Michael Mann's HEAT Sequel Officially Moving Forward; Leonardo DiCaprio Still Attached To Star Michael Mann's Heat sequel is now moving forward at Amazon MGM Studios, who won a bidding war for the project after Warner Bros. agreed to let Mann shop it around... News By MarkCassidy - Oct 08, 2025 10:10 AM EST Filed Under: Movies We've been hearing about plans for a potential adaptation of the Heat 2 novel for quite a while at this stage, with the project reportedly stopping and starting several times. Now, THR has confirmed that a sequel to Michael Mann's acclaimed crime thriller starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro is officially moving forward. The movie has found a new home at United Artists, a division of Amazon MGM Studios, after Warner Bros. agreed to allow Mann to shop the project around when they were unable to agree on a budget. In addition, Jerry Bruckheimer and Scott Stuber have now boarded as producers. Leonardo DiCaprio, who has been attached to the film for some time, is still set to play Chris Shiherlis (the late Val Kilmer's character in the original Heat), but this project has reportedly attracted a lot of other A-list talent. According to the trade, the likes of Austin Butler, Adam Driver and Bradley Cooper are also circling undisclosed roles, although "no offers have been made If he signs on, Driver is expected to play the younger Neil McCauley (De Niro's character), and Jeff Sneider - who has been monitoring this project very closely - shared some intriguing new insights on Cooper's (potential) involvement in his latest newsletter. "At first, many assumed that DiCaprio would play the film’s villain, Otis Wardell, but that was before Deadline’s Justin Kroll clarified that DiCaprio is poised to play Chris Shiherlis, the character portrayed by Val Kilmer in the original movie. That left folks to assume that Cooper would actually be playing Wardell. And that could very well be the case. However, you have to keep in mind that Mann began meeting with actors when this project was set up at Warner Bros., and that studio loves Cooper, so my sources suggest that Cooper isn’t up for Wardell, and he’s actually being eyed as DiCaprio’s back-up for Old Chris in the event that Leo says 'no.'" Sneider has also heard that Butler is poised to play "Young Chris" (the novel spans several different timelines), while both Adria Arjona and Eiza Gonzalez could be on the studio's radar to play McCauley's girlfriend, Elisa. Despite DiCaprio's name being mentioned in connection with Heat 2 so frequently, some remain unconvinced that he will ultimately sign on. “Will Leo really work at Amazon? And if he’s doing the Scorsese film in the first part of next year, I wonder when Heat 2 will shoot? He doesn’t like to work that much,” said one of Sneider's insiders. “I don’t have any inside intel, but I’d be very surprised if he ended up doing it.”
