After years of developing a sequel to his iconic crime drama Heat, director Michael Mann looks to be closer to getting the project made. Sources tell Deadline that Amazon MGM Studios division United Artists is in talks to pick up the project, coming on to finance and distribute the pic. Sources also tell Deadline that Leonardo DiCaprio is in early talks to star in the role of Chris Shiherlis, the character played by Val Kilmer in the 1995 original.
Sources add that as of now no offers have been made to other talent and it is just early talks with DiCaprio, but with the film now set at a studio, those offers should be coming out quickly.
Heat 2 had been set up at Warner Bros, but when the two sides couldn’t come to terms on a budget, the studio allowed Mann to take the proposed package out to other studios. After several weeks of going back and forth, Amazon agreed to Mann’s terms, and the plan is to shoot the film some time next year.
Mann, Jerry Bruckheimer, Scott Stuber and Nick Nesbit will produce, with Shane Salerno and Eric Roth executive producing.
The 1995 Heat starred Al Pacino at Detective Vincent Hanna, Robert De Niro as Neil McCauley and Kilmer as Shiherlis. While it was a solid hit, it has since become a crime classic with a global following.
Heat 2 was also a book penned by Mann and Meg Gardiner but not a novelization of the film, rather it tells the story of everything that happens before and after to the principal characters.
The book, published in 2022, jumps between two time periods, the first following Shiherlis as he tries to evade the LAPD and Hanna following the bank robbery gone bad and which 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 the Windy City. 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.
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