Nearly 21 years after its release, Michael Mann’s “Heat” is firmly settled into the crime movie hall of fame. An epic tale of a ruthless thief looking to get out and the dogged cop trying to bring him down, the film’s been oft-imitated (look at this year’s “Triple Nine” for just one example) but never bettered, and stands as perhaps Mann’s masterpiece.
One fan of the movie in particular is Christopher Nolan — his superhero smash “The Dark Knight” in particular took inspiration from “Heat,” and last night at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in L.A, per Deadline, Nolan chaired a Q&A with not just Mann, but also stars Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, as well as the film’s producers, cinematographer, editor, sound mixer and supporting cast.
The event was to aid a new 4K restoration of the movie to be released next year (and it’s interesting that Nolan took part, given his consistent support for film), and it saw the assembled filmmakers and actors revealing secrets and put to rest rumors that have sprung up over the years.
READ MORE: Watch 77-Minute Career-Spanning BAM Talk With Michael Mann
Among the confirmations: Pacino revealed that his detective Vincent Hanna is a secret drug addict that “chips cocaine,” which helps to explain some of the characters’s more… brash outbursts (“Just so you know where some the behavior comes from,” Pacino joked). Not true, however, are reports that De Niro and Pacino were never on set for their famous coffee-shop scene.
Elsewhere, Mann revealed that the film was inspired by Chicago police detective Charlie Adamson, who in 1963 killed a criminal called Neil McCauley who he’d once had dinner with, while Mykelti Williamson said he landed his role because Pacino believed he’d been “robbed” after not being Oscar nominated for playing Bubba in “Forrest Gump.”
Meanwhile, it was also explained that, at De Niro’s suggestion, they shot the coffee shop scene without rehearsing it first, and that Mann used digital effects, then in their infancy, to tweak the L.A. nighttime skyline to make it more surreal.
Much of this is familiar to super-fans of the movie, but it’s still an interesting read — head over to Deadline for more. The new restored version of “Heat” should hit home video in 2017: fingers crossed for a theatrical release of some kind.