Stephen Graham, a renowned British actor from “Adolescence” and “A Thousand Blows,” has apparently received an offer to play a young Neil McCauley in Michael Mann’s planned “Heat” sequel.
According to the tale, first reported by Nexus Point News, Graham is the next actor in line to be granted a role in the much-awaited production. He would portray the younger version of Robert DeNiro’s character from the first movie, even though the actor is roughly the same age as De Niro at the time.
Graham could join the outstanding cast being assembled for the picture, which has previously been linked to roles by Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale, but it is unclear what roles he might play.
DiCaprio is the only actor who has acknowledged appearing in the film, though he has not confirmed his role. In an interview with Deadline, DiCaprio described: “This is very much its own movie. We’re still working on it, we’re a ways away from production. It tips its hat to Heat, but it’s an homage, and it picks up the story from there. The book is already out there, so there are no big secrets that I’m divulging. It’s set in the future, and the past, from that pivotal moment in what I think is the great crime noir film of my lifetime. It’s one of those films that just keeps resonating, that we keep talking about, that has been imitated so many times and influenced so many different movies. So, we’re working on it. But it’s certainly exciting, and I think I look at it as its own silo, in a sense. We can’t duplicate what Heat was, so it’s paying homage to that film, but giving it its own unique entity.”
Based on a 2022 novel, the new movie is a crossover prequel-sequel that recounts proceedings in 1988 for Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro in the original) and Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino in the original), as well as shortly after events in 1995 with Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer in the original) in the South American three-border zone.
Since Bale is currently 51 years old, a game of speculation is already in place about which character he might play. In the original, DeNiro was 52, Pacino was 55, and Kilmer was 35.
Based on the bestselling book he co-wrote with Meg Gardiner, Mann penned the screenplay. Producers include Mann, Jerry Bruckheimer, Scott Stuber, and Nick Nesbitt.
