Adam Driver Confirms He's Playing Psychopath Otis Wardell in Michael Mann's ‘Heat 2,' Calls Script “A Missile"

Adam Driver went on “The Rich Eisen Show” to promote "Paper Tiger" and confirmed that he's playing Otis Wardell, the villain of Michael Mann's "Heat 2."

"Yeah, I think I can say that," he told Eisen. The novel runs close to 500 pages, jumps between timelines and spans several continents, and Driver says Mann's adaptation of his own 2022 novel is even more condensed and streamlined than the book, calling the script "a missile."

Mann, 83 and as obsessive as ever, is personally taking Driver around Los Angeles locations tied to the screenplay tomorrow. Driver also told Eisen a great "Ferrari" story: Mann had the actual Mille Miglia-winning car shipped to the production just to record its engine inside a tunnel, for a sequence that didn't even make the final cut. That's Mann for you, obsessed with every detail.

Driver expects to join production early next year. That's a shift from the originally planned November start, and Driver made clear it has nothing to do with Mann's recent accident at a gun range.

So who is Otis Wardell? If you haven't read "Heat 2," Wardell is basically a psychopath on steroids, an irredeemable psycho pitted against both Hanna, who's hunting him, and McCauley, whose score he wants for himself. He's the glue between the book's two timelines, and he is much, much worse than anyone in the 1995 film. He's a serial rapist, torturer, kidnapper and murderer who leads a gang of vicious home invaders.

Driver was originally in talks to play the young Neil when Mann first set up the adaptation at Warner Bros. in April 2023. Is Wardell the better fit? Wardell is described as tall and lanky, which suits Driver better than most of the novel's characters. Stephen Graham ended up with young McCauley.

For those catching up, the cast includes Leonardo DiCaprio as Chris Shiherlis, Christian Bale as Vincent Hanna, Graham as young Neil, plus Jason Clarke and Odessa Young, with Ebon Moss-Bachrach set to play Kelso. The project moved from Warner Bros. to Amazon MGM's United Artists after the studios couldn't settle on a budget.

"Heat 2" has been many years in the making. I've been reporting on its delays, rewrites and budget fights throughout this decade, but this thing is finally real. Whether you like it or not, "Heat 2" is happening, and it's got one hell of a villain.