Earlier in the year, Michael Mann‘s highly anticipated “Heat 2” shockingly switched studios, moving from Warner Bros. Pictures to Amazon MGM Studios/United Artists, coming after reports that the former wasn’t exactly ready to bankroll the action thriller sequel at a budget reportedly in the range of $150 million. An interesting aspect is that this was all happening as Netflix was gearing up to buy Warner Bros. Discovery (as David Ellison‘s Paramount Skydance keeps offering hostile bids), leading to fears that the streaming service would simply take the legacy studio and turn it into a content pipeline to its subscribers and trim theatrical windows even more.
UK outlet The Guardian was able to catch up with Mann, getting his opinions on a grouping of topics, including Netflix’s buying of Warner Bros. and what that means for the future of the theatrical windows/experience for the film industry. He’s not entirely sure what the deal means, but he is very much still committed to making movies for theatrical audiences.
READ MORE: The 150 Most Anticipated Films Of 2026
“Unless someone has a crystal ball, there’s no way to know the outcome,” Mann of what the acquisition of WB by Netflix means for the industry. “I know what I’d like the outcome to be, but I’m hardly in the inner circle. I know [Netflix CEO] Ted Sarandos, but I don’t know their thinking. A more relevant question from an audience perspective is: what’s the inherent logic? The inherent logic is that, when you have a film like the new ‘Avatar‘ with IMAX presentation or great Dolby laser with a fantastic sound system, people will come, they will flock to it. Is the pattern three years from now that the exhibition relies on becoming even more experiential, similar to concert venues?”
“I make films for a large presentation,” the director said when highlighting his dedication to the theatrical experience and exhibition. “My ambition is to very strongly and effectively impact the audience with the story with all the tools at my disposal to transport them into this world for two, two and a half hours. That’s what I’ve always wanted to do since I was in film school in London, and so it’s a diminution for any of my, or any number of other directors I can think of, to have our films be seen 16-by-9 on an iPhone. The full power of performance and expression is what I make films for.”
It should be noted that Mann doesn’t just make films and isn’t unfamiliar with the world of the small screen (streamers like Netflix wading in those waters making both films and shows, mostly aimed at the TV audience), famously being behind the original mega-popular “Miami Vice” series (director Joseph Kosinski wants him involved with his feature film reboot), the short-lived horse racing series “Luck,” and the Japan-set crime series “Tokyo Vice.” However, he seems clearly aware that cinema needs to keep the theatrical angle to make the biggest impact.
That said, we’re expecting that Michael Mann’s “Heat 2” will be ready to shoot toward the end of 2026 with Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale reportedly in the mix for lead roles (other names linked over the years include Adam Driver and Austin Butler), and the most recent casting rumor states Stephen Graham (“The Irishman”) has been offered a part after working with Mann on “Public Enemies” (playing his version of Baby Face Nelson years before tackling Al Capone in HBO‘s “Boardwalk Empire“).
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
