Read: Heat 2

Daniel Milnor

March 5

Full disclosure, I am a huge Michael Mann fan. I have no desire to be a unit photographer, but if Michael Mann asked if I wanted to spend time on set, I'd be packing my bags. Anyone who is a Michael Mann fan will be all too familiar with shows like Miami Vice and films like The Insider, Collateral, Thief and Last of the Mohicans. (My neighbor was in this last flick.)

But anyone who is familiar with Michael Mann will also know about what is considered by many to be his masterpiece; Heat. An LA-based crime drama with one of the most loaded casts in film history. Pacino, De Niro, Studi, Sizemore, Kilmer, Judd, Brenneman, Trejo, and more. Guys taking scores and the cops trying to stop them.

Heat 2 is a co-authored follow up and prequel to the movie.

Crafted and polished by both Mann and Meg Gardiner. If you know this movie and you love this movie then you will love this book. It's that simple. I burned through this baby while wondering who would play these characters when Heat 2 goes into production. (Please you heartless bastards at the studios making nothing but stupid comic movies.) And by the way, when it DOES go into production, I'm volunteering to be the behind-the-scenes photographer with complete and total access to all aspects of production and filming. And the actors for that matter. I would kill this opportunity. (short lens, black and white.) Oh, and I could corner Michael Mann to get him to read my script about the border. (Was told by a friend who worked in Hollywood that my story is spot on but that the material would work better as an episodic than a feature.)

I would provide plot details for Heat 2, but if you were in on Heat I'm just preaching to the choir. One of the things I did love was the description of the locations ranging from S. America to the United States/ Mexico border. Made me want to get on a plane, or hop in the van and head south. Get it, read it.