Simply put, when you think about the career of Christian Bale, your first thought isn’t “he’s hilarious!” The man has an absolutely stacked filmography full of hugely successful movies and acclaimed performances, and they almost all learn toward the dramatic – even including his two collaborations with director Adam McKay. He has a reputation for being serious… which makes it all the more delightful that I found myself guffawing hearing his recent answer to a question about the anticipated upcoming crime thriller Heat 2.
Bale is attached to star alongside Leonardo DiCaprio for the project, which is a sequel to Michael Mann’s beloved 1995 epic. The original film memorably features a stacked ensemble headlined by Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino, but when he recently spoke with Extra TV on a red carpet about having “big shoes to fill” in the making of the film, he didn’t namedrop any of those legendary talents, instead saying:
Big shoes to fill. You know, Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock. Do you know what I mean?
Indeed I do, sir, and it gave me a good laugh. And for those who don’t get it, I’ll ask you to rewind your mental clock back to the year 2013 when director Paul Feig – fresh off the success of Bridesmaids – put together a buddy cop comedy titled The Heat featuring the stars that Bale mentioned.
Watching the brief interview, one gets the sense that the actor was giddy to have the opportunity to make that joke, but he did also have a sincere thought to offer about the project, specifically in offering praise to the filmmaker at the helm. Said Bale,
Doing it, and, my god, nobody better than Michael Mann for doing that, for doing a crime drama. Very excited about it.
Fans will remember that Heat 2 is going to be a reunion for Christian Bale and Michael Mann. They previously worked together in the making of 2009’s Public Enemies, the biographical drama that saw the Dark Knight star playing FBI agent Melvin Purvis opposite Johnny Depp’s John Dillinger.
Currently in pre-production and set to start filming later this year (Leonardo DiCaprio is presently busy working with Martin Scorsese and Jennifer Lawrence on the atmospheric horror film What Happens At Night), Heat 2 is an adaptation of the novel of the same name co-written by Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner and published in 2022. The story serves as both a prequel and a sequel to its predecessor and is a globe-trotting adventure set across the final two decades of the 20th century. The project is targeting a theatrical release date in 2027, but Amazon MGM (which is set to distribute) has not yet planted a flag in a specific weekend.
