Michael Mann wanted Guy Pearce for Heat 2’s Kelso. He has cast The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach instead
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Heat 2 has signed an Avengers: Doomsday star to step into the role once played by Tom Noonan — but who’s bagged the gig?
Right, if you thought Heat 2 couldn’t get more packed, here’s a fresh bit: the next chapter in Michael Mann’s crime saga has just found its new Kelso. Now, if you remember the original, Kelso was the bloke played by the late Tom Noonan—properly chilling. In the new one, though, it’s not Noonan (obviously)—it’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach stepping in. You’ll know him if you’ve spent any time with The Bear or clocked him as Ben Grimm in the recent Marvel stuff. Or, for those planning ahead, he’s popping up again in the big Marvel December release, Avengers: Doomsday.
Ebon Moss-Bachrach joins Heat 2 as Kelso, a role played by Tom Noonan in 1995.
Mann’s Casting Options
The inside word—cheers, The Wrap—is that director Michael Mann didn’t instantly land on Moss-Bachrach. For a while there, he was quite keen on Guy Pearce for Kelso instead. Instead, now it’s Moss-Bachrach rounding out the line-up’s already considerable star factor. And, to be fair, the bloke’s just turned 49 and already bagged a pair of Emmys for The Bear, so fair play.
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The World of Heat 2
Just for anyone losing the thread, the film’s a direct follow-up on that 2022 crime novel—co-penned by Mann himself (because if anyone’s going to expand on Heat, apparently it’s still Mann) with Meg Gardiner. Not one to skimp on names, he’s pulled together quite a squad this time:
- Leonardo DiCaprio (title role, obviously)
- Christian Bale as Vincent Hanna
- Stephen Graham as Neil McCauley
- Jason Clarke
- Rumoured: Adam Driver, Odessa Young, María Cid
If you want to know where all that lot are heading, the story’s cutting between turf wars in 1988 Chicago, West Coast and border heists, plus a present day with Vincent Hanna still cleaning up after the last lot of carnage. It pulls on the threads of Hanna shooting McCauley in the original, and now—years after—Hanna’s trekking after the gang’s straggler, Chris Shiherlis, in LA.
Behind the Camera
Mann’s steering the ship again (as if you’d let anyone else), and he’s got Jan Pance, Jerry Bruckheimer (so, money), Art Linson, Nick Nesbitt, and Scott Stuber producing with him. Eric Roth and Shane Salerno round it out as executive producers.
If you’re pencilling in cinema dates, hold your horses—the film’s still in production, so you’re not getting a release date just yet.
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