Michael Mann’s Heat is one of the most acclaimed and beloved crime thrillers ever made, uniting legendary actors Robert De Niro and Al Pacino onscreen together for the first time. Now over 25 years after the film’s release, Mann has revealed his next project after the release of Ferrari will be Heat 2, an adaptation of the prequel/sequel he co-wrote with author Meg Gardiner.
Heat 2, which was released last year, follows plotlines set before and after Heat. Picking up directly off from the ending of the film, the present storyline follows Chris Shiherlis, played by Val Kilmer, on the run as the sole survivor of his crew in the aftermath of the downtown LA shootout and the death of De Niro’s Neil McCauley as Pacino’s Lieutenant Vincent Hanna hunts for him. The past storyline details the origins of McCauley’s philosophy of keeping no attachments if he feels the heat around the corner as well as Hanna’s investigation into a brutally violent group of home invaders and how all their lives intertwine in the years after Heat.
At Deadline’s Contenders London event, the talk turned from Mann’s upcoming Ferrari biopic to what the future might hold where Mann ended months of speculation and confirmed Heat 2 would be his next production. “Yes. Meg Gardiner and myself wrote the novel Heat 2, which came out right when we were shooting Ferrari. It did very well. I plan to shoot that next,” Mann told the crowd.
Mann also added more fuel to the fire in the speculation that his Ferrari star Adam Driver would portray the young Neil McCauley. Mann already revealed he and Driver spoke about the possibility on the set of Ferrari, but the director played more coyly this time while still teasing their reunion.
“Perhaps,” Mann had said with a laugh at the question of Driver’s casting. “We don’t talk about that yet. Let me put it this way: Adam and I got along like a house on fire [on Ferrari]. We have the same work ethic – which is pretty intense. We like each other, and we had a great time working together artistically.”
As for who might play Hanna, Mann said last year he would like to see Dune actor Timothée Chalamet take on Pacino’s role as a younger version of his dedicated and eccentric detective. Ferrari, meanwhile, had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival and is set for release on Christmas Day.
SEE ALSO: Heat: Still the Best Crime Thriller of the Modern Era
Do you want to see Driver and Chalamet in Heat 2? Who else would you like to see as younger versions of the characters?
One day after the end of Heat, Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer) is holed up in Koreatown, wounded, half delirious, and desperately trying to escape LA. Hunting him is LAPD detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino). Hours earlier, Hanna killed Shiherlis’s brother in arms Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) in a gunfight under the strobe lights at the foot of an LAX runway. Now Hanna’s determined to capture or kill Shiherlis, the last survivor of McCauley’s crew, before he ghosts out of the city.
In 1988, seven years earlier, McCauley, Shiherlis, and their highline crew are taking scores on the West Coast, the US-Mexican border, and now in Chicago. Driven, daring, they’re pulling in money and living vivid lives. And Chicago homicide detective Vincent Hanna—a man unreconciled with his history—is following his calling, the pursuit of armed and dangerous men into the dark and wild places, hunting an ultraviolent gang of home invaders.
Meanwhile, the fallout from McCauley’s scores and Hanna’s pursuit cause unexpected repercussions in a parallel narrative, driving through the years following Heat.
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
