Michael Mann’s Heat universe is heating up, with the director speaking in a new interview about the long-awaited sequel coming out in August as a novel and then as a film. Speaking with Empire Magazine, Mann spoke at length about his view for how the novel will crack open a kind of Heat cinematic universe.
“It’s totally planned to be a movie,” said Mann of the novel Heat 2 he co-wrote with Meg Gardiner, which is due to hit shelves on August 9 alongside an Ultra HD Blu-ray re-release of the 1995 film. “Is it a modest movie? No. Is it a very expensive series? No… It’s going to be one large movie.”
The novel takes place both before and after the film in a prequel-sequel structure, reportedly largely focusing on Al Pacino and Robert De Niro’s characters–though Mann doesn’t intend to have those actors back. “I love those guys,” said Mann, “But they’d have to be six years younger than they were in Heat.”
Mann also added that despite the fact that recasting those roles will be a considerable challenge, he’s also aware that Heat–whatever popularity and following it has attained–came out nearly 30 years ago. “I could delude myself into thinking that the whole world is familiar with it,” said Mann. “But when you check out its prominence in home video for over 20 years, this thing really has legs. People are still watching it, people are still talking about it. It’s a brand. It’s kind of a Heat universe, in a way. And that certainly justifies a very large ambitious movie.”
The director’s most recent film is 2015’s Blackhat. This year, he directed the first episode of the 2022 crime series Tokyo Vice for HBO Max. Production has also recently started on Mann’s upcoming film Ferrari, starring Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz.
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