Michael Mann Says He’s Handed In His ‘Heat 2’ Script To Warner Bros.​on March 31, 2025 at 1:53 am

After confirming late last year that he was close to finishing his screenplay for Heat 2, Michael Mann said he has officially turned in a draft to Warner Bros.

In a Q&A with Vulture, the stylistic director behind the Robert De Niro and Al Pacino two-hander said, “I just finished the screenplay and handed in the first draft.”

Naturally, the plot details of the highly anticipated sequel for the 1995 crime thriller will remain under wraps for a while. Mann added of who he passed the script to: “In this case it was Warner Brothers. Any more than that, I can’t talk about. But it’s an exciting project.”

Arguably Mann’s most known and lauded film — among many of his that have developed cult devotion — Heat follows a cat-and-mouse relationship between a criminal mastermind (De Niro) planning one final job and a lieutenant (Pacino) dedicated to his work amid personal troubles, as they develop a mutual respect for each other even across opposite ends of the law. Val Kilmer, Diane Venora, Amy Brenneman, Ashley Judd, Natalie Portman and Jon Voight also star.

Last December, Mann also indicated that he wanted to make his previously mooted movie about the 1968 Battle of Hué, one of the bloodiest chapters of the Vietnam War in which the forces of South Vietnam and U.S troops recaptured the city of Hué over one month of brutal urban fighting.

Elsewhere in the interview, Mann responded to the notion that his films have seen a resurgence since their release: “I don’t like to speculate. I think it may have to do with what’s in the work. I’m not a journeyman director; I’d like to be, because I love shooting. But I put a lot into a film, and so I think sometimes they have layers of relating. They’re not simple. They may be totally accessible — not all my films, but some of them may be accessible just as something that’s going to flow, just going to occupy you for two hours, or two hours and 45 minutes in the case of Heat and Insider — but there’s also a lot there, because my ambition was to put a lot of depth into it. I probably shouldn’t even be answering this question to tell you the truth.”