Deadline’s Andreas Wiseman is exclusively reporting confirmation of the long-awaited sequel to Michael Mann’s 1995 hit crime thriller, Heat, as of Friday. The filmmaker made the announcement at the news firm’s Contenders Event in London while currently campaigning his latest banner work, Ferrari, starring Adam Driver.
The news comes six months after Warner Bros. Pictures gave public notice of its active development of a sequel, eyeing Driver for the role of professional thief Neil McCauley, previously played by Robert DeNiro in the first film. The character is revisited in the sequel novel which Mann penned alongside co-author Meg Gardiner and released in 2021.
Heat was produced by Art Linson alongside Mann who wrote the pic, and starred Robert DeNiro as McCauley opposite Al Pacino as ex-Marine-cum-Los Angeles detective Vincent Hanna. The film chronicles the arcs of both characters with Hanna’s unrelenting pursuit of McCauley right until the final climatic chase with a heist gone awry. The film also starred Jon Voight, Val Kilmer, Ashley Judd, Diane Venora and the late Tom Sizemore among others.
Mann and Gardiner’s “Heat 2” is billed as a prequel/sequel that focuses on the timeline leading up to the events of the 1995 movie, and the consequential fallout in the years that followed. Efforts to adapt the novel into feature were initially declared by Mann in 2019.
Neon is releasing Mann’s Ferrari in theaters on December 25.
Read more at Deadline.
Lead pic: Warner Bros. Pictures
