MOVIE NEWS – After the novel’s release, Michael Mann aims for the big screen with the film version of the book, Heat 2.

 

 

Era-changing director Michael Mann has set his sights on bringing the sequel to the film adaptation of the upcoming Heat 2 novel to the big screen. Speaking to Empire magazine, Mann revealed that the book, which is both a prequel and sequel to the critically acclaimed 1995 thriller starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, would make “one large movie”. A big film that he hopes to bring to life eventually.

“It’s totally planned to be a movie. Is it a modest movie? No. Is it a very expensive series? No. It’s going to be one large movie.”

Mann states that he has no intention of making a series out of Heat 2 (despite the popularity of such things today) and would only bring back the cop Vincent Hanna and the robber Neil McCauley to the screen. But could Al Pacino and Robert De Niro return alongside Michael Mann? Well, the director foresees some problems with that…

“I love those guys, but they’d have to be six years younger than they were in Heat.”

Interestingly, both Pacino and De Niro have returned to their younger years thanks to digital anti-ageing technology, courtesy of Netflix’s crime epic The Irishman, with mixed results, to say the least. While it’s unknown what Mann has in mind for the two leads, his response suggests he’d lean more towards re-casting than CGI gimmickry.

Mann has described Heat 2, due out on 9 August, as “as both a prequel and sequel to the renowned, critically acclaimed film of the same name.”

The novel spans “the formative years of homicide detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) and elite criminals Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro), Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer), and Nate (Jon Voight)” and leads up to and beyond the events of the film.

“Ranging from the streets of L.A. to the inner sancta of rival Taiwanese crime syndicates in Paraguay to a massive drug cartel money-laundering operation just over the border in Mexico, Heat 2 illuminates the dangerous workings of international crime organizations and the agents who pursue them as it provides a full-blooded portrait of the men and women who inhabit both worlds,” reads the official synopsis.

Source: Empire