Michael Mann Confirms 'Heat 2' Is His Next Movie

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Michael Mann's greatest film may yet go down as being Heat, and the legendary filmmaker has now confirmed that Heat 2 will be his next movie. Speaking at the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia, Mann revealed that the screenplay for the long-awaited sequel is nearing completion and hinted that he might even finish the final touches on his journey home..

“We have to have it finished very soon,” he said, suggesting jokingly he would be doing that on “The plane ride back to Los Angeles.” Mann’s announcement comes as the 30th anniversary of Heat approaches. With the call for a sequel still strong, it's just a reminder of how popular and beloved the film was. The original Heat, starring Al Pacino as dogged LAPD detective Vincent Hanna and Robert De Niro as master thief Neil McCauley, is widely regarded as one of the greatest crime dramas of all time. The tense, lound action sequences, the tight screenplay and the unbelievable performances made it stand out as a classic action picture.

Reflecting on the original film’s lasting legacy, Mann credited the strength of its screenplay and the layers of conflict between Hanna and McCauley. “It’s all in the writing. It’s a very, very architected, very complex screenplay,” Mann said. He described the emotional pull of the story, where audiences find themselves at the same time rooting for McCauley’s escape and Hanna’s pursuit, calling the contradiction “a feud… that helps sustain the memory” of the film.

Michael Mann Has Been Writing 'Heat 2' All Night in Los Angeles

Last month, Mann spoke with Collider's Steve Weintraub in an interview to mark the 25th anniversary of his acclaimed film The Insider, and gave a revealing look into the long nights that went into guiding the movie closer to completion, ending up in a Deli at 3 a.m. to finish the part he was on.

"I’m finishing the screenplay, and at 2:30 this morning, it woke me up in the middle of the night. So, I'm in the middle of writing the screenplay, and I wound up driving through LA at 3 a.m., which is fantastic, there are no cars, and ended up at Canter's Delicatessen because that's the only thing open 24 hours. Then I sat in a booth and wrote there until about 9:00 this morning, trying to finish act four. It was ironic because it's the same booth I sat in when I wrote the first couple episodes of Starsky & Hutch back in the 1970s. Then The Jericho Mile and probably some early drafts of Heat. I had a favorite waitress named Jeannie who put two sons through medical school waitressing there and playing poker in Gardena. [Laughs] So, sometimes you're driving through the streets of LA at night, and a coyote runs across it.”

Stay tuned to Collider for more updates on the future of Heat 2. The original Heat is available to watch on Paramount+.