A new exclusive report from Deadline has revealed that two major actors are circling substantial roles in Michael Mann’s upcoming film Heat 2. It was recently revealed that Amazon MGM Studios and United Artists would be producing and financing the project, after there was some uncertainty when Warner Bros. dropped the film due to budget issues. Other studios were in the running to take on the project, but now, according to Deadline, it seems that Amazon MGM will be producing (though Amazon had no comment after the trade outlet reached out).
Christian Bale, who previously collaborated with Mann on the film Public Enemies, is reportedly circling a “major” role alongside DiCaprio. It’s unknown which roles the two actors will be playing, especially since the Heat 2 novel that Mann had written alongside Meg Gardiner is a large scale and ambitious story told across different periods of time. The script for the sequel is based on the novel, which takes place both immediately after the 1995 film, and in Chicago in 1988, as well as 2000 Los Angeles. The movie is being produced by Mann, Jerry Bruckheimer, Scott Stuber, Nick Nesbitt, and executive producers Shane Salerno and Eric Roth.
The book was published back in 2022, and tells the story of Shiherlis’ (Val Kilmer’s character) attempt to evade the LAPD and Hanna after the botched robbery towards the end of the first film. The novel also shifts the location into Southeast Asia. The Heat 2 novel also jumps back in time to when a young McCauley (Robert De Niro) pulls off jobs across the West Coast, the U.S.-Mexico border, and Chicago. At the same time, a younger Hanna (Al Pacino) is moving up the ranks of the Chicago Police Department as he investigates a series of grisly crimes perpetrated by a gang of violent home invaders.
Leonardo DiCaprio & Christian Bale Could Make ‘Heat 2’ a High Profile Project
Given Christian Bale and Leonardo DiCaprio’s ages, it’s hard to imagine either of them playing younger versions of Roberto De Niro and Al Pacino’s characters, though anything is possible. There is also the possibility that either of them could be playing new iterations of the surviving characters in the events that take place after the first film. Either way, having the talented actors work together in a Michael Mann film evokes the same feeling as the 1995 original, which was marketed around the idea of watching De Niro and Pacino, two larger-than-life personalities, share the screen together.
These talks are still in the early stages, and no production start date has been set for Heat 2. There isn’t a lot known about the project other than the source material that it’s based on. DiCaprio recently made waves for his role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, and Bale can be seen in Maggie Gyllenhall’s upcoming film The Bride, starring opposite Jessie Buckley. Both projects were produced by Warner Bros., the studio that originally dropped out of Heat 2. Hopefully, more official casting news will be announced soon now that the project has seemingly secured financing.