Michael Mann’s Heat 2 sequel book was almost a video game

Michael Mann, director of the film, will release a sequel. HeatHis 1995 crime-thriller, starring Al Pacino playing eccentric detective Vincent Hanna, and Robert De Niro portraying his career-obsessive bank robber counterpart Neil McCauley. This summer, a sequel to the bank-heist movie that caused tinnitus will come out in the shape of a book. Heat 2: The NovelMann wrote the book with Meg Gardiner, a prolific thriller writer.

Heat 2 will tell the “before and after” story of the film’s primary characters, according to a trailer for the book, and promises a “deep dive” into Hanna’s life in Chicago six years prior to the events of Heat. Mann told Deadline, “There was always a rich history or back-story about the events in these people’s lives before 1995 inHeat and projection of where their lives would take them after.”

Expect a similar exploration into McCauley’s background and that of his accomplice, Chris Shiherlis, who was played by Val Kilmer in the film. Heat 2In the immediate aftermath of Heat’s botched bank robbery, with a wounded Shiherlis trying to escape Los Angeles. Deadline’s write-up of the plot of Heat 2Points to a global thriller with 12 years worth of crime drama. It ping-pongs between Taiwan, Mexico and LA.

Mann spoke previously of “a” HeatIn 2016, prequel. In 2016, he founded the Michael Mann Books imprint with the intent to use his TV and film productions to create new novels. When it is released on August 9, William Morrow, Publisher will fulfill that long-standing plan. Heat 2: The Novel.

Mann, however, had his eyes set on a HeatThe sequel/prequel was much earlier than 2016 He also wrote his HeatOne of the original plans for successor was to be a videogame, which Borderlands software Gearbox Software developed. Titan Productions, an American company, announced at E3 2006 that it had signed a contract with Heat rights owner Regency Enterprises to make a video game sequel to Mann’s film, with Gearbox handling development of the planned PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game. According to a report from GameSpot, Titan claimed the project was in the “advanced stages with representatives for Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Val Kilmer to be part of the video game sequel.”

“There is something about this concept that I call ‘hardcore heist’ that has never really been done well in a video game, yet everyone on the planet has thought about robbing a bank or something at one time or another,” Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford said of the project in 2006. “Heat pretty much defined what hardcore heist means and it gives us a narrative mechanism to consider both sides.”

A minimum of one video game has already tried to imitate it Heat’s memorable bank heist by then: Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto Vice City. The mission “The Job” put protagonist Tommy Vercetti and pals into coveralls and hockey masks, an homage to Heat’s armored car robbery scene, in Vice City’s plundering of El Banco Corrupto Grande. You might also like HeatThis heist leads to a gunfight with SWAT teams and an escape.

Rockstar is back! HeatHeist in a’style’ Grand Theft Auto 4’s “Three Leaf Clover,” a bank robbery with suits and ski masks, followed by a more dramatic, desperate shootout with Liberty City cops.

Another video game series that arrived years later, Overkill Software’s PaydayDirectly influenced by HeatSimon Vicklund, co-founder of the studio, said that it is. Payday 2 even had a map called Heat Street, a replication of Mann’s climactic shootout through the streets of downtown LA.

But Gearbox’s plan to bring HeatIts development on video gaming consoles has never been a success. In a 2009 interview with GameSpot, Pitchford said that development on the game had gone “nowhere.”

“We have passionate game makers that would love to do it,” Pitchford said. “We’ve got filmmakers that think it’s a great idea that would love to see it done. There are publishing partners who would love to see it published. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough time. That’s the limiting factor.”

“From a talent point of view, we had a lot of interest,” Pitchford added. “[…]We didn’t make any deals, but it was clear that Pacino was interested in it, and Val would take it. De Niro was interested, but it took some time to have more discussions with him. He’s not a gamer himself.”

Pitchford said that Gearbox had done “some preproduction effort with some development partners starting to feel out asset creation and what the scope of the world can be,” but the project never progressed beyond the dream stage and into full production. It was also in the process of developing. BorderlandsAnd Colonial Marines and Aliens at the time — “at the brink of our capability,” Pitchford said — and eventually gave up on HeatYou hope someone will buy the property.

It’s worth noting that Titan Productions also announced game projects with directors John Carpenter for a shooter called PsychopathGuillermo del Toro, for a zombie horror post-apocalyptic game. SundownThe other was for a new product, but it never happened. So don’t lay too much of the blame on Gearbox for The Video Game of Heat’s failure to launch.