The movie that brought Robert De Niro and Al Pacino together on the silver screen for the first time ever was initially a failed 1989 television movie. However, director Michael Mann had different intentions that eventually came to fruition in the form of the iconic 1995 film, Heat. The leap it took in these six years changed cinema forever. Here is the story of Heat.
This Is How Michael Mann Made His Flop TV Movie Into a Classic!
The legendary director Michael Mann wrote the original script for Heat back in the 70s. However, he finally brought the script to life with his 1989 movie LA Takedown starring Alex McArthur and Scott Plank. He once mentioned in the 17-minute BBC documentary, Mann Made: From LA Takedown To Heat, that he “abridged” and abstracted several portions.
The movie did not perform well. Even though Mann, throughout his long career, had always avoided revisiting the same project, he had different plans for this particular project following LA Takedown’s performance.
He regretted making the movie in such a hurry, more specifically in 19 days to be exact with 10 days of pre-production. Thus, feeling an overwhelming compulsion to honor the script in its entirety, the director followed through on this instinct. In the BBC documentary, he said,
“The amount of time I take between projects is not a method; it’s an irritant,–I would much prefer to direct two films in three years, or three films in three years, but finding something I want to do next is very difficult.”
Consequently, he transformed his failed TV movie into a timeless classic, now deemed as one of the greatest remakes ever crafted.
The movie which he now named Heat, starred Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in the lead roles and was an instant hit, retaining its popularity even today, after several years of its release.
Michael Mann Will Heat Things up One More Time!
In a recent conversation with Deadline, the director revealed that Heat 2 will indeed be his next project. Thus, fans can anticipate the return of Heat to the big screen after several decades soon enough. The sequel to the cult classic will serve as both a prequel and a sequel to the 1995 movie, focusing on the younger versions of the dynamic roster, namely Al Pacino, Val Kilmer, and Robert De Niro.
He said,
“Meg Gardiner and myself wrote the novel Heat 2, which came out right when we were shooting Ferrari,–It did very well. I plan to shoot that next.”
Although nothing has been announced yet, people are hugely expecting Adam Driver to be cast as the younger version of McCauley. To which Mann said,
“Perhaps. We don’t talk about that yet. Let me put it this way: Adam and I got along like a house on fire. We have the same work ethic – which is pretty intense. We like each other and we had a great time working together artistically.”
All in all, fans are incredibly excited to see what Mann has in store for them next.
Heat is currently available on Apple TV for rent.
