Michael Mann’s Heat 2 looks stuck in limbo. A script is with Warner Bros, but there’s no sign of it getting a greenlight. More here.
It took a long, long time for director Michael Mann to make his most recent film, the biopic Ferrari. There’s not much sign that what was going to be his next movie – Heat 2 – is going much quicker.
It seems there are two problems: one is the cost, the other is the ongoing problems at Warner Bros Discovery.
Dealing with them in reverse order, just this week we reported that Warner Bros was facing difficult times. Its slate of movies is, to its credit, a risky one, but the box office performance of Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17 over the last week hasn’t suggested confidence in its theatrical releases and their current ability to bring in a return. Alto Knights is around the corner, a nine figure spend that’s not expected to burn up the box office either.
Much apparently hinges on this summer’s Superman, which reboots the big screen DC universe of feature films. Just at a point where superhero films appear to be faltering a little.
Against that backdrop comes Heat 2, based on a successful novel, and with a budget the north side of $100m. Warner Bros had been set to press ahead with the movie, but the start date keeps getting pushed back, in spite of casting having got underway. Adam Driver, who starred as Enzo Ferrari in that earlier biopic, is set to reteam with Michael Mann for the new movie.
World Of Reel reports that Warner Bros took delivery of the screenplay earlier this year, but hasn’t made a decision on greenlighting the movie, and there’s a decent chance it may be a risk too far for the studio. From the outside looking in, it’s a project that’s pretty close to being ready to go, yet the current situation at Warner Bros looks like it’s making it difficult to press ahead with.
Warner Bros hasn’t commented on any of this, of course, but it demonstrates little sign of getting Heat 2 moving. More as we hear it.
