Michael Mann On The Time Pacino And De Niro Went Toe-To-Toe In Heat
They’re the masters of Method, the kings of modern cinema. So how did writer-director Michael Mann finally bring Bobby and Al together?
“They’re icons of American cinema.” Michael Mann’s description of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino is impossible to argue with. Emerging simultaneously during the 1970s, the power and skill of these two performers is every bit as remarkable as the fact that, prior to 1995, they’d never appeared in a film together. Okay, so they each star in The Godfather Part II, but since De Niro plays the young Vito Corleone and Pacino essays his grown-up child Sonny, they never share a scene.
It would take a very special film to finally bring these titans face to face. Heat is a scintillating crime epic whose origins are as real as they are rather bizarre. As Michael Mann explains, “Al Pacino’s character Vincent Hanna is based on a real-life Chicago cop, Chuck Adamson, who’s a long-time collaborator of mine. And Neil McCauley, Robert De Niro’s character, his namesake was an armed robber and thief.
“Chuck spent years trying to bring McCauley to book. Then one time, they bumped into one another in a parking lot. That’s when Chuck had the great idea to ask Neil if he wanted a coffee. A lot of what they would talk about made its way into the picture.”
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