“It Will Absolutely Be Released Theatrically”

Michael Mann addressed his move from Warner Bros. to Amazon MGM Studio division United Artist with his long gestated upcoming feature Heat 2 at a press conference on Saturday at the Lumière Festival in Lyon, where he is being feted with its honorary Lumière Award this year.

The director was asked if the deal with the steaming giant could compromise the film’s theatrical release in the same way as Ferrari, which bypassed cinemas in a number of key European territories such as France and Europe.

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Mann said he expected Heat 2 to get a U.S. theatrical release on 4,000 cinemas for at least 45 days, and added he felt the streamer was entering a new era with regards to exhibition and distribution.

“Amazon is in transition, which is why they bought Bond. They’re in a transition to become something more than a streaming service. They have ambitions be a major, I don’t want to speak for Amazon, a major figure in exhibition, in theatrical.”

“The potential, because the movie would come out in almost two years from now, the potential of the synergy within Amazon is massive,” he added.

He said the move to United Artists with Heat 2 had been due mainly to the high cost of making the movie, linked partly to the fact it is shooting in multiple territories.

“Heat 2 is… an expensive movie to make, but I believe it should be made at the proper size and scale. It’s going to shoot in Chicago, Los Angeles, Paraguay, and possibly some parts in Singapore,” he said.

“It’s complex. People make dramas at a certain budget level… because of the costs, Heat 2 is probably double that. So, if it was at a low, low price, I could have made it anywhere. But it’s complex. I can’t get into all the politics of it, but we moved from Warner Brothers to Amazon and United Artists.”

Earlier in the conference, Mann was asked (by Deadline) about his opinion on AI and whether he had or planned to use the technology, given his reputation for being at the cutting edge of using new technological advances in his work throughout his career.

He said he had not used the technology as yet but was mulling the use of AI in Heat 2 to support the aging and de-aging process of the characters of Detective Vincent Hanna, Neil McCauley and Chris Shiherlis, with the film revisiting their stories prior to the original’s 1995 setting.

“I don’t experiment with technology gratuitously. [If] I have a dramatic need or aesthetic need for it then I go deep into what I need,” he said. ““For example, aging and de-aging will be very important in the film (Heat 2),” he said.

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