Adam Driver has confirmed he’s playing the villain in Michael Mann’s Heat 2, and he says the director’s recent gun range accident hasn’t thrown the production off course. As IGN reports, Driver made the reveal while appearing on The Rich Eisen Show, where he told the host he will play Otis Wardell, the film’s principal antagonist.
Driver seemed unsure whether he was allowed to say it. “I think I can say that, but I’ll find out pretty soon [if I can’t],” he joked. The role pairs him with Mann again after the 2023 motor racing biopic Ferrari, and he was openly enthusiastic about it. “Heat is a masterpiece,” Driver told Eisen. “I love Michael, I loved working with him [on] Ferrari, but working on this? I’m excited. The cast is so awesome.”
That cast has been filling out steadily. Christian Bale confirmed in February that he was about to start filming in Chicago, and in July Leonardo DiCaprio came on board as Chris Shiherlis, the part Val Kilmer originally played, with Bale taking Vincent Hanna, originally Al Pacino’s role. The Bear star Ebon Moss-Bachrach was reportedly in final talks for a role in September, though no casting announcement has followed. We also covered the reported casting tug-of-war between Heat 2 and X-Men over Inde Navarrette.
Mann’s accident didn’t cause the delay
Driver said he won’t start work on the film until early December. Eisen asked whether that delay stemmed from Mann’s recent accident at a Los Angeles gun range, which we reported on earlier. Driver said it didn’t. “No, [the delay] was already part of the plan,” he said. “[Mann] is good. I texted him, he immediately responded, [and] he was at work the next day.”
Adapting a non-linear novel
The film is based on Mann’s 2022 Heat 2 novel, which works as both prequel and sequel to the 1995 original. In the book, Wardell is the psychopathic leader of an ultraviolent gang of home invaders, and the story hops between 1988, the mid-nineties and the year 2000. Driver says the screenplay is tighter than the source material. “As a script it’s even more condensed and streamlined,” he said. “Obviously in the book you have to have a lot of descriptors, but with the film it’s just a missile.”
The original Heat was made at Warner Bros., but the sequel has since landed at Amazon MGM Studios. No release date has been announced.
Who is Adam Driver playing in Heat 2?
Driver says he’s playing Otis Wardell, the film’s principal antagonist. In Mann’s 2022 novel, Wardell leads a violent gang of home invaders.
Did Michael Mann’s shooting accident delay Heat 2?
Driver says no. He told The Rich Eisen Show that his December start was already part of the schedule, and that Mann was back at work the day after the accident.
Who else is in the Heat 2 cast?
Christian Bale is playing Vincent Hanna and Leonardo DiCaprio is playing Chris Shiherlis. Ebon Moss-Bachrach was reportedly in final talks in September, but his casting hasn’t been officially announced.
