Back in July, “Obsession” actress Inde Navarrette had telegraphed that she was taking a slew of Hollywood meetings in the wake of leading the box-office horror hit, revealing that she had met with directors such as Jake Schreier and Michael Mann. Our assumption at the time was that she might have been looking at landing minor supporting parts in both “X-Men” and “Heat 2“; in the case of the former, she was announced last Friday at D23 as the new iteration of Rogue, a meaty lead part in the MCU franchise. And it now sounds like she was in the running for a female lead in the Mann sequel as well.
In a report from Page Six Hollywood, the outlet reaffirms that not only was Navarrette indeed meeting with Mann for “Heat 2,” but the on-the-rise actress was being lined up to play Charlene in the project, the young wife of skilled thief and demolition expert Chris Shiherlis, who was portrayed by Ashley Judd in the original pic from 1995. If she had landed the part, Navarette would have been working opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, who is taking on the part of Chris from the late Vil Kilmer.
Adding that she had already been set to star in a new horror project from Matthias Hoene, called “Invertigo,” which “centers on teens who get stuck on a rollercoaster after a system failure.”
The role of Charlene could allow the right actress to be in the film’s two different timelines, before the events of the original “Heat” and years afterward, as Shiherlis ends up the only surviving member of his crew. Then again, it’s really hard to turn down a big franchise part like “X-Men,” as that project is likely going to see Navarrette return to play Rogue on a regular basis; ergo, more job security for someone who didn’t make a lot of money for “Obsession” (said to be only $20,000), despite the pic making monster numbers, $495.6 million, on a relatively modest/small budget of under a million dollars and the film’s premise hinged on her performance.
That said, there had been some rumblings about early talk of “Heat 3” potentially expanding that world, which is certainly promising, but we’ll have to wait to see if that one actually materalizes as exciting as the prospect is. And we’re still waiting to hear who has ultimately landed the role of Charlene in “Heat 2,” as that actress will be working with DiCaprio, Christian Bale, Adam Driver, Stephen Graham, and Jason Clarke.
We’re in the dark about when Amazon MGM Studios (which picked up the action-packed globetrotting sequel when Warner Bros. struggled to finance the budget) will give “Heat 2” an official theatrical release date, as filming is set to begin later this year, and it has been aiming to come out sometime next year, fingers crossed.
