
King's Cross in 1979. "It was the first time I ever remember
taking note of the director's name in the cinema. It was a
really authentic prison story, set in Folsom Penitentiary in
California, and I was only a few months out of jail. It made a
really big impact on me."  The previous year, Bennett had been
accused of heading an anarchist cell with terrorist intentions
in London. He was imprisoned on remand for 16 months but was
acquitted after defending himself in court. He kept an eye on
Mann as the years went by. "The Last of the Mohicans came out,
and Heat and The Insider. I was a big, big fan."  But, then, as
Bennett developed a reputation as a novelist and a screenwriter,
Mann started keeping an eye on him. He liked a script Bennett
had written about Che Guevara and they tried to get it off the
ground, but Steven Soderberg