Michael Mann will be tackling his long-anticipated sequel to Heat as his next movie, picking up the story where his hugely influential crime thriller left off. Based on a novel he wrote with his writing partner Meg Gardiner, the follow-up acts as both a prequel and sequel to the Al Pacino and Robert De Niro-led thriller, exploring the origins of their careers and the consequences of their actions at the end of the original.
As you might imagine from a decades-spanning story, adapting such a complicated structure for to the screen will no doubt be a challenging feat. But Mann tells the Inside Total Film podcast that he always thought of the story in screenplay form.
"The book came out right when we were in the middle of shooting and in a shock of surprise, it was an instant New York Times number one bestseller, which I never expected," Mann explains. "I don't know how to write a novel, but I do know how to write screenplays. I approached this as if it is a very large screenplay in four acts, except instead of each act hitting six or seven scenes, it has about 130 scenes. But there’s a narrative construction, which I spent a lot of time on, which I also do structurally when writing a screenplay. It’s where, for myself and my writing partner Meg Gardiner, the story was all invented if you like, and that was a document that's about 65 pages long."
Mann also grins as shares an update of where he's at now on it, adding: "It was a thrill to write it, because I got to go off on some tangents that you would never be able to do when making a motion picture, and I'm supposed to be writing a screenplay now, but instead I'm here talking to you."
The director’s latest, Ferrari, stars Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari, the founder of Ferrari, as he navigates the summer of 1957. Reeling from the death of his son Dino and his deteriorating marriage with his wife Laura (Penélope Cruz), he’s on the edge of bankruptcy as he enters his team in a hugely dangerous road race, the Mille Miglia.
Just as much an interpersonal drama as it is a racing film, Mann has been working on the movie since 2000 in some shape or form. But he’s clear that it was the essence of who Ferrari was, and his relationships with the women in his life, that really kept his determination to bring this story to the screen.
"Put it this way, it’s the drama of these people's lives captured that reveal truths about the way we are and our human nature," he explains. "Typically in motion pictures, there's interpersonal conflicts, or there's internal conflicts and they resolve at the end of the movie. In real life, they don't resolve and so the people are such a fascinating collection of oppositional forces."
As well as Ferrari’s complicated marriage to Laura, who was also his business partner, the film explores his affair with Lina Lardi (Shailene Woodley), and their son, Piero. Mann adds that he was fascinated by how Ferrari loved both these women at once, and often acted in contradictory ways. "Nothing is typical about any of these people," he says, "and that's what I found so challenging. That challenge to me is the adventure."
Driver is reportedly in talks to star in the sequel to Heat 2 as a young Neil McCauley, and it’s a working relationship that Mann says he really relished. Find out what he had to say about that here.
Ferrari arrives in cinemas on December 26 and on Sky Cinema next year. For more, check out the latest episode of Inside Total Film, available on:
Check out our list of 2024 movie release dates too for all the upcoming movies you need to know about.
