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Though “Heat,” the stylish, epic tale of cops and robbers starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, has over the years become Mann’s signature film, the event was centered more around the brooding dramatic thriller “The Insider.”

He loved “the game of cops and robbers,” he recounted, and became an expert prevaricator.

He said in their early 20s, the rappers ran around Shakur’s backyard with unloaded guns playing a game of cops and robbers.

“When my friends played cops and robbers, I always chose to be the cop,” he said.

That kind of cash can affect what editors and journalists choose to take on, forgoing coverage of the unglamorous to pour scant resources into pieces that translate into compelling TV: character-driven stories about true crime, cops and robbers, and the ungodly rich.