LOS ANGELES, BALIPOST.com – Michael Mann wants to make a big-screen sequel to “Heat,” the iconic movie that brought Hollywood legends Al Pacino and Robert De Niro together for the first time, the director has told AFP.
The sprawling 1995 neo-noir epic starring Pacino as a Los Angeles detective pursuing De Niro’s heist gang boss across the city is widely considered a classic crime thriller.
Mann announced in 2016 that a novel inspired by “Heat” would be published by his own HarperCollins publishing imprint, but shared fresh details of the book with AFP.
“The novel is about two-thirds written, and it’s the prequel to ‘Heat’ and it’s the sequel to ‘Heat’ rolled together,” said Mann. “So it’s everything before the movie and everything after the movie.”
Asked if he plans to give the novel the movie treatment, Mann said: “Of course!” before adding that he could also foresee it evolving into a television series.
“Initially a film, but the landscape is changing so radically and so quickly, who knows,” he said.
Mann said the book would explore the time De Niro’s character Neil McCauley spent in prison in his 20s, as well as the years Pacino’s cop Vincent Hanna worked on the Chicago police force before moving to LA.
It will also feature the childhood of Val Kilmer’s character, young bank robber Chris Shiherlis.
“There was so much depth there — it was always a question of ‘How do you do a sequel?’ So we found a way to do that along with the prequel,” said the writer-director.
Mann, 76, is co-writing the book with crime author Reed Coleman, and it is due to be published next year, he said.
The original “Heat” was praised for its striking cinematography, delighting moviegoers and inspiring a generation of filmmakers with its melancholic but visually stunning depictions of Los Angeles. (AFP)
