Michael Mann Says He Might Experiment With AI in ‘Heat 2’: ‘Aging and De-Aging May Be Very Important’

According To The variety While AI has been dividing Hollywood, Michael Mann is agnostic when it comes to it. In fact, he will likely be experimenting with it in “Heat 2.” “I don’t I experiment with technology gratuitously,” Mann said at a press conference hosted at the Lumiere Film Festival in Lyon, where he received the 2025 Lumiere Award from the hands of French actor Isabelle Huppert last night. “When I have a dramatic need or esthetic need for it, then I go deep into what I need.” He added, “Aging and de-aging may be very important in the next film,” Mann said, referring to the long-anticipated sequel to “Heat” which he said on Friday during a wide-ranging masterclass that will hopefully start filming next summer. Mann also addressed the fact that “Heat 2” has moved from Warner Bros. to Amazon MGM-owned United Artists and producer Scott Stuber. “Heat 2” is an “expensive movie to make, but I believe it should be made at the proper size and scale,” Mann said. “It’s going to shoot in Chicago, Los Angeles, Paraguay, and possibly some parts in Singapore.” “People make dramas at a certain budget level, because of the costs, not because of anybody being greedy. If it was at a lower price, I could have made it anywhere. But it’s complex. I can’t get into all the politics of it.” Unlike “Ferrari,” his movie starring Adam Driver which was sold to Amazon after being produced independently and didn’t get released theatrically in several international territories, “Heat 2” will have a different fate. “We moved from Warner Bros. to Amazon and United Artists, but it will be absolutely released theatrically, in the United States, probably in about 4,000 cinemas and for at least 45 days,” Mann said. Regarding the plot of “Heat 2,” Mann said it would move back and forth in time, before and after the events of the original film. The story will pick up one day after the movie ends, “only Val Kilmer’s alive, and he has to flee the United States.” “The characters of ‘Heat’ are so alive to me. An idea occurred to me, based on the rapport between two lethal adversaries, Pacino’s Hannah and De Niro’s McCauley, about how to do both before the events of ‘Heat’ and after.” He pointed out that Hannah and McCauley were changed by events that occurred in 1988, when Hannah was a cop in Chicago and McCauley had “a wife, he has a stepdaughter, he has a nuclear family that he’s very attached to.” Mann also gave an update on his following project set against the backdrop of the 1968 Battle of Hué, during the Vietnam War, which he’ll do after “Heat 2.” The film will be based on a book by Mark Bowden, the helmer of “Black Hawk Down.” “It’s a very human, a very powerful piece, and I spent a lot of time and talked with a lot of survivors of that battle,” Mann said, adding that the book had also inspired Al Pacino’s character from “Heat” — “Al Pacino’s history, that he was a Marine who was in the Battle of Hue in 1968 and that in 1988 he’s still suffering from PTSD.” That movie will be “like “Rashōmon” with several perspectives, several points of both the American side and on the Vietnamese side,” Mann teased. Mann also said during yesterday’s masterclass that he’ll produce a Western titled “Comanche” which will be directed by Scott Cooper, whose latest film “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” played this week at Lumiere Festival. Later on Saturday, Mann concluded his visit to Lyon with a Lumiere Festival tradition. Following every other Lumiere Award honoree, Mann set off to reimagine “Workers Leaving The Lumière Factory in Lyon.” The 1895 French short written and directed by Louis Lumière is believed to be the first motion picture ever made. Assisted by Fremaux, Mann did six takes, many of which had slightly different set-ups and angles, and used several cameras, including his iPhone’s. A number of famous French actors, including Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Marina Fois and Michelle Laroque, took part in the experiment. The Lumiere Festival wraps Oct. 19.