United Artists, Amazon MGM Studios division, is in talks to pick up the project from Warner after the latter let the movie be shopped in August when it was unable to agree with Mann on a budget.

Hollywood vets Jerry Bruckheimer, known for high-octane action thrillers and the Top Gun movies, and Scott Stuber, who previously ran film for Netflix and is tied to UA, have boarded as producers. Mann and Stuber’s partner Nick Nesbitt are also producing.

The crime thriller is coming with plenty of pre-publicity. DiCaprio, Austin Butler, Adam Driver and Bradley Cooper have showed interest. However, no offers have been made to that talent, let alone any actor deals signed.

Mann’s Heat starred Al Pacino as hardened Los Angeles cop named Vincent Hanna who, ignoring his deteriorating personal life, is obsessed with tracking down career criminal Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro), who wants to pull off one last heist before retiring.

The cast also included Val Kilmer, Ashley Judd, Amy Brenneman, Tom Sizemore and Jon Voight. The movie proved to have a lasting impact over filmmakers and pop culture, building a legacy over the decades as a classic.

A sequel to Heat began, when Mann released the 2022 crime novel Heat 2, co-written with author Meg Gardiner, which became No 1 NY Times best-seller.

One follows a younger McCauley and his crew pulling off daring heists and living the high life.

Another tells of what happened to Shihirlis, the lovelorn thief played by Kilmer in the 1995 movie, in the aftermath of the first movie’s climactic robbery, and his multiyear quest to reunite with his former girlfriend (played by Judd in the original).

One part of the book is set in a lawless South American drug zone. And there is also an overarching bad guy more brutal than anything seen in the first movie, a murderer and rapist named Otis Wardell.

Mann and Warners spent years trying to come to an agreement on a budget. The initial budget proposal came in at $230 million. Mann eventually whittled it down to $170 million. Warners was ready to make it for $135 million or $140 million. Alternately, according to sources, it was willing to push the budget up to $150 million if Mann would commit to not only a Heat 2 but a Heat 3.

Mann is kniwn for blowing past his budgets, hence the need to try to set strict guard rails. Another issue is the multi-decade time period and locations, which range from Chicago to Las Vegas, Los Angeles and South America.

There is also the massive cast of characters, and the big-name actors Mann wants. No one is officially on board, although Mann is said to have been meeting with actors for months and this is the kind of movie project that actors want to be part of.

“Everyone you can think of has met on this,” says one source.

Even after looking for possible production partners, Warners decided that the project was too financially risky and in August decided to let Mann shop it. While some studios and companies sat out of the competition, Heat 2 became a fight in the trenches among Amazon’s UA, Paramount and Sony, according to insiders, as the studios wanted to have a chance to make what could turn out to be another crime classic.