Michael Mann says ‘Heat 2’ will likely use AI for ‘aging and de-aging’
While artificial intelligence has been dividing Hollywood, Michael Mann is an agnostic when it comes to it. In fact, he’ll likely try it out in “Heat 2.”
“I don’t experiment with technology without any justification,” Mann said. “When I have a dramatic need or an aesthetic need for it, I delve into what I need.”
“Aging and de-aging could be very important in the next movie,” Mann added, referring to the long-awaited sequel to Heat, which he said yesterday during a large-scale training session that will hopefully start filming next summer.
Mann, who received a Lumiere Award from Isabelle Huppert last night, also addressed the fact that “Heat 2” has moved on from Warner Bros. to United Artists and producer Scott Stuber, who owns Amazon MGM.
“Heat 2 is an expensive movie, but I think it should be made at the right scale,” Mann said. “Filming will take place in Chicago, Los Angeles, Angeles, Paraguay, and possibly some parts in Singapore.”
“People make dramas at a certain level of budget, because of costs, not because of anyone’s greed. If it had been at a lower price, I could have directed it anywhere. But it’s complicated. I can’t go into all the politics of it. But we’ve gone from Warner Bros. to Amazon and United Artists, but it will be released theatrically in the United States, probably in about 4,000 theaters and for 45 days over least.
Regarding the plot of “Heat 2,” Mann said that it will move back and forth in time, before and after the events of the original film. The story will begin one day after the film ends, “Only Val Kilmer is alive, and he has to flee the United States.”
“The characters in ‘Heat’ are very vivid to me. Then I had an idea, based on the relationship between two deadly rivals, Hannah (Pacino) and McCauley (De Niro), about how to do both before and after the events of ‘Heat.’” He noted that Hannah and McCauley were changed by the events of 1988, when Hannah was a Chicago cop and McCauley “had a wife, had a daughter, and had a nuclear family that he was very attached to.”
Mann also said during the workshop yesterday that he will produce a Western called “Comanche,” which will be directed by Scott Cooper, whose latest film, “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,” premiered this week at the Lumiere Festival.