Director Michael Mann had been developing a new TV show for years and had planned for a 90 minute pilot, which he then shot in 19 days. The pilot aired with the title L.A. Takedown but the network cancelled the show immediately.
Five years later, Mann announced he had rewritten the project and was now turning it into a movie, called Heat. He shot for 107 days across Los Angeles.
Upon release Heat was an immediate success with critics and fans alike. In the years since, its reputation has grown even more. So many directors have been influenced by sequences in Heat, most notably The Dark Knight. Today, it is considered a masterpiece in its own right.
In this official documentary, Mann and his team discuss how the movie was shot and the challenges they faced in bringing this passion project to the big screen.