By It has taken a long time to get here, but it’s looking like a sequel to 1995’s “Heat” will be filmmaker Michael Mann’s next film.
Based on the novel by Mann and Meg Gardiner, the story is expected to serve as both a prequel and sequel to the original film, with events taking place both seven years earlier in Chicago in 1988 and in the months and years following the events in 1995.
The result is that casting is going to be a key component of the production, with younger and some older versions of the characters played by Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Val Kilmer to be portrayed on screen.
We already know Adam Driver is being rumored for the De Niro role, and speaking with The Playlist’s The Discourse podcast whilst promoting “Ferrari,” Mann says they’re not rushing casting as they’re aware how tricky it will be:
“It’s going to be a combination [of CG and makeup]. And so, it won’t be [Robert De Niro] and Al [Pacino] playing McCauley and Hanna. And it actually starts eight years earlier than the movie. It starts in 1988, and then it’s gonna jump to 2000. But I don’t really know who to cast until I’ve actually written the screenplay, but I’m in the middle of writing the screenplay right now. And Warner Bros. have been very patient.”
Mann recently dabbled his toes back in the TV arena with HBO’s “Tokyo Vice” and so he was also asked if there was ever an idea to make the “Heat” sequel into a prestige series. He says:
“Sure, but I’m not interested in doing it as a long form. I’m only interested in doing it as a movie, same scale as the 1995 film.”
As Mann suggests, the screenplay is still being worked on, it could be some time before we see the movie – Mann is in no rush and takes his time between projects (“Ferrari” is his first film since 2015’s “Blackhat”) so don’t expect this anytime before 2025 if then.
Mann says he only makes films he’s “passionate about, and that placed me a little bit more on the frontier” and isn’t a “journeyman director”, so you won’t likely see him do a superhero film. That said, he does share he loves watching the first two “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies.
Mann’s “Ferrari” opens in cinemas on Christmas Day.
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