The cast of Heat 2 is beginning to come together.
According to TheWrap, after a year of difficult negotiations, Christian Bale and Leonardo DiCaprio are set to star in Michael Mann’s sequel, with their deals either having closed (or are about to, per conflicting sources).
Bale will play Vincent Hanna, the LAPD Robbery Homicide detective whom Al Pacino played in the original film. DiCaprio will succeed the late Val Kilmer in the role of Chris Shiherlis.
Other actors in the mix for Heat 2 include Adam Driver, who is in negotiations for the villain, Wardell, and Stephen Graham, who is in talks to play Neil McCauley, the Robert De Niro role from the first film. Jason Clarke was reported to be in the mix too back in May.
Several actresses are vying for the role of Sharlene, originated by Ashley Judd. Inde Navarrette, the breakout star of Obsession, reportedly met with Mann recently. Could it have been to talk about this role? Time will tell.
Heat 2 is slated to start shooting in November. Mann will write and direct the sequel, which originated as a novel written by Mann and Meg Gardiner, released in 2022. The book jumps between two time periods. The first follows Shiherlis, as he tries to evade the LAPD, and Hanna, following the bank robbery gone bad, which moves forward into new territory in the tri-border zone and Southeast Asia.
The second storyline takes readers back to Chicago in 1988, when McCauley, Shiherlis, and their high-line crew are taking scores on the West Coast, the U.S.-Mexico border, and in the Windy City. At the same time, Hanna is cutting his teeth as a rising star in the Chicago Police Department chasing an ultraviolent gang of home invaders. The fallout from McCauley’s scores and Hanna’s pursuit cause unexpected repercussions in a parallel narrative.
After Warner Bros. refused to meet Mann’s budget demands, the studio let the acclaimed filmmaker shop his sequel project around Hollywood, with Amazon MGM Studios and United Artists acquiring the feature. TheWrap reports the budget to now be around $170 million, with the production getting nearly $40 million from the California tax incentive.
TheWrap‘s insiders also state that Heat 2 will be extremely ambitious, describing the project as “Spartacus with machine guns” and “John Wick times 1,000.” The action sequences will reportedly dwarf those from the original film, including the climactic bank robbery/shootout.
We’ll continue to keep you posted as Heat 2 barrels towards a late 2026 start date.
What are your thoughts on the Heat 2 cast so far?
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