Val Kilmer is riding high on nostalgia after reprising his iconic role of Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick. But he doesn’t want to stop there. The actor would also love to see another one of his blockbuster hits get a sequel, Heat.
The possibility of filming a follow-up to the 1995 classic has been a popular topic lately. Director Michael Mann recently teamed with author Meg Gardiner to write the sequel into a novel called Heat 2. The story gives the original movie both a prequel and a sequel.
The book dropped on August 9, and before it was even available, Mann announced that he was already planning on turning the book into a screenplay.
The original movie, which is ranked as one of IMDB’s top-rated, is a crime drama that follows Los Angeles Detective Lieutenant Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) as he hunts a notorious career criminal named Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro). Val Kilmer stars as Chris Shiherlis, the kingpin’s right-hand man.
While chatting about the success of Top Gun: Maverick and his special scene in the film with IGN’s Jim Vejvoda, Kilmer admitted that he’d love to see Heat celebrate a second run as well.
“Heat would be fun,” he shared. “I love Michael Mann. We get along great and we h ave a great deal of trust.”
IGN: We’re seeing so many films now get a sequel years later. Are there any of your other early films you’d love to see a follow-up to?
VAL: HEAT would be fun. I love Michael Mann. We get along great and we have a great deal of trust… pic.twitter.com/Za01lb8lDw
— Jim Vejvoda (@JimVejvoda) August 23, 2022
‘Heat 2’ Will Explore the Inner Workings of the Movie’s Two Iconic Characters
Al Pacino also supports the revival. And he has two ideas for bringing his character to the screen as a younger man. Either Timothée Chalamet could play Hanna or the special effects team could use the same de-aging technology used in The Irishman so he could play the part himself.
In the book, Mann delves deeper into the inner workings of Hanna and McCauley, two people who perfectly juxtaposed the other with their dedication to their careers. The director admitted that he has always wanted to explore how they came into their lives and what they meant to each other. The novel will make that dream will finally come to fruition.
“It’s totally planned to be a movie. Is it a modest movie? No. Is it a very expensive series? No. It’s going to be one large movie … It’s sustained in culture. It’s known. I could delude myself into thinking that the whole world is familiar with it, but when you check out its prominence in home vid for over 20 years, this thing really has legs. 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.”
