Highlights
- Michael Mann's film Heat is a masterpiece of the crime genre, known for its depth of characters and intense performances by Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.
- Heat 2 is a sequel in the form of a novel co-written by Mann, expanding on the characters' stories before and after the events of the film.
- Mann plans to turn Heat 2 into a film, potentially reuniting with Adam Driver, his star in the upcoming film Ferrari, for the project.
No filmmaker has mastered the crime genre better than Michael Mann. The immensely underrated writer/director/producer began his career in documentaries and carried those skills into his first feature with 1979's The Jericho Mile. Shot in Folsom State Prison and starring real convicts, it was distributed as a TV movie in the United States, only showing theatrically overseas, but importantly laid the groundwork for Mann's storied film career.
Perhaps one of Mann's best-known films, Heat was a huge success upon its release. The simmering, action-packed crime drama showcased the talents of its leads, Al Pacino and Robert de Niro, while also weaving a complicated tale of police and thieves set against the backdrop of 90s Los Angeles. Mann recently wrote a novel that serves as a sequel to Heat, and also announced that he plans to make it into a film, but what exactly is Heat 2 about?
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What is Heat 2 about?
1995's crime saga Heat is a film that cannot be distilled into a few sentences, or paragraphs for that matter, given the depth of its characters. There is certainly a terrific story at the center of it, but the film is more character-driven than it is plot-driven. Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) is a professional thief who takes scores in Los Angeles and is being pursued by LAPD detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino). Much of the story is about how their respective careers impact their personal lives along with those who they are professionally involved with, such as McCauley's problematic relationship with his gambling-addict confidante Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer). Even the supporting characters like Shiherlis' wife Charlene (Ashley Judd) and McCauley's former partner Don Breedan (Dennis Haysbert) are fully-formed people whose lives feel as though they transcend before and beyond the film.
Clearly, Mann felt that same way and extended his characters' stories in Heat 2, the first book he has co-written with Meg Gardiner that takes place in the years before and after the events of Heat. The book mostly follows Shiherlis, the last survivor of McCauley's crew as he desperately attempts to escape LA while Hanna intensely searches all over the city for him. It then goes back in time seven years to 1988, where McCauley, Shiherlis, and the rest of their highline crew take scores around the West Coast before ending up in Chicago and on the radar of homicide detective Vincent Hanna.
The story also jumps forward seven years to 2002 and finds Shiherlis in Ciudad del Este as he continues to work in organized crime for a Taiwanese cyber company owned by the sophisticated Liu family. He quickly finds himself treading on thin ice when he falls for Ana, the daughter of the Liu dynasty and must get back on the move. For Chiherlis and the rest of these colorful characters, all of their paths lead back to LA, the heart of the Heat universe's story. It took Mann 27 years to properly revisit his epic cinematic world with his brilliant book, and he now has the perfect blueprint for a film adaptation to do the very same thing.
Who will Star in ‘Heat 2’?
Mann is currently buzzing in the film zeitgeist after the Venice Film Festival premiere of Ferrari, his first movie since 2015's undercooked yet underrated cyber-thriller Blackhat starring Chris Hemsworth. Ferrari stars Adam Driver as the titular automobile and is based on the 1991 biography Enzo Ferrari: The Man and the Machine, having been developed by Mann over the past three decades. It appears Mann and Driver had an excellent time working together on the big-budget indie, so much so that Mann is already trying to team up with him once again.
Speaking onstage at Deadline's Contenders London event, Mann confirmed that he plans for Heat 2 to be his next film and had this to say when asked about reteaming with Driver (who has been rumored as Mann's choice to play the young McCauley):
“Perhaps. 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.”
It is no wonder why Mann wants to reunite with Driver, who is one of the most versatile actors working today. In terms of Hanna, Al Pacino was asked last year on who he wanted to see play a younger iteration if a sequel was made and he went with Timothée Chalamet, an eccentric choice for sure. From the iconic leads to the supporting players, this will be an exciting casting process to follow.
When will ‘Heat 2’ be in Theaters?
If Ferrari, which releases on Christmas Day, has a strong box office run and picks up some heat in awards discussions, Mann will likely have momentum on his side to make Heat 2 whenever he is ready. Based on his extremely meticulous filmmaking methods, there is no guessing when that would be. Adapting the book directly from page to screen would be difficult given all the nonlinear and intersecting timelines, but if anyone could pull it off, he is the Mann to do so.