The next film from renowned filmmaker Michael Mann is officially the long-awaited sequel to his sweeping Los Angeles crime saga, “Heat.”

In December of 1995, “Heat” was released to great commercial and critical success. It earned over $180 million at the worldwide box office and has since developed an iconic status among movie fans. 

Starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in the prime of their careers and Mann directing, who had already established himself with highly regarded works such as “Thief” and “Miami Vice,” the film follows robbery-homicide detective Vincent Hanna on a relentless pursuit of a group of thieves led by master criminal Neil McCauley. 

Fans have been clamoring for more since the film’s release. Those wishes were partially granted in 2022 when Mann and Meg Gardiner wrote a second installment, a novel titled “Heat 2.”

The book depicts the character’s lives before and after the film as a sequel and a prequel. 

Appearing on the Rich Eisen Show to promote the book, Mann was asked whether he would be interested in making the novel into a movie. Without hesitation, he replied, “I would love to.”

The novel quickly became a New York Times bestseller, which led to a film adaptation receiving the green light. However, it would have to wait as the director had already begun production on his latest film “Ferrari.”

Now that “Ferrari” has been finished and released, Mann made an appearance on Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast and confirmed that “Heat 2” is officially in early development and that his plan is “to absolutely make it next year.” 

No one has been confirmed to star in the film as of now, but rumors have circulated for quite some time about who could receive top billing in the film’s cast. 

The initial talk amongst fans was that Adam Driver could play a young Neil McCauley. These speculations were mainly rooted in the fact that Driver worked with Mann recently as the star of “Ferrari.”

Driver has been very reluctant to speak about joining the cast of “Heat 2,” leading to speculation that his involvement will die down.

Rumors around young star Austin Butler playing the character Chris Shiherlis, formerly portrayed by Val Kilmer in the original film, intensified recently when a video was posted to social media by Cinema Solace of the actor doing several gun training exercises.

The Chris Shiherlis character knows his way around firearms. Whoever does portray the character would likely need to develop a tactical skill for it.

Fans across social media suspected that the training in the video could be part of Butler’s early preparation for the role. 

One fan posted, “You’re never going to believe who’s playing young Val Kilmer in Heat 2.” Another fan wrote, “Austin Butler as young Chris Shiherlis? I love it.”

Answers to these rumors will likely not come until the film moves further into production, but one should expect more news sooner rather than later. 

With a return to the iconic world of “Heat” officially coming shortly, the anticipation will continue rising to unprecedented levels until the film is released.