Michael Mann Offers a Brief Update on HEAT 2 and the Dream Project He Wants to Make After
Michael Mann has been working on Heat 2 for a long time, and we’ve been hearing it will be the next film that he makes. The director recently offered a brief update on the project and he’s getting close to finishing his screenplay.
While the filmmaker didn’t go into detail about the production of the sequel to the 1995 thriller Heat, he did say that the script “has to be finished pretty soon” and that he would be doing so “on the plane ride back to Los Angeles.”
Mann also said that after he makes Heat 2, he is going to move forward with his dream project about the 1968 Battle of Hué, which is one of the bloodiest chapters of the Vietnam War.
The sequel follows the story of when the forces of South Vietnam and U.S troops recaptured the city of Hué over one month of brutal urban fighting.
When talking about the original Heat movie and its success and longevity, Mann said: “It’s all in the writing. It’s a very, very architected, very complex screenplay.
“It’s not supposed to affect you as complex. It’s supposed to affect you by taking you on this ride. But the structure has buried within it a feud… you’re 100% invested in Neil McCauley/Robert De Niro escaping.
“You’re 100% invested in Al Pacino [Vincent Hanna] apprehending Neil McCauley at the same time. That contradiction helps sustain the memory.”
“But we knew, to be honest, we knew the movie we were making, by the way I say myself, but also Bob, Al, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, we knew what this movie was, and then the movie comes out, and it has some impact… then it’s sustained in memory, and it was in the top 10 or 20 films in the Warner Brothers catalogue for years.”
Heat 2 will tell the story of what led up to the events in the first film, which is set in 1989, and what happened after, which is set in 2002.
It covers “the formative years of homicide detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) and elite criminals Neil McCauley (De Niro), Chris Shiherlis (Kilmer), and Nate (Jon Voight), and features the same extraordinary ambition, scope, rich characterizations, and attention to detail as the epic film."
This new story "leads up to the events of the film and then moves beyond it, featuring new characters on both sides of the law, new high-line heists, and breathtakingly cinematic action sequences.
“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.
“Operatic in scope, Heat 2 is engrossing, moving, and tragic—a masterpiece of crime fiction from one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers in American cinema.”
It’s explained that the book jumps between two time periods, “the first following Chris Shiherlis as he tries to evade the LAPD and Detective Vincent Hanna following the bank robbery gone bad and 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 Chicago.
“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.”
It’ll be interesting to see how this film comes together once casting and production starts.
Source: Variety