Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros./Alamy Stock Photo
Topics: Film and TV, Robert De Niro
Anish Vij
Hollywood filmmaker Michael Mann has confirmed that a sequel/prequel to Heat is in the works.
The 1995 classic featured, arguably, two of the greatest actors of all time - Al Pacino and Robert De Niro - at the peak of their powers.
What first comes to mind is the iconic diner scene, which featured a brilliant back and forth between the two stars.
In the original, De Niro plays bank robber Neil McCauley, while Pacino stars as cop Vincent Hanna, alongside Val Kilmer as Chris Shiherlis.
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Well, in an interview with Marc Maron on the WTF Podcast, the 79-year-old writer revealed that his new book Heat 2 is already being turned into a film.
When asked if a second film was in the works, Mann replied: “Yes,” while adding: “I can’t talk about it, but yes.”
Heat 2 tells the story of Detective Hanna, Neil McCauley, Chris Shiherlis, and Nate (Jon Voight) in two different timelines, similar to The Godfather Part II.
The later timeline takes place seven years after the conclusion of the original film, while the prequel might show you how the various characters evolved into their various positions of power.
“I always wanted to explore the early lives of these guys,” Mann said. “Also, to find a way to bring the past into the present and the present being about 2002, seven years after the events of Heat the movie.”
Rather evidently, the iconic cast won't make a comeback, Mann said.
“I love those guys,” he said.
“But they’d have to be six years younger than they were in Heat.”
Speaking on the iconic diner scene back in 2016, Mann revealed that Pacino and De Niro never rehearsed the scene before shooting it.
The director said: "We decided that we just wanted to talk it through and just save it for the event of shooting it. That's the only thing we probably did that with.
"But I tend to not want to rehearse things to the point where I wish I had shot it. That's a disaster.
"I always want to stop well short, because I think things work perfect once, and they'll never be 100% twice. And you want that happening in front of the camera."
He continued: "So what I wanted to do was shoot with two cameras, two over the shoulders. And then I also had a third camera shooting profiles that we never cut into the film. So I knew there'd be an organic unity to one take, and then there'd be a slightly different organic unity to another.
"If you look at it very carefully, if Bob [De Niro] shifts his hand like this a little bit, right in the middle of the dialogue, Al is doing something to counter it, because maybe he's shifting his position to get closer to a weapon. So most of the scene is all Take 11."
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