Michael Mann’s “Heat” is a classic of the ‘90s. It even cracked the top 20 in our 1990s critics poll. Mann’s action movie changed the landscape and was even Christopher Nolan’s main influence when he made “The Dark Knight.”
However, Mann’s recent comments that he wants to make a “Heat” sequel have me worried. Sometimes, you just shouldn’t mess with a masterpiece:
“It’s totally planned to be a movie”
The film, he says, would be an adaptation of his own published novel which is being released later this summer. The setting takes place both before and after the original, in the same vein as in The Godfather Part II, largely focusing on Hanna and Chris Shiherlis (the character played in the film by Val Kilmer).
About possible problems finding funding for this sequel, Mann says he’s not worried because there’s an already-large fan base attached to the original “Heat”:
“It’s sustained in culture. It’s known. I could delude myself into thinking that the whole world is familiar with it, but when you check out its prominence in home vid for over 20 years, this thing really has legs. People are still watching it, people are still talking about it. It’s a brand. It’s kind of a Heat universe, in a way. And that certainly justifies a very large ambitious movie.”
In the meantime, Mann is shooting “Ferrari” in Italy, his first film in over seven years.