Al Pacino thinks Timothée Chalamet should play him in a Heat prequel film

At the Tribeca Film Festival's star-studded premiere of the new 4K restoration of Michael Mann's Heat, the first couple hundred attendees were surprise-gifted a copy of Heat 2, the upcoming prequel/sequel novel to the crime-drama.

Co-written by Mann, the project details the backstory of indefatigable detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) and smooth criminal Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro), also revealing what the characters who survive the film get up to in the years that follow the events of Heat.

Which begs the question: Could Heat 2 be adapted into its own film someday? And if so, who should play the younger versions of Hanna and McCauley?

Panel moderator Bilge Ebiri put this very question to De Niro and Pacino, and while De Niro didn't have an answer (he was, as usual, pretty taciturn in the face of interview questions), Pacino sure did.

"Timothée Chalamet!" Pacino shouted, to cheers from the audience.

Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage; Bennett Raglin/WireImage Al Pacino thinks Timothée Chalamet could play a younger version of him in a 'Heat' prequel.

It was quite a rambunctious crowd — the panel questions were frequently interrupted by audience members shouting lines from the movie or just yelling affirmations like "I love you!" at the two iconic movie stars.

Funnily, a different production has already tackled the question of who should play a young Pacino. Paramount+'s The Offer, the recent miniseries about the making of The Godfather, starred actor Anthony Ippolito as 1970s Pacino. The real Pacino, it turns out, is a big fan of the miniseries — and was disappointed to learn that De Niro hasn't watched it yet.

Mann was originally supposed to attend the panel alongside Pacino, De Niro, and Heat producer Art Linson, but bowed out at the last minute after he tested positive for COVID-19. Instead, Mann sent a video message that played before the event, in which he discussed some of the effort that went into the new restoration.

"We spent two weeks going through every shot," Mann explained in his prerecorded message. "It wasn't just color timing. We affected differences between light and shadow in many, many places within the framing."

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty for Tribeca Festival Al Pacino and Robert De Niro discuss 'Heat' at a Tribeca Film Festival screening.

But even without Mann on hand, Pacino and De Niro were able to discuss some of their favorite memories of shooting Heat. Though Mann's films are known for their authenticity and jargon taken from interviews with real cops and criminals, Heat also included some improvisation — at least when it came to Pacino's scenes.

Regarding the famous delivery of the line "she's got a great ass!" Ebiri noted that Hank Azaria's look of horror in that scene is real, since he had no idea Pacino was going to say it.

"How about this: I didn't know I was going to do it!" Pacino said with a laugh.

The new 4K restoration of Heat is available Aug. 9.

Related content:

• Heat lives on! New Michael Mann novel to serve as prequel and sequel to 1995 film

• Michael Mann explains what he changed in 4K Blu-ray release of Heat

• Revisiting the highs (and low) of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino's big-screen collaborations