10 More Movie Remakes Better Than The Original

While Alfred Hitchcock was given the chance to remake The Man Who Knew Too Much later in his career, so too was Michael Mann able to properly bring to life Heat in the way it was always supposed to be.

After the screenplay for Heat was written, it was ultimately adapted into a TV pilot for a series that was never picked up, and eventually turned into L.A. Takedown. For this, Mann had to trim a lot of pages from his original work. However, when he was given the chance to redo the project six years later, naturally it was unquestionably better.

At almost double the length of L.A. Takedown, with a reported budget of $60 million and a much more reasonable production time, Mann was able to fully realise his vision, and focus more on details like Neil McCauley's crew, Vincent Hanna's family issues, and the overall relationship between the two main characters.

All that aside, though, the two biggest reasons for Heat's success are Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. The two iconic actors have worked together on a number of different occasions, but Heat is where their chemistry shines more than ever before or since. Mann could have had them talk in that coffee shop for the entire three hours, and people would have lapped it up.