Michael Mann wants to adapt his upcoming Heat novel into a 'very large ambitious movie'

Michael Mann's Heat is only getting hotter.

Mann fans already know that a novel set both before and after the events of the director's 1995 masterpiece is on the way. Co-written by Mann and Meg Gardiner, Heat 2 brings back characters like Al Pacino's Vincent Hanna, Val Kilmer's Chris Shiherlis, and Tom Noonan's Kelso as it bounces between a story set six years before the events of the film and one exploring the film's aftermath. It doesn't hit bookstores until August, but Mann is already mapping out a film adaptation.

"It's totally planned to be a movie," Mann says in a new interview with Empire magazine. "Is it a modest movie? No. Is it a very expensive series? No. It's going to be one large movie."

Everett Collection Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) and Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) in 'Heat.'

Mann's last film was 2015's Blackhat, but he's stayed busy by directing the pilot episode of HBO's Tokyo Vice series, on which he's also an executive producer. He's also developing his next directorial effort, a biopic of Enzo Ferrari starring Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz.

These days, it can seem like only superheroes and toyetic franchises are afforded the "large movie" treatment, but Mann is confident that Heat's enduring popularity is a sign of its modern viability.

"When you check out its prominence in home vid for over 20 years, this thing really has legs," Mann told Empire. "People are still watching it, people are still talking about it. It's a brand. It's kind of a Heat universe, in a way. And that certainly justifies a very large ambitious movie."

So if Heat 2 does become a movie, who would star? Probably not Pacino, since the majority of the new story is a prequel, but the actor suggested Dune's Timothée Chalamet as a potential Vincent at the Tribeca Film Festival last month.

It's time to ask yourself, Timothée: Is the action the juice?

Related content:

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

• 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