Michael Mann’s Heat 2 is picking up steam at Amazon MGM Studios, and the first word from someone who has actually read the script is about as good as fans could hope for.
Filmmaker and editor Robert Meyer Burnett, who directed Free Enterprise and cut episodes of The Orville, revealed on X Wednesday that he has read both the Heat 2 novel and Mann’s screenplay. His verdict: “HEAT 2 is gonna’ be a BANGER.”
Burnett added that both the book and the script play out before and after the events of the original film, which he says will make it tricky to reconcile the new cast with the fact that the 1995 movie sits between the sequel’s two time periods.
That is a challenge Mann has already acknowledged. Speaking at the Lumière Festival last year, the director said “aging and de-aging may be very important in the next film,” per Variety, pointing to digital tools as the bridge between the 1988 and 2000 storylines.
Who is playing who in Heat 2
Per the trades, after roughly a year of difficult negotiations, Leonardo DiCaprio is set to play Chris Shiherlis, the role originated by the late Val Kilmer, with Christian Bale taking over Al Pacino’s Vincent Hanna.
Cameras are expected to roll in November, though Amazon MGM said no deals were finalized when that report ran in July.
Stephen Graham has been reported as the young Neil McCauley, Robert De Niro’s character, while Adam Driver is linked to the villain role of Otis Wardell, the sadistic home invader who haunts both timelines of the novel.
If the Wardell talks pan out, Driver will be pulling double villain duty after his Mister Sinister reveal for Marvel’s X-Men at D23.
Jason Clarke is also circling an undisclosed role, per Deadline. That would make Heat 2 a Public Enemies reunion, as Bale, Clarke, and Graham all worked with Mann on that film.
Austin Butler and Bradley Cooper have been floated at earlier points, and a casting call this spring even sought a young Danny Trejo, per World of Reel, as the actor’s namesake character figures into the novel’s 1988 storyline.
Jerry Bruckheimer, Scott Stuber, and Nick Nesbitt are producing, with the budget reported at $170 million and filming planned for Los Angeles, Chicago, and Paraguay, with Singapore also discussed.
The 2022 novel, co-written with Meg Gardiner, was a number one New York Times bestseller that runs from a 1988 prequel storyline in Chicago and Mexicali to a post-Heat timeline following Chris into the South American underworld while Hanna hunts Wardell in 2000 Los Angeles.
Did Inde Navarrette really pass on Heat 2 for X-Men?
Wednesday also brought the first real movement on the film’s female leads, and the reporting does not fully line up.
Page Six reported that Obsession breakout Inde Navarrette met with Mann and was in the running to play Charlene, the wife of DiCaprio’s Chris Shiherlis, played by Ashley Judd in the original.
Per the outlet, Navarrette walked away because of her commitment to play Rogue in Marvel’s X-Men reboot, and she also passed on a $2.5 million payday for a horror film from director Matthias Hoene. A producer told Page Six she is “on everyone’s short list right now.”
Hours later, Nexus Point News reported the door is not closed. Per the outlet’s sources, Navarrette remains in consideration for Heat 2, but for the role of Gabriela, not Charlene.
The same report says Eiza González is in consideration for Elisa and Odessa Young is being eyed for Charlene, with auditions already having taken place and nothing final.
In the novel, Elisa is Neil McCauley’s girlfriend in the 1988 storyline, and Gabriela is her young daughter, who grows up to become central to the 2000 timeline when Wardell resurfaces in Los Angeles.
Gabriela is easily the bigger part of the two, so if Nexus Point has it right, Navarrette may still land a meatier role than the one Page Six says she turned down.
Navarrette was announced as Rogue at D23 alongside Sadie Sink’s Jean Grey, Kit Connor’s Cyclops, and Driver’s Mister Sinister, and Focus Features is reportedly mounting an Oscar campaign for her Obsession performance.
Heat 2 is eyeing a fall production start, with reports pegging the first day of shooting anywhere from September to November. No release date has been set.
The first film was released in December 1995 and starred Robert De Niro as Neil McCauley, Al Pacino as Vincent Hanna, and Val Kilmer as Chris Shiherlis, alongside Ashley Judd, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Diane Venora, and a young Natalie Portman. It grossed roughly $187 million worldwide against a $60 million budget, a modest theatrical run for a movie that has only grown in stature over the past three decades. Christopher Nolan has aslo gone on record that Heat was a big inspiration for The Dark Knight.
