A recent listing in Production Weekly has the rumor mill going, with many believing Heat 2 is being made with Adam Driver and Al Pacino.
Update: Heat 2 has taken another step closer to reality as Deadline has reported that Warner Bros. is in negotiations with Michael Mann to develop the sequel. While Mann is still in the midst of post-production on Ferrari, the report states that the Heat sequel could be his next project; Not only that, but it also confirms that Adam Driver is in discussions with Mann to play young Neil McCauley, the character played by Robert De Niro in the original movie. Deadline says that the other Heat 2 casting rumors, which range from Al Pacino to Ana de Armas, haven’t been confirmed and that Driver is the only actor currently committed to the project.
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A recent entry in Production Weekly is sending the online rumor mill into overdrive when a (small) entry listed Heat 2 was going into production with Al Pacino returning opposite Adam Driver and potentially Austin Butler. Now, to be sure, this isn’t all wild speculation. Michael Mann (and Meg Gardiner) did indeed write a Heat sequel novel (Heat 2), which climbed the best-sellers chart last year, and Michael Mann has gone on record saying he’d love to turn it into a film. But facts are facts, people. One of these facts is that Mann is currently working on his Ferrari biopic (starring Adam Driver), and Mann has never been known to jump immediately from one project to the next. Heat 2, given the scale of the novel, would be a significant undertaking and not likely one he can focus on until Ferarri is wrapped and released.
This brings us to the cast. Many believe that Adam Driver would be ideal to play the younger version of Robert De Niro’s Neil McCauley. At the same time, Austin Butler seems like a suitable potential replacement for Val Kilmer as Chris Shiherlis, who would be the lead. The novel is split between two timelines, with one set in Chicago in the eighties (where the young McCaulay would come in) and another set right after Heat ended, in 1995, and progressing a few years from there. Butler would be the right age, as would Driver. But Pacino? Presumably, he’d play Vincent Hanna again, but as he’s in his eighties now, Mann would have to digitally de-age him, so I’m not sure I’m set on this casting. Of course, Mann could tweak the story to add a modern-day epilogue that could bring Pacino back or could even have him play another character (I don’t know if you’ve heard – but that Pacino guy sure can act). Still, it’s the listing of him in the Prod Weekly item that has me thinking this is all a rumor.
That said, I sure would love to see a Heat 2, and if it did happen, even with de-aging technology used on Pacino, I would be first in line.
What do you think of these rumors? Let us know in the comments!
Originally published at https://www.joblo.com/heat-2-casting/
