Michael Mann Announces 'Heat 2' as His Follow Up to 'Ferrari'

As our small screens have become flooded with content that nobody watches and the cinemas are deluged with IPs over anything remotely original (and if it is original, it gets screwed by the execs, giving them zero publicity), we’ve become demoralized. No wonder film buffs of every generation have turned to the films and directors from the recent past that the nostalgia fever has neglected. That’s how Heat, which was already an instant classic, has now entered a whole new level of immortality, while Michael Mann has been reappraised once again as a proper auteur. Film Twitter is abuzz with his return, after almost a decade, with Ferrari, a perfect comeback project for him.

But what really had film buffs giddy like a Golden Retriever at a cook-out was the release of his first novel, co-written with Meg Gardiner, Heat 2, which serves as both a sequel and a prequel to his best movie. In an industry that is trying to strip mine nostalgia for all its worth, there was something almost endearing about the simplicity of that title. Since at least the late ’90s, every sequel, threequel, and reboot has needed to justify itself with a title that either reworks the first one’s title or they go with the colon: Subtitle route. Studios probably have entire publicity departments with a single task: Create a title that justifies the existence of this sequel/reboot. Meanwhile, a title like Heat 2 simply says, “We actually have more stories to tell about these characters, and we are pretty f**king sure you’re going to love it.” The reviews seemed to agree wholeheartedly.

Now it seems confirmed that Heat 2 is currently in pre-production. In a recent interview with Deadline’s “The Contenders”, Michael Mann announced it as his next project. There were rumors about the novel taking its natural course back to the screen since April last year, with Adam Driver circling the role of a young Neil McCauley. If and when the project does come to fruition, Driver seems poised to get a leading part, as Mann has been ecstatic in his praise of him.

This is all great news, even if we are talking about another sequel to a nostalgia property because there is no “yet” qualifying the “another sequel.” If you have been a fan of Michael Mann for as long as I have (20 years give or take), you have always wanted to know what happened or what the background is of the characters in his movies. Mann very carefully crafted them and drops subtle hints. Obviously, McCauley’s gang were former military, Vincent Hanna has probably been kicked around from city to city as he got on his superiors’ nerves. It’s the kind of world that deserves to be expanded and one that can be expanded without feeling like a mere cash-in.

But the best piece of news is that the project will probably cast age-appropriate actors instead of subjecting us to the unease of digital de-aging. It works in trickles, with limited flashbacks to a more recent past, where it makes more sense than casting younger actors (like in The Afterparty or The Righteous Gemstones). But with De Niro and Pacino entering their 80s and with Val Kilmer’s health struggles, there is no choice but to cast age-appropriate actors. As it should be, there is a lot of pressure when walking on a legendary character by a legendary actor, but when you get it right, well, that’s how you get a Robert De Niro. If you ask me, Adam Driver makes more sense as a younger Vincent Hanna, while there is only one actor today that can match the charisma of Val Kilmer in the ’90s: Glen Powell.

Ferrari comes out this Christmas. Come on, guys, let’s show up. Don’t wait for the digital release.

Alberto Cox would respectfully like to ask if it’s too late to do a Tig Notaro on Army of the Dead with Ferrari, digitally replacing Shailene Woodley with Simona Tabasco