It is co-written by Heat's writer-director Michael Mann and will serve as both a prequel and a sequel.

Michael Mann, the writer-director of Heat, has announced that a follow-up to the legendary crime epic will be released in novel form later in the year. Titled Heat 2, Mann has written the book with author Meg Gardiner which will serve as both a prequel and sequel to the movie's story. For those who have not seen the 1995 film, it followed a group of thieves (led by Robert De Niro) who are hunted by an LAPD detective (Al Pacino) after a botched job. Often praised for its muscular action set-pieces, rich characters and thematic depth, it is widely regarded as one of the best crime dramas of all time. The follow-up novel has been in the works for several years and, according to Deadline, will tell an original story about the lives of the movie's characters both before and after the events depicted in the film. The plot synopsis from the website reads: "The novel Heat 2 starts one day after the events of the film, with a wounded Chris Shiherlis [played by Val Kilmer in Heat] desperate to escape LA. "The story moves to both the six years preceding the heist and the years immediately following it, featuring new characters and new worlds of high-end professional crime, with highly cinematic action sequences. "The venues range from the streets of L.A. to the inner sanctums of rival Taiwanese crime syndicates in a South American free trade zone, to a massive drug cartel money-laundering operation just over the border in Mexico, and eventually to Southeast Asia." Heat 2 will be released on 9 August. You can watch a video teaser for the novel below. https://twitter.com/MichaelMann/status/1483848098698858498