It’s no longer a rumour: Leonardo DiCaprio is officially working with Michael Mann for the first time, as a lead actor, in the legendary American filmmaker’s sequel to his 1995 crime epic Heat. This would mark his second collaboration with Mann, who had produced the actor’s The Aviatordirected by Martin Scorsese.
The One Battle After Another star dropped the update in an extensive interview with Deadline, in which he also confirmed another upcoming Scorsese directorial.
On Heat 2DiCaprio said this: “This is very much its own movie. We’re still working on it, we’re a ways away from production. It tips its hat to Heatbut it’s an homage, and it picks up the story from there. The book is already out there, so there are no big secrets that I’m divulging. It’s set in the future, and the past, from that pivotal moment in what I think is the great crime noir film of my lifetime. It’s one of those films that just keeps resonating, that we keep talking about, that has been imitated so many times and influenced so many different movies. So, we’re working on it. But it’s certainly exciting, and I think I look at it as its own silo, in a sense. We can’t duplicate what Heat was, so it’s paying homage to that film, but giving it its own unique entity.”
The actor hasn’t, however, revealed what character he is set to play in Heat 2and simply said that he is “mid-discussion” about whether he should play Val Kilmer’s role or Al Pacino’s from the original. Heat 2 is based on the novel — a prequel and sequel rolled into one — Mann wrote with Meg Gardiner.
Interestingly, DiCaprio and Mann almost came close to working together long ago, for a biopic about the late Hollywood star James Dean, which didn’t materialise.
As for the Scorsese project, What Happens at Nightwhich is based on Peter Cameron’s mystery novel of the same name, DiCaprio told Deadline it’s a “work in progress.”
“But what I do know is that Marty has this incredible yearning and connection to this material. I don’t know if I could compare it to The Shining or Shutter Island. I think he’s heavily influenced by films like Vertigoin that the film that he wants to make is about human relationships, about the acceptance of grief, the ability to let go,” said the actor. “It’s a love story, but it’s simultaneously about accepting the reality that you’re given in this life. It’s going to be an interesting journey. We’re still putting all the pieces together, but Marty has a very firm idea of what he wants to do, and there’s going to be a lot of exploration when we make this movie, because it can go in a lot of different directions. But at the core is this relationship between a man and a dying woman. They’re put into a set of circumstances where we don’t know what’s reality and what’s not.”
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