Michael Mann's highly-anticipated Heat 2 will star Adam Driver as a younger version of Robert De Niro's original character, Neil McCauley.

Nearly 30 years after director Michael Mann delivered one of the greatest crime films ever made with 1995's "Heat," Warner Bros. is getting behind a potential new film.

Mann, who produced, directed, and wrote the original film from 1995 starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Val Kilmer, is the driving force behind the project and is negotiating the rights for the film adaptation. He would be both writing the screenplay and directing the “Heat” sequel should a deal close at a studio. The film would closely follow Mann’s novel “Heat 2” that was a #1 New York Times Bestseller last year, and Mann has long hinted that a sequel to the film has been one of his passion projects.

The upcoming Heat sequel will likely follow the original novel's plot, depicting events following the film's climactic bank robbery as well as detailing McCauley's crew in 1988. With McCauley killed by Hanna at the end of Heat, the sequel novel instead focuses on right-hand man Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer) and his escape to Southeast Asia. However, the book's prequel story stays with McCauley as he and his crew pull jobs up-and-down the American West Coast, along the U.S.-Mexico border, and in Chicago. Meanwhile, Hanna works as a young officer in the Chicago police department, working his way up the ranks as he tracks a violent group of home invaders.

Source: Press Release