Will Michael Mann shoot “Heat 2” next year? That remains up in the air. But the legendary director did confirm another project he’s indirectly involved in is also in the pipeline: a western script he wrote that Scott Cooper will direct.
Deadline reports that Mann revealed at a talk at the Lumière Festival in Lyon today that Cooper will direct “Comanche,” a script Mann penned about the true story of Cynthia Ann Parker. “I want to do a Western. I have two screenplays, one of which I’m not going to do, I’m going to produce and Scott Cooper is going to do… it’s called Comanche,” Mann said. Mann didn’t provide details on the other Western screenplay, nor did he confirm if “Comanche” will be Cooper’s follow-up to his upcoming “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.”
For those unfamiliar with Cynthia Ann Parker, she was a white woman abducted as a child by the Comanche in 1836 in Texas and assimilated into the tribe’s society, eventually bearing three children. Twenty-four years later, Texas Rangers “rescued” Parker, separating her from her three sons, forcing her to re-conform to American society. Parker’s story serves as the basis of John Ford‘s classic 1956 Western, “The Searchers,” but Mann’s script likely tells it from a different perspective.
Did Mann tell the Lumière Festival masterclass anything new about “Heat 2”? Not really, only that negotiations remain ongoing, and he hopes to shoot the film in 2026. Earlier in October, the sequel moved from Warner Bros. to Amazon MGM Studio‘s United Artists banner, with word that Leonardo DiCaprio was circling the role of Chris Shiherlis, played by Val Kilmer in the 1995 film. But official castings won’t get announced until Mann and UA agree on a budget.
Mann’s presence in Lyon for the Lumière Festival is because he’ll be feted with the prestigious Lumière Award this evening. Today’s masterclass was led by Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Frémaux, also the head of the Institut Lumière, who asked the question about Mann’s Western scripts. Previous winners of the Lumière Award include Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, Jane Fonda, Quentin Tarantino, Francis Ford Coppola, Tim Burton, Isabelle Hupppert, and more.
