Heating 2 is heating up.
After a year of difficult negotiations, Christian Bale and Leonardo DiCaprio are set to star in Michael Mann’s sequel, which begins filming in November, four people familiar with the production told TheWrap. While two people said the deals were already closed, two other people said the deals were in the final stages of negotiations but were expected to close.
Bale will play Vincent Hanna, a tenacious LAPD homicide and robbery detective played by Al Pacino in the original film, while DiCaprio will play Chris Shiherlis, played by Val Kilmer.
Mann will return to write and direct the sequel, which began life as a novel by Mann and Meg Gardiner, released in 2022. Heat 2 serves as both a prequel and a sequel, taking place both before and after the events of Mann’s seminal 1995 film Heat.
An Amazon MGM Studios spokesman said no deals had been made.
TheWrap has also learned that Adam Driver is wanted by villain Wardell and is in talks. Stephen Graham is also in talks to play Neil McCauley, Robert De Niro’s role from the first film. TheWrap understands that multiple actresses are in the running for the role of Charlene, which was created by Ashley Judd, while other celebrities are also in the running.
The original film, released in 1995, was based on LA Takedown, which Mann wrote and directed as an NBC television pilot. The series was not accepted, and the pilot was premiered as a film on August 27, 1989. (It’s a fascinating alternate universe version of The Heat, starring Scott Plank and Alex MacArthur as versions of characters later played by Pacino and Robert De Niro.) The film grossed $187.4 million on a $60 million budget and is considered one of the greatest heist films of all time, known for its romantic complexity and compelling characters.
Shortly before the release of the novel, Mann announced his intention to film it, and for some time DiCaprio, Bale, Driver and Graham were involved in the project.
Robert De Niro and Val Kilmer in Heat (Warner Bros.)
Amazon MGM Studios beat out other studios for Heat 2 when Warner Bros. refused the budget, which in this studio reached 200 million dollars. The budget is now approaching $170 million, according to two insiders. The production will receive nearly $40 million in California tax credits.
United Artists’ Jerry Bruckheimer and Scott Stuber and Nick Nesbitt are producing the film, with Shane Salerno and Eric Roth, both writers who have worked with Mann for years, serving as executive producers. This is the first collaboration between Bruckheimer and Mann in 45 years, since The Thief, Mann’s first theatrical work.
The decision to turn to Amazon was made due to Amazon’s ability to monetize the project long after its theatrical release date, as well as the original film’s long tail of being a consistent Warner Bros. release. most profitable rental titles – it made sense.
The ambitions of the project, which will film on multiple continents, are described as “extraordinary,” according to one insider. This person described the scale as “Spartacus with machine guns. John Wick times 1000.” The action scenes in this film are said to eclipse the action scenes from the original film, including a climactic bank robbery/shootout that is so realistic that it is used as a training film for law enforcement to this day.
When it came to casting the two leads, the challenge was to find two performers who could recreate the epic pairing of Pacino and De Niro from the first film. Finally, the team brought together DiCaprio and Bale, arguably the two best actors of their generation, who could stand toe-to-toe with each other. (They’ve also never acted in a movie together, which adds extra interest.)
Leonardo DiCaprio (Photo: Getty Images)
DiCaprio is, of course, one of a very select group of actors who can make hard-R movies that can be a big hit around the world. And we were told that his deal was incredibly complex and spanned six or seven months. Bale and DiCaprio’s deals were further complicated by scheduling issues for both them and the other actors being eyed for key roles.
Of course, Mann and DiCaprio have been trying to work together for almost 30 years. The closest they came was The Aviator, which Mann was originally supposed to direct but abandoned after starring in two back-to-back biopics, The Insider and Ali. (Martin Scorsese eventually directed The Aviator.) Now their time has finally come.
The hope for Roast 2 is that, like Bruckheimer’s Top Gun: Maverick, it will be a multi-generational event, with the goodwill of the first film fueling support for the sequel.
It will also be another first for Amazon MGM Studios, which had a huge hit earlier this year with Hail Mary, which grossed more than $680 million worldwide and continues to advance theatrically.
This also makes Heat 2 DiCaprio’s next film. After Paul Thomas Anderson’s Oscar-winning One Battle After Another for Warner Bros., he directed Martin Scorsese’s ghost drama What Happens at Night for Apple earlier this year.
Bale leaves “The Bride!” for Warner Bros. and will next be seen in Amazon MGM’s “Mad,” directed by David O. Russell, in which he plays Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis.
Humberto Gonzalez contributed to this story.
