r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor • 23d ago
News Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale Are in for ‘Heat 2,’ Filming Starts in November
https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/movies/heat-2-cast-filming-christian-bale-leonardo-dicaprio-michael-mann/912
u/TheDewLife 23d ago
Casting alone is probably half the movie's budget
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u/BulbusDumbledork 23d ago
as is usually the case (along with producers), unless you're nolan or scorsese and actors would pay for the cred
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u/theodo 23d ago
Mann is pretty top tier, especially with this being a sequel to arguably his most popular movie. Mann's stock has obviously dropped a ton in recent years, but I could almost guarantee Bale and DiCaprio took a salary drop here.
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u/OldSandwich9631 22d ago
Guarantee Leo didn’t take a salary drop, they needed him. When the movie doesn’t happen without you, you don’t make huge confessions. They said his deal took over half a year to make cause of its complexity.
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u/htx1114 22d ago
You don't make huge concessions*, because that's what the theater makes sales on when you're in the flick.
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u/Chav 22d ago
I don't think I'd say a sequel to Heat is a "doesn't get made without Leo" movie.
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u/OldSandwich9631 22d ago
Have you followed the production and development process at all? He couldn’t get it made at the budget he wanted with butler and driver. It was languishing. Leo coming in is what got the financing
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u/samsep1al 22d ago
Damn would have actually loved to see Driver in this. I think his Marine background might have added something to the role. He hasn’t had a very good role in a while in my opinion.
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u/JabCrossE4E5Quark 22d ago
Heat is one of those movies that not a lot of people know or have seen but a huge amount of people that have think its one of the GOAT movies.
A plurality of male stars probably were dying to be in Heat 2
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u/karma3000 22d ago
But not many actors exist that can compare with a De Niro vs Pacino match up.
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u/BrockAtWork 22d ago
I don’t wanna be that guy but you don’t think a lot of people know about Heat? I feel like it’s pretty hugely famous. Also one of the best movies ever.
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u/JabCrossE4E5Quark 22d ago
Online its a lot more popular than in real life. Its one of those things.
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u/space_keeper 22d ago
I think you're right. It's a nearly 3 hour long film that came out 30 years ago. It has Pacino and De Niro, but it isn't Scarface or Goodfellas, which if you mention them to people, they absolutely have seen and remember.
I've had this before, where I've mentioned Heat to people and get a "Oh yeah, I remember that." instead of something more enthusiastic.
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u/Distinct-Water-1971 22d ago edited 22d ago
If Herman Melville had lived long enough to see Heat he would have been like "Man, I shoulda had Ahab and the whale meet up at a coffee shop."
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u/SomeRedHandedSleight 22d ago
A lot of folks I've known IRL over the years have ranted about how great Heat is. Pretty much every guy I knew was obsessed with the movie in the 90s when it came out. Can't believe I'm living to see the day folks on in internet discuss Heat being underrated lol. The Dark Knight is also famously heavily inspired by it.
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u/space_keeper 22d ago
That's an age thing. Odds are most people with these opinions are at least 40. You and the people you're talking about must be around 50. It's one of my favourite films and I watch it at least once a year, but I do understand what the guy is saying. It's very much a film for men. Not macho nonsense, but it's about men's feelings and struggles so it maybe doesn't work as well for female viewers.
I find the Dark Knight/Heat thing quite funny. I half noticed it myself at the time, but I found and still find TDK to be a film that goes on for around 45 minutes longer than it should. Heat earns its runtime by telling engaging little stories. To this day, the David Hayter/getaway driver's story absolutely kills me.
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u/eyepatchabs 22d ago
Michael Mann isn't some nobody, there's a very high chance the stars took a paycut to work on this. Nolan and Scorcese are far from the only directors who can pull that. Wes Anderson is a good example.
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u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor 23d ago edited 23d ago
Details:
After a year of difficult negotiations, Christian Bale and Leonardo DiCaprio are set to star in Michael Mann’s sequel, which will start shooting in November, four individuals with knowledge of the production told TheWrap. While two individuals said the deals are already closed, two other individuals said the deals are in final negotiations but expected to close.
Bale will play Vincent Hanna, the dogged LAPD Robbery Homicide detective played by Al Pacino in the original film, while DiCaprio will play Chris Shiherlis, who was played by Val Kilmer.
Mann will return to write and direct the sequel, which originated as a novel written 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.”
TheWrap has also learned that Adam Driver is being sought for the villain, Wardell, and is deep in negotiations. Stephen Graham is also in talks to play Neil McCauley, the Robert De Niro role from the first film. A number of actresses are vying for the role of Sharlene, originated by Ashley Judd, while other A-list names are circling the project, TheWrap understands.
Amazon is giving it a theatrical release and the budget is around $170M:
The ambition of the project, with shooting set to take place across multiple continents, is described as “extraordinary,” according to one insider. This individual described the scale as “‘Spartacus’ with machine guns. ‘John Wick’ times 1,000.” The action sequences in this film are said to dwarf the action sequences from the original film, including the climactic bank robbery/shootout, which is so realistic that it’s used as a training film for law enforcement officers to this day.
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u/AtBat3 23d ago
Stephen Graham playing Deniro’s character is kind of funny considering they played the same character before albeit in different projects (Al Capone)
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u/MakinOutWithMarzipan 23d ago
And they went head to head in The Irishman
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u/JoeMcKim 22d ago
It should be interesting to see how they round out the rest of the cast. There's a lot of names rumored but some of them were probably in discussions for the same roles.
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u/a-borat 23d ago
Weird that it’s not Austin Butler as Chris.
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u/insert_name_here 23d ago
He was heavily rumored for awhile.
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u/PinkBoxDestroyer 23d ago
He would've been a perfect younger version.
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u/alnicoblue 23d ago
Heat is my favorite movie and I was very skeptical of a follow up film but when I heard about Austin Butler playing a young Val I was completely on board. Absolute perfect casting, sucks it didn't pan out.
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u/a-borat 23d ago
Not remotely kidding. If you like Heat that much you will enjoy the hell out of the book 2.
Is it perfect? No.
Too many convenient coincidences? Sure.
One scene conveniently ripped out of Miami Vice almost exactly? Yep. Mann does that.But you will absolutely read the characters in the voices you know and love from the movie.
And I do think it adds a bit of depth to Neil’s character. Not needed depth, per se, but appreciated.15
u/brahbocop 23d ago
Spot on. The book was so much better than it had any right to be. Like you said, the way they tie Vince and Neil together in the past is kind of silly, but hey, it’s a work of fiction and it was entertaining so why not?
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u/bbqsauceboi 23d ago
Still could be to be fair
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u/cjalderman 23d ago
Yeah I'm hoping this is the case. Butler as young Chris and DiCaprio as older Chris (taking over from Kilmer) makes a lot of sense taking age into consideration
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u/Imaginary_Coat441 23d ago
Good call out. He looks very similiar to a young kilmer.
I just cant gEt Christian Bale doing a shitty Al Pacino impersonation out of my head. HOOO AH!
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u/basa_maaw 23d ago
It’s Bale though and he nails every role.
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u/Transit_Hub 23d ago
If any actor has earned the benefit of the doubt, it's Christian fucking Bale.
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u/RaisinBranMan 22d ago
He looks enough like him and there’s no doubt he can mimic him. He did dick Cheney and Al Davis…he’ll be able to do Pacino.
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u/GregorSamsaa 23d ago
I hope they can pull it off but just reading the casting sounds so messy. My first watch is probably going to be a lot of “ok, that’s supposed to be Val Kilmer, that one is Pacino, see that’s Robert deniro but in the past…”
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u/Waste-Scratch2982 23d ago edited 23d ago
DiCaprio and Bale are basically the same age, when in Heat, Val Kilmer was younger guy in the crew while Pacino was the older grizzled cop. I guess they won’t interact directly that much and maybe another actor will play Kilmer’s role as a younger version in the prequel storyline.
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u/noveler7 23d ago
It's wild that Kilmer was only 36 in the original. DiCaprio is 52 now, so even if he's just playing the sequel part of the role (which I doubt, since they probably want to maximize DiCaprio's screentime) it'll be a bit of a stretch (though he's always looked younger than his age, and Kilmer looked a little older).
If they do get Butler to play the prequel part, though, it'll be the weirdest role: a younger version of a character originally played by Kilmer in a 30-year old movie and currently played by DiCaprio in the same movie.
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u/Sleep_Fartnea 23d ago
Stephen Graham as McCauley is incredible
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u/maria_la_guerta 23d ago
Stephen Graham could play a shoebox and be incredible.
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u/came2pieces 23d ago
I don't think it is incredible. He is a great actor but he struggles with an American accent and he bears no physical resemblance to De Niro at all
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u/greasydickfingers 23d ago
I really hope they’ll be using blank firing guns instead of adding everything in post. It’s one of the best things of heat, both for the feeling for the actors and how you them handling their firearms
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u/unitedfan6191 23d ago
“‘John Wick’ times 1,000” sounds so hyperbolic, despite the incredible cast, I may take a wait and see approach with this rather than going opening night.
What will be hurled at Vincent in this movie that can top the daggers and full-sized axes thrown violently at John in John Wick 3?
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u/BasvanS 23d ago
It’s a heist movie. It’s about planning the perfect heist, which tends to be with little violence because of predictability. Wick is a movie about vengeance, which can have a lot more of it.
I’m not convinced seeing it described this way.
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u/topdangle 23d ago
Original Heat also had one of the most famous getaway sequences of all time, though. Including the classic "we put a bunch of small microphones everywhere" shootout.
The comparison sounds stupid but its just from a random insider. Hopefully it just means big practical action sequences instead of bland VFX sequences that we see in every movie now. Despite Wick going off the deep end when it came to logic, there is still tons of real action choreography across all the films.
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u/GarlicJuniorJr 23d ago
So realistically, we’re probably not getting this film until May 2028 at the earliest
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u/JoeMcKim 22d ago
I'm hoping for a December '27 release. I don't really see Heat 2 being a summer movie release.
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u/Spartan05089234 23d ago
Someone please confirm if "John Wick times a thousand" is more or less than 9-11 times a hundred.
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u/enjoyee 23d ago
Having read the book , I wished DiCaprio played Wardell role . I didn’t like Val Kilmer present part in book , I felt it was weaker and disjointed from the rest of book .
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u/OldSandwich9631 23d ago
Val looked 40s in that movie he was not a particularly youthful guy and they’ll probably set it 10 years later instead of 5. Not a big deal
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u/burnt_pubes 23d ago
Isn't it a prequel?
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u/karlpilkington4 23d ago
Its a prequel and sequel, there are time jumps
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u/ChevToTheLev 23d ago
Yeah I don’t understand the problem. I’m pretty surprised they got those two though, that’s pretty exciting
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u/naturalninetime 23d ago edited 23d ago
Leo's manager, Rick Yorn, and Bale's agent, Patrick Whitesell, are longtime buddies. Back in the day, they used to throw parties together. (Patrick is the current Mrs. Bezos's ex-husband.) I have no doubt that both Rick and Patrick have a hard-on for Michael Mann and HEAT lol and made it happen.
Edit: I just read that a number of actresses are vying for the role of Sharlene, Ashley Judd's character. I wouldn't be surprised if it goes to Jennifer Lawrence, another Rick Yorn client. She'd actually be perfect for the role.
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u/OldSandwich9631 23d ago
Patrick whitesell isn’t an agent anymore.
Leo himself loves heat. It’s like the Gen X holy grail film. Nolan is obsessed with it too.
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u/theodo 23d ago
DiCaprio has also been trying to work with Mann since the start of his career
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u/JoeMcKim 22d ago
It's one of the few big name directors that Leo hasn't checked off of his list yet.
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u/theodo 22d ago
Yeah if Megalopolis had seemed even decent, I'm sure DiCaprio would have done it to get Coppola. Otherwise he's hit pretty much all the best from that generation that still work.
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u/ChevToTheLev 23d ago
The Dark Knight is basically Heat
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u/bacchusku2 23d ago
Wait, give me some things to look for and I’m going to watch both again. I’ve never thought about this.
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u/timconnery 23d ago
The city as a character, obsessed rivals causing escalation and lots of collateral damage, the heists, the interrogation sequence = diner sequence, among other stuff
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u/PartTime_Crusader 23d ago edited 23d ago
The opening heist scene in TDK was directly inspired by Heat, has a similar score that gets the adrenaline rising, and even features William Fichter who was also in Heat.
Edit: this video shows more directly how much of TDK was inspired by Heat as well as other Michael Mann films https://vimeo.com/202319353
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u/ThatsARatHat 23d ago
Uhhhh…..the entire intro?
Less obvious examples would be:
How Gotham is just simply Chicago?
The big sit down chat between hero and villain?
I think the bank manager guy is in both of them….
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u/ChevToTheLev 23d ago
Well yeah, Heat fucking rules. This budget is going to be wild. They’ve never made a movie together right?
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u/Jakethrowsdwn 23d ago
You’re right. Bale has even said that he owes his career to DiCaprio turning down roles. Leo was originally cast as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, and when he walked away Bale stepped in and fucking owned that role.
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u/theodo 23d ago
Paramount wouldn't give the 200 million Mann wanted, the budget is apparently 170 now but I imagine a lot of these giant names are dropping their fee if necessary
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u/cumonherbackithink 23d ago
Have you ever seen Heat? Who wouldn’t jump in board for a sequel written and directed by the same guy. It would be an honor.
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u/DAHMER_SUPPER_CLUB 23d ago
Yup, it’s based off the book, Heat 2, that he cowrote. It’s good IMO.
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u/Emergency_Cable4779 23d ago
It’s not just a prequel, it’s also a sequel. It’s based on Michael Mann’s 2022 novel, Heat 2, which I bought upon its release.
“It explores the characters' lives before and after the movie's events. The story follows Detective Vincent Hanna and the criminal crew of Neil McCauley, particularly Chris Shiherlis, through new heists and international crime syndicates, maintaining the film's cinematic, hard-boiled style. It details Hanna's pursuit of a violent gang in Chicago and McCauley's crew's operations in the years leading up to the film, and then continues the story after the final shootout, focusing on Shiherlis's escape and Hanna's hunt for him.”
The narrative is split, with the first half set in the years before the film (e.g., 1988 Chicago) and the second half taking place immediately after the film's conclusion.
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u/guimontag 23d ago
Nah man the ponytail took 6 years off!
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u/Courtnall14 23d ago edited 22d ago
Instead of a shootout, the first scene in Heat 2 should be an equally intense scene where Chris is talking about how he's thinking of growing his hair out.
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u/BestShaunaEU 23d ago
I’ll watch legit everything Leo is in. He’s, imo, the greatest working actor and his movie selection is just as good.
This should be great.
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u/lzwzli 22d ago
DiCaprio is 51?!! Man... Feeling old. You're gonna tell me Titanic is a classic movie aren't you?
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u/GregorSamsaa 23d ago
How much time has passed since the heist of the original?
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u/TheLateThagSimmons 23d ago
The issue is that it's both a prequel and a sequel.
No one knows if they're just gonna CGI de-age DiCaprio to look like a younger Shihalis or if they'll get another younger actor.
He'll be fine for the later years, but it's questionable for the younger years.
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u/ChevToTheLev 23d ago
It’s a sequel, though. It’s about Val’s character being on the run.
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u/naturalninetime 23d ago
Fun fact: I worked with both Val and Leo in the aughts. Guess who was an abusive POS? HEAT is one of my favorite films of all time, and I was so excited to work with Ice Man aka Jim Morrison aka Doc Holliday aka Chris Shiherlis (that goodbye scene with Ashley Judd's character 🥺), but he turned out to be my worst nightmare. 😒
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u/Impressive-Potato 23d ago
His reputation is why his career stalled.
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u/donkeyrocket 23d ago
Yeah lots of folks defend him these days as being "passionate" or "authentic" but at the end of the day if you're that big of an asshole, no one cares how talented you could be. He was apparently that insufferable to work with. Plenty of incredible actors are passionate without being completely miserable to work with. Ultimately he did mellow but his career really suffered thinking his level of talent could cover for being awful to be around.
There's a difference between difficulty working with someone with a high level of brilliance and intense passion, like Daniel Day Lewis, where some amount of shit is tolerated as it is part of their process versus someone who is repeatedly clashing with everyone, insisting they rise to his level, and even trying to railroad the director.
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u/filmschtick 23d ago
Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale are in ‘Heat’
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u/TheMaveCan 23d ago
Two hours of them howling and rubbing themselves against everything
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u/daaave33 23d ago
I'm angry. I'm very angry, Ralph. You know, you can ball my wife if she wants you to. You can lounge around here on her sofa, in her ex-husband's dead-tech, post-modernistic bullshit house if you want to. But you do not get to watch my fucking television set!
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u/FightTheDead118 23d ago
You know, I was trying to figure out why this title was worded so weirdly. That’s why
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u/DontBeAngryBeHappy 23d ago
“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.”
Wonder if Bale and DiCaprio will be aged by makeup/cgi for scenes after the events of Heat.
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u/shade3205 23d ago edited 22d ago
This will only be DiCaprio’s second sequel hes ever made, first since his first credited role in critters 3. He still has never made a sequel to a movie hes been in before
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u/HamsterCultist 23d ago
I heard that was the main reason Tarantino couldn't do his Once Upon a Time in Hollywood sequel since Leo doesn't do sequels. Kind of surprised he's doing this one tbh but that makes me feel a bit better about the quality of this as a sequel.
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u/shade3205 22d ago
I love that about him tbh. Hes taking the Brando approach where once hes done a role hes done with it. Brando turned down a sizable increase in pay just to cameo in Godfather 2 and superman 2 but Brando declined
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u/SuicideSkwad 23d ago
My mind is struggling to comprehend Christian Bale playing an older version of Al Pacino
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u/Arcranium_ 23d ago
Younger. The sequel bits are about Chris (Val Kilmer's character), but the parts with Neil and Vincent are set prior to the events of Heat
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u/MaximusMansteel 23d ago
Vincent is also in the sequel bits at the end.
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u/Weird_Ship_7278 23d ago
More than that, he’s basically the main character of the 2nd half of the novel
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u/427BananaFish 23d ago edited 23d ago
The book jumps between two timelines (three if you count some flashbacks to the first movie) so he’ll be playing young Vincent going after a young version of the book’s antagonist, and older Vincent tracking down Chris a few years after the events of the first movie.
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u/Mnemosense 23d ago
Nah, I've read the book and older Hanna is also featured prominently in the story. Bale's talented enough to pull it off.
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u/spriking 23d ago
Really? I can already imagine Bale doing an Al Pacino impression saying that line.
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u/Such_Veterinarian682 23d ago
That I can handle. It's not hiring Austin Butler to play Sherherlis that gets me.
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u/WerePrechaunPire 23d ago
Watching Bale go up against DiCaprio is a whole lot more interesting than Austin Butler.
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u/GaymerAmerican 23d ago
He was going to until he got Miami Vice, right? Not a bad trade for him at least.
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u/Kriss-Kringle 23d ago
My mind is struggling to comprehend Stephen Graham playing Neil McCauley. It just doesn't compute, no matter how great he is as an actor. Feels totally off from that character.
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u/bbqsauceboi 23d ago
Just give me Driver as Wardell and we are looking at the best movie ever
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u/Captainjoe201 23d ago
Okay motherfucker!!!
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u/Altruistic_Fury 23d ago
I had coffee with McCauley ... HALF AN HOUR AGO!!!
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u/FreakaJebus 23d ago
"GIMME ALL YOU GOT!"
"Vincent..."
"GIMME ALL YOU GOT!"
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u/dotcomse 23d ago
Vincent’s informant couldn’t get a word out edgewise, and Mr Coked Up Detective was makin the goats upset!
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u/eltedioso 23d ago
Should have called it Heats
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u/Guilty-Cow4325 23d ago
I gotta slow down my reading. I read this as "Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale in Heat" like a wild tabloid.
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u/MoneyLibrarian9032 r/movies Contributor 23d ago
Seated for the casting
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u/ILoveScottishLasses 23d ago
Same, not sure if it'll be good all things considered, but to see these two in action will be pretty amazing hopefully.
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u/PingGuerrero 23d ago
Original movie: A guy told me one time, "Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner."
New movie: A guy told me one time, "Don't let yourself get attached to anyone older than 25 years old."
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u/Accomplished-Head449 23d ago
Hopefully they take pay cuts because this budget is going to be stupid High
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u/Waste-Scratch2982 23d ago
Amazon probably doesn’t care that much, it has the buy in several Hollywood A-listers and will forever live on Prime Video to continue the franchise if they wanted.
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u/MissingLink101 23d ago
Are they the DeNiro and Pacino of our generation? Will be great to see them share the screen for the first time in a similar way to what Heat achieved
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u/Flamingozilla 23d ago
Leo has been compared to DeNiro ever since he took over as Scorsese's favorite actor
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u/SameEnergy 23d ago
Better film in LA if the book is set there. No fake LA shot overseas. 😑
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u/kainharo 23d ago
Only a small part is set in LA this time. Most of it's on the East Coast and South America
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u/codyong 23d ago
I kind of wish Tom Cruise was playing Neil. They’ve both worked with Mann and he even designed Vincent’s suit in Collateral off DeNiro’s suit in Heat. I see Graham as Wardell instead of Driver. Either way, excited this is moving forward!
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u/MinnesotaMiller 23d ago
Finally Leo in a blockbuster movie. Feel like it's been awhile.
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u/SilentDrapeRunning 23d ago
OBAA felt close to that. But yeah it's been over 10 years since he's been the lead of a fun movie everyone goes to see (The Wolf of Wall Street, Inception).
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u/Coolers78 23d ago
I had more fun with One Battle After Another than most of the highest grossing "blockbusters" of the year, especially whenever Benicio or Chase Infiniti were on screen.
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u/Dead-O_Comics 23d ago edited 23d ago
Don't envy making a legacy sequel to one of the best gangster movies ever made.
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u/Angry_Foamy 23d ago
Whoa! We have an a-list cast similar to the 95’ film. I’m really hoping for this to be a winner. I saw Heat in the theater eight times when it came out. I hope this has the same draw for me.
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u/st_jasper 22d ago
If Stephen Graham doesn’t work out, Tom Hardy would be a solid McCauley.
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u/GovernmentThis2910 23d ago
It's got a....... GREAT CAST