Nearly nine years since Blackhat with one hour-long TV pilot and big novel in-between doesn’t mean Michael Mann’s spent the much-better part of a decade lying dormant. The man(n) develops, develops, and develops, which is plenty effort for a noted perfectionist whose projects of late haven’t been so financially viable. Fingers crossed Ferrari––a solid, expressive bit of work––does business: he’s holding on to some long-stewing projects and hinting at ones we haven’t even heard word of yet.
In a recent interview with Uproxx, Mann reaffirms interest in a Vietnam-set project––likely his semi-recent attempts to adapt Mark Bowden’s Hue 1968, about the war’s turning-point Tet Offensive, though the outlet (I’m guessing incorrectly) refer to it as the “Battle of Wai.” In 2017 it was sketched as a 10-part FX series on which Mann would serve as a multi-episode director, but no confirmation if it remains on television or has been reshaped to cinematic size. He also references a sci-fi feature, and when asked about it responds succinctly: “I can’t talk about it!”
Brought briefly into the interview, of course, is Heat 2, about which we last heard Adam Driver filling Robert De Niro’s shoes. Maybe now’s time to relay word from strong sources that the adaptation of his novel / sequel to one of the great post-Godfather crime films has been moving along at Warner Bros., which is supposedly ready to allocate it a big budget, and been a bête noire for the agents of ambitious stars––specifically Channing Tatum and Jeremy Allen White, who have (apparently) made their interest in this film actively known. It’s not hard imagining either in Mann’s world, for as crazy as the prospect of his and Meg Gardiner’s novel––overburdened, overplotted, heavy-handed, ridiculous, in short: Heat––becoming a film might be.
Meanwhile, listen to / watch recent conversations Mann’s had with Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Denis Villeneuve below: