Heat lives on! New Michael Mann novel to serve as prequel and sequel to his crime film masterpiece

For Michael Mann, more Heat is the juice.

The beloved writer-director, who hasn't made a film since 2015's Blackhat, announced Wednesday that Aug. 9 will see the release of Heat 2, a novel from him and Edgar-winner Meg Gardiner that will serve as both a prequel and sequel to Mann's action-crime masterpiece, 1995's Heat.

Watch the trailer below.

"When I was writing the film, it was imperative for me to create complete life stories about all the characters and to know everything about them," Mann tells Deadline. "It's been my intention for a long time to do the further stories of Heat. There was always a rich history or back-story about the events in these people's lives before 1995 in Heat and projection of where their lives would take them after."

The L.A.-set heist film centered on a game of cat-and-mouse between expert thief Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) and dogged detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino). The loaded cast also included Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Amy Brenneman, Danny Trejo, Jon Voight, Ashley Judd, and Natalie Portman, but Heat's No. 1 draw was Pacino and De Niro sharing the screen for the first time. They wouldn't come face-to-face until 90 minutes in, when Hanna pulls over McCauley and asks to buy him a cup of coffee. What ensues is a simple six-minute sequence of two men drinking coffee at a diner, exchanging philosophies and dreams, and yet it's like a heavyweight fight filled with mutual respect, resulting in a scene that will forever be on film's Mount Rushmore.

Everett Collection

According to Deadline, Heat 2 will begin "one day after the events of the film, with a wounded Chris Shiherlis (Kilmer) desperate to escape L.A. The story moves to both the six years preceding the heist and the years immediately following it, featuring new characters and new worlds of high-end professional crime, with highly cinematic action sequences." In addition to Chris, the characters of Hanna, McCauley, Charlene (Judd), Nate (Voight), Trejo (Trejo), and Kelso (Tom Noonan) will be major factors in the story.

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