AFTER being made public in the early stages of development in April by Entertainment Weekly (EW), Michael Mann has confirmed that Heat 2 will be his next movie.

The film will be a follow-up to 1995’s Heat, a classic movie that starred Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer and Al Pacino and became a template for many modern heist films, including Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.

“Meg Gardiner and I wrote the novel Heat 2, which came out right when we were shooting Ferrari. It did very well. I plan to shoot that next,” Mann told a recent panel with Deadline Hollywood.

Heat 2 will be both a prequel and a sequel to the first film, as it follows younger versions of De Niro, Kilmer and Pacino’s characters leading up to the LA crime saga, as well as chronicling what happened to the surviving characters in the years after.

As of now, no casting announcements have been made, but Adam Driver’s name is being floated to potentially play a younger version of De Niro.

Asked during the panel about the possibility of reteaming with Driver, who stars in Ferrari, Mann said that it has not been discussed yet but was open to the possibility.

“Let me put it this way, Adam and I got along like a house on fire. We have the same work ethic, which is pretty intense. We like each other and we had a great time working together artistically.”