Leonardo DiCaprio Confirms ‘Heat 2,’ Exits ‘Cliff Booth,’ as Scorsese’s ‘What Happens at Night’ Is a “Work in Progress”

In a new interview with Deadline, Leonardo DiCaprio just dropped the clearest update yet on his upcoming slate and, in the process, confirmed that he’s indeed starring in Michael Mann’s “Heat 2.”

There’s been endless speculation about whether DiCaprio would play the Vincent Hanna or Chris Shiherlis role, and it turns out even he doesn’t know: “We’re working on it… it’s certainly exciting.”

Mann’s 2022 novel tackles dual timelines (the aftermath of the original’s botched robbery and a new wave of global heists years later), and DiCaprio stressed that the film will stand on its own.

We can’t duplicate what ‘Heat’ was… it’s paying homage, but giving it its own unique entity.

Curiously, there’s still no word yet on who Christian Bale would be playing either in “Heat 2.” Regardless, Mann assembling these two actors for the film is the main lure—and there are still several key actors left to be cast. Other rumored names that have circulated include Austin Butler, Adam Driver, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Allen White, and Channing Tatum.

Meanwhile, that David Fincher–directed spinoff centered on Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth is happening without DiCaprio:

There were some talks about it early on. Ultimately, I cannot wait to see the Cliff Booth story, but I’m not in it.

Last month, TheInSneider revealed that DiCaprio still hadn’t agreed to cameo as Rick Dalton in Fincher’s “Cliff Booth”—much to Netflix’s frustration. The streamer had reportedly offered the actor $3M for the Dalton cameo, just for one day of shooting. It sounds like he’d decline that offer.

As for the seventh Scorsese–DiCaprio collaboration, the one we’ve been calling “What Happens at Night,” Deadline originally reported it would shoot in January, but we didn’t believe it—DiCaprio will likely be campaigning “One Battle After Another” until March, and it looks like the Scorsese film is, in DiCaprio’s own words, “a work in progress.”

Marty has this incredible yearning and connection to this material. I think he’s heavily influenced by films like Vertigo […] It’s a love story, but it’s simultaneously about accepting the reality that you’re given in this life… at the core is this relationship between a man and a dying woman,” where “we don’t know what’s reality and what’s not.

In the meantime, DiCaprio will probably earn his seventh Oscar nomination for acting next year for “One Battle After Another,” and that’s quite the feat. He’s only won once, for 2015’s “The Revenant.”