After 27 years, the successor to “Heat” is just around the corner. Writer/director Michael Mann is releasing a sequel to his beloved crime epic in the form of a novel titled Heat 2 on August 9. The book chronicles the lives of master criminal Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) and obsessed detective Lt. Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) before and after the events of his 1995 film After.
When asked who Lt. Hanna could play in a possible film adaptation of the sequel, Pacino made a suggestion, which was met with thunderous applause.
“Timothée Chalamet,” Pacino said Friday night at the United Palace Theater in Manhattan’s Washington Heights. “I mean, he’s a wonderful actor. Amazing appearance.”
To celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary, the Tribeca Festival hosted a Q&A panel that included veteran superstars Pacino and De Niro, as well as longtime producer Art Linson. The talk was followed by a 4K screening of the 1995 film, moderated by journalist Bilge Ebiri.
The celebration was postponed two years due to restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thousands of people, mostly unmasked, lined up around the block on West 176th Street to attend the event. Before the actors took the stage, viewers were quickly reminded of the virus’s presence when Mann emerged through a video message to announce he was unable to attend the panel after testing positive for COVID.
Film producer Art Linson and actors Robert De Niro and Al Pacino attend the ‘Eat’ photocall during the 2022 Tribeca Festival. SIPA USA via AP
No wonder Pacino and De Niro received a standing ovation when they first took the stage.
“The idea of these two starring in this movie is something almost anyone would say, ‘That’s a good idea,'” Linson recalled.
Fans sitting in the crowd shouted some of the film’s iconic quotes throughout the panel, sometimes confusing Pacino’s train of thought. One of the most famous lines is when Pacino yells, “Because she’s got a great ass! And you put your head all the way up!” during an interrogation scene with Hank Azaria’s character. Azaria previously revealed that the film’s final cut included his real-life reaction to Pacino’s line reading.
“[Michael Mann] spins like a million takes, I think Pacino got bored and yelled ‘Great ass!’ out of frustration, which scared the shit out of me,” Azaria told Vanity Fair in 2018. “Didn’t act at all, he just scared me.”
When Ebiri pointed out this fun fact to him, Pacino reacted just as surprised.
“Serious?” asked Pacino. “How about? I didn’t know it was going to happen!”
When the actors were asked if they had done any research to prepare for their roles, De Niro looked at Pacino and shrugged.
“I robbed a few banks,” De Niro said with a playful grin.
De Niro and Pacino began to paint the picture that much of the seriousness of their performances came from sheer instinct. As it turns out, many of her scenes in Heat were discovered during filming – including that one famous dinner scene.
“Al and I didn’t rehearse the scene,” De Niro said. “We just thought it would be better to just do it.”
The scene in which Hanna and McCauley reveal their own strict ideologies over a cup of coffee is the first sequence in film history in which the two legendary actors share the screen together. The confrontation has been praised in recent decades for its subtle tension and organic pace, which Pacino credited to De Niro’s listening skills.
“I’ve often said to people who have asked me about working with him, ‘You can do anything with Bob.’ No matter what you do, he’ll hear, respond, and connect with it,” Pacino said. “It’s a real luxury to be with someone like that. Because no matter what you do, he picks it up. He’s always there, ready.”
He continued: “I think it’s a bit like tennis. In your films you have to keep hitting the ball over the net and it will reach the other person. It’s all a smooth rhythm that you get by listening.”
De Niro, on the other hand, praised Mann’s attention to detail. “He takes the time to make them special,” the actor said. De Niro also recalled the film’s climax, which was shot in an actual hotel and on the runway of Los Angeles International Airport.
“We shot on the weekends, I think Saturday and Sunday in downtown LA because you had to use those streets and they were busy during the weekdays,” De Niro said. “That was part of all the precision … It’s never been seen in movies before and it was special and unforgettable and you know you’re a part of something like that.”
De Niro said the film’s accuracy goes so far that it was trained by professionals to shoot live machine guns.
“We used laps, real live laps, while practicing all that stuff,” De Niro said.
While acknowledging that the great performances added to the film’s authenticity, Pacino commended the editors for making the actors look better.
“Never forget the editors!” Pacino said. “I always feel like, ‘Hey, that editor made me look better than I was.'”
Pacino, who said he did some editing himself, offered advice for young filmmakers.
“I would suggest to every actor, producer, director, editor – see the movie before it gets banned because it’s hard to repeat something you can’t do anything about,” Pacino said. “If you see your whistle early in the movie, chances are you’ll find someone to listen to.”
He went on to share what happened when he tried out this fickle game plan on the set of The Godfather.
“I put some notes on Francis Ford Coppola’s desk and he said, ‘Fuck off.’ It works sometimes,” Pacino said with a shrug and a smile.
Paramount Plus’ limited series The Offer, which concluded earlier this week, follows the origin story of The Godfather. When asked if he’s seen the show, Pacino said enthusiastically, “Of course, why shouldn’t I watch it? It’s the story of my life!”
Concluding the conversation, Ebiri asked if a film like Heat could be shot in the modern Hollywood landscape.
“I mean, a lot worse movies are being made than ‘Heat’ these days, so why couldn’t ‘Heat’ be made now?” Linson said.
While acknowledging the world has changed, Pacino believes streaming services are still interested in producing big-budget blockbusters.
“Netflix did The Irishman, so it’s doable, but it’s still tough,” Pacino said. “I would think Netflix, Amazon, or any of them could do a big picture like ‘Heat,’ and they would be willing to do it.”
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