Word via Deadline’s Justin Kroll on Monday came that a follow-up to Michael Mann’s epic 1995 crime thriller, Heat, is in the works at Warner Bros. Pictures. What’s more, actor Adam Driver (65) is in talks to star in the film as a young version of Neil McCauley with Mann in negotiations with the studio to direct, and with Arnon Milchan’s New Regency optioning to board the film when it “is in a good place to move forward”.
Robert DeNiro played professional thief McCauley in the inaugural film opposite Al Pacino’s ex-marine now LA detective Vincent Hanna. Mann worked on the film for well over a decade before finally landing a project at WB with producer Art Linson, which became a box office hit and a landmark success for Mann’s filmography. Mann eventually segued into prequel/sequel territory with a novel released last year while developing a feature continuation.
More from Kroll on the book:
Heat 2 was penned by Mann and Meg Gardiner and is not a novelization of Mann’s film, rather it tells the story of everything that happens before and after to the principal characters. The book jumps between two time periods, the first following Chris Shiherlis as he tries to evade the LAPD and Detective Vincent Hanna following the bank robbery gone bad and moves forward into new territory in the tri-border zone and Southeast Asia. The second storyline takes readers back to Chicago in 1988 when McCauley, Shiherlis and their high-line crew are taking scores on the West Coast, the U.S.-Mexico border, and in Chicago. At the same time, Hanna is cutting his teeth as a rising star in the Chicago police department chasing an ultraviolent gang of home invaders.
The fallout from McCauley’s scores and Hanna’s pursuit cause unexpected repercussions in a parallel narrative.
Mann is currently directing Driver on Ferrari which is slated for release this year. Read more at Deadline.