Director Michael Mann’s Heat 2 novel, which the filmmaker has written with Edgar-winner Meg Gardiner and will act as both a prequel and a sequel to his seminal 1995 crime drama, has now been given a release date of August 9. While speaking with Deadline, Michael Mann has revealed not only when readers will be able to delve back into the slick and slippery world of Heat, but also a few more details into his approach crafting this simultaneous sequel and prequel.

Thus, Mann felt it necessary for the upcoming Heat 2 novel to not only pick up with some characters beyond the events of the movie, but to frame them in the context of past events as well. Mann went on to reveal where Heat 2 will begin, with the novel intriguingly set to pick up just one day after the events of 1995’s Heat, following a badly wounded Chris Shiherlis, Val Kilmer’s character, who is now desperately trying to escape Los Angeles following the botched heist.

“It’s been my intention for a long time to do the further stories of Heat. There was always a rich history or back-story about the events in these people’s lives before 1995 in Heat and projection of where their lives would take them after.”

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Of course, Heat 2 will also reintroduce both Vincent Hanna and Neil McCauley, characters who were played by Al Pacino and Robert De Niro respectively, with flashbacks offering further context and revealing how they became the men they are in the movie.

“When I was writing the film, it was imperative for me to create complete life stories about all the characters and to know everything about them, including Neil McCauley’s early institutionalized years when he lost track of his brother, before he parachuted into the streets, young, angry and dangerous. And, the novel shows a McCauley very much attached and the dramatic events that resulted in his dictum that ‘if you’re making moves on the street, have no attachments, allow nothing to be in your life that you cannot walk out on in thirty seconds flat if you spot the heat around the corner.’”

A Synopsis for Heat 2 Offers Further Clues

     William Morrow

Courtesy of Deadline, a detailed synopsis for Heat 2 has also been revealed, providing fans of the movie with a good idea of what they can expect from the long-awaited follow-up. “The story moves to both the six years preceding the heist and the years immediately following it, featuring new characters and new worlds of high-end professional crime, with highly cinematic action sequences,” reads Deadline’s description.

“The venues range from the streets of L.A. to the inner sanctums of rival Taiwanese crime syndicates in a South American free trade zone, to a massive drug cartel money-laundering operation just over the border in Mexico, and eventually to Southeast Asia. Heat 2 explores the dangerous workings of international criminal organizations with full-blooded portraits of its male and female inhabitants.”

The first Heat was a critical and commercial success and has influenced the genre ever since. No doubt there will be many who cannot wait to reenter the gritty world of criminality, shoot-outs, and high-stakes heists.