Michael Mann’s “Heat 2” with Adam Driver

The heating is on. The film adaptation of Michael Mann’s book “Heat 2” and the sequel to the big crime thriller “Heat” are moving forward quickly, and negotiations are currently underway for Warner Bros. to acquire the development rights to the project, with Adam Driver in talks to star. starring, IndieWire has learned.

Mann, who produced, directed and wrote the original 1995 film starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Val Kilmer, is the driving force behind the project and is negotiating the film adaptation rights. He will also write the screenplay and the sequel to “Heat” if a deal is struck at a studio. The film would closely follow Mann’s novel “Heat 2,” which was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller last year, and Mann has long hinted that a sequel to the film is one of his passion projects.

Driver, currently starring in Mann’s “Ferrari,” would play a young Neil McCauley or De Niro’s character from the original film. And although there were some juicy gossip about the other actors who could participate in the sequel, Pacino is even a fan of Timothée Chalamet, as young Vincent Hanna, currently no other actors are being discussed. However, a source also disputed that Driver is currently in talks.

“Heat 2” takes place both before and after the events of the original film, set back in 1988 as McCauley juggles jobs and struggles with PTSD after serving in the Vietnam War, while Pacino’s character is a rising star in Chicago. police. It also follows the immediate aftermath of the bank robbery, with McCauley’s partner Chris Shiherlis (Kilmer) now holed up in Koreatown and desperately trying to escape Los Angeles.

Mann wrote the novel with crime writer Meg Gardiner.

Warner Bros. representatives declined to comment.

Mann recently wrapped production on Ferrari, a biopic about the Italian sports car maker starring Driver, Penélope Cruz, Shailene Woodley, Patrick Dempsey and Jack O’Connell.

Mann is repped by CAA.

Deadline first broke the news.

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