Academy Award-winner and former Batman Christian Bale will return to the action once again in the long-awaited crime thriller sequel, Heat 2, with director Michael Mann’s cops and robbers follow-up also starring fellow Academy Award-winner Leonardo DiCaprio. While details regarding which role each of these Hollywood superstars will play remain under wraps at present, it has now been revealed that Heat 2 is looking to add a Terminator star, and one of Bale’s former co-stars, to the fray.
Released way back in 1995, Heat is the definitive epic crime thriller that all other crime thrillers wish they were. Written and directed by Michael Mann, the movie sets two Hollywood icons against each other (something the sequel is clearly looking to replicate) as Oscar-winner Al Pacino stars as LAPD Robbery Homicide Lieutenant Vincent Hanna and Oscar-winner Robert De Niro as professional thief Neil McCauley go head-to-head.
Standing at 84% from critics, alongside a far more accurate 94% (though still not quite the correct 100%) from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, Heat 2 has one hell of a legacy to live up to as it attempts to capture the same level of equally engrossing, terrifying, and intoxicating balance of crime, drama, and grounded action-packed thrills. Casting the one-two punch talents of Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale is certainly a solid start.
And the ensemble cast around them continues to grow, with Heat 2 now reportedly circling Terminator Genisys and Oppenheimer star Jason Clarke (via Deadline). Much like the rest of the cast, the role that Clarke will play is currently unknown, but it’s easy to imagine him throwing his notable intensity around as either a cop or a criminal. The sequel would reunite Clarke with both DiCaprio, Bale, and Mann, having starred in The Great Gatsby with the former, and Public Enemies with the latter pair.
What we do know so far about Heat 2 is that it’s being produced by Amazon MGM Studios alongside United Artists and will be based on the 2022 novel written by Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner. Acting as both a prequel and sequel to Mann’s action crime thriller masterpiece, Heat 2 is expected to begin filming in August, with writer and director Michael Mann returning to adapt his 2022 novel. The novel, which the movie is expected to replicate, jumps forward and backwards in time as it covers the formative years of homicide detective Vincent Hanna and elite criminals Neil McCauley, Chris Shiherlis, and Nate, played in the first movie by Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, and Jon Voight, respectively, while simultaneously exploring events set beyond the original movie and introducing new characters on both sides of the law. With the cast now being assembled, it has every chance to be another action crime thriller masterpiece.
- Release Date
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December 15, 1995
- Runtime
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170 minutes
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
