Christian Bale to have his head all the way up Heat 2

Re-teaming with his Public Enemies director, Oscar-winning actor Christian Bale confirms that the action is indeed the juice. 

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  February 24, 2026 | 5:19pm
Screenshot: YouTube
Film News Heat 2
Christian Bale to have his head all the way up Heat 2

More than 15 years after he shot John Dillinger dead outside a screening of Manhattan Melodrama at the Biograph Theater, Christian Bale is returning to the cool embrace of Michael Mann and the Windy City. Per Jake Hamilton of the YouTube channel Jake’s Takes, Bale confirmed he will indeed return to Chicago to film Heat 2, directed by Mann. “Christian Bale just told me: ‘I’ll be back in Chicago soon for HEAT 2,'” Hamilton wrote on X, the Everything app. We presume that Hamilton spoke with Bale as part of a promotional interview for the actor’s upcoming monster mash, The Bride!

Bale previously worked with Mann on 2009’s Public Enemies, playing Melvin Purvis, opposite Johnny Depp’s John Dillinger. Bale will star alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, though neither has confirmed which roles they’ll play. Last fall, the movie changed studios from Warner Bros., which produced and distributed the original, to Amazon MGM Studios, which recently released the pretty good Heat clone, Crime 101. 

Bale has been among several names floating around for the sequel, based on the novel Mann wrote with co-author Meg Gardiner. The book, at least, is part prequel and part sequel. It walks the 1980s streets of Chicago with beat detective Vincent Hanna (played by Al Pacino in Heat) and Thief-style safe crackers Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro), Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer), and Michael Cheritto (Tom Sizemore), before the characters moved to L.A. It also zooms ahead to see what Vincent and Chris were up to after the events of the first movie.

Heat 2 is expected to be out next year. 

 
Join the discussion...
Keep scrolling for more great stories.