EXCLUSIVE: Jason Clarke is being eyed to join the cast of Michael Mann’s Heat 2 from Amazon MGM Studios and United Artists, multiple sources tell Deadline.
Reps for Amazon and the actor declined comment, and what role Clarke will play is not yet clear. While sources say there are no cast deals in place, Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale are also rumored to be circling, as previously reported.
The project would reunite Clarke and Mann following their work together on Public Enemies, the Universal crime flick starring Johnny Depp as Great Depression-era gangster John Dillinger.
Mann will direct Heat 2 from his own script, based on his and Meg Gardiner’s #1 New York Times bestselling novel. Producers include Mann, Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ Jerry Bruckheimer, and UA’s Scott Stuber and Nick Nesbitt. Eric Roth and Shane Salerno will exec produce, with Amazon MGM to release the film in theaters.
Mann’s classic 1995 crime thriller Heat follows master thief Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) as he plans one last score while obsessive LAPD detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) closes in, with both men wrecking their personal lives in service of the job.
Mann wrote and directed that one and produced alongside Art Linson, with the film grossing over $187 million — what would be close to the $400 million range if released today — at the worldwide box office. Also starring Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, and more, the film from Warner Bros. and New Regency has influenced generations of filmmakers and retained major viewership on streaming and home entertainment for decades.
Published in 2022, Heat 2 is both prequel and sequel — examining Vincent Hanna’s Chicago years, Neil McCauley’s earlier criminal life, and the survival of Kilmer’s Chris Shiherlis after the original film’s bank-robbery climax.
Clarke recently wrapped the thriller Ally Clark opposite Viola Davis, also for Amazon MGM, as well as Tom McCarthy’s The Statement for Sony Pictures Classics. Currently, he’s shooting A Quiet Place 3 for Paramount/Skydance and director John Krasinski. Other credits include Oppenheimer; Murdaugh: Death in the Family; the upcoming F.A.S.T.; Zero Dark Thirty; Mudbound; Dawn of the Planet of the Apes; Chappaquiddick; Everest; and Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers. He is represented by Robert Stein Management, CAA, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman.
