Heat 2: Michael Mann confirms sequel for his next movie with Adam Driver possibly playing young McCauley

Michael Mann returns after a hiatus with his new film, Ferrari. The prolific director has been on the festival circuit promoting his biopic drama, and talks have been floating around for a while of Mann possibly revisiting his famous 90s heist drama, Heat. Michael Mann’s iconic film notably brought together the acting powers of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in a head-to-head cops and robbers tale. Mann released a sequel to Heat in book form last year, which he penned with co-author Meg Gardiner, and since the novel was released, rumors instantly sprang of Mann possibly doing a film version with his Ferrari leading man, Adam Driver.

Deadline is now reporting that while speaking at their Contenders London event, Mann has confirmed that his next project will, in fact, be Heat 2. He stated, “Yes. Meg Gardiner and myself wrote the novel Heat 2, which came out right when we were shooting Ferrari. It did very well. I plan to shoot that next.” And when it was asked if he would also bring Driver along with him to play the younger incarnation of De Niro’s Neil McCauley, “Perhaps. We don’t talk about that yet. Let me put it this way: Adam and I got along like a house on fire [on Ferrari]. We have the same work ethic – which is pretty intense. We like each other, and we had a great time working together artistically.”

The novel, Heat 2, would serve as both a prequel and a sequel to the 1995 movie. Per Deadline, the book’s plot involves, “McCauley, Chris Shiherlis (originally played by Val Kilmer), and Vincent Hanna (originally Al Pacino) in the years leading up to the L.A.-set crime saga and chronicles what happens to the surviving characters in the years after.

The 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.”

Ferrari is slated to open on December 25.