90-minute pilot. However, the new series was not picked up by the network. Instead, it was released as a television film entitled L.A. Takedown. The pilot was shot in nineteen days, with ten days of pre-production, which was noted atypically fast for Mann. The film score was written by Tim Truman, and cinematography done by Ron Garcia. The soundtrack also featured the song "L.A. Woman" performed by Billy Idol. Release and reception Mann had cast Scott Plank in the role of Hanna, which was not well received by NBC. They expressed interest in buying the series on the condition of finding a new lead actor, but Mann refused, leading to NBC's rejecting the show. The unsuccessful pilot was, however, aired as a television film on NBC on August 27, 1989 at 9:00 pm. In 1990, it was released on VHS in Finland, with several other European countries following in the early 1990s. On March 19, 2008, a DVD of the movie was released in Germany, featuring several scene selections as bonus content. L.A. Takedown received mixed-to-positive reviews from film critics, with its acting being the most poorly received. On its first airing, The Globe and Mail gave the film a two star rating. Hal Erickson of AllRovi compared the film to Mann's cult TV series Miami Vice, but felt it emphasized style over substance. Dragan Antulov for Movie Reviews in Croatian (), in comparing the film with its remake, Heat, praised Mann's choice to hire unknown actors for L.A. Takedown, which contrasted with big stars in Heat. Although he derided Berkeley's performance as Waingro, he concluded that it was "a fine companion piece to Heat." A reviewer from Lexikon des Internationalen Films of Germany was less enthusiastic, citing routine action sequences and a confusing plot due to the overly large cast. Lol Frost of Empire gave L.A. Takedown two out of five stars, acknowledging the worthiness of the plot, but citing lack of Mann's typical filming style. Frost concluded that the film was "a bit of a dud, but a noble effort." Remake After directing The Last of the Mohicans, Mann decided to remake L.A. Takedown into a wide release cinema feature. He viewed the film as a dry run for the original story, which was a complex, multi-layered crime drama edited out of the script for the television film. He consulted a longer 1986 draft to work on the