10 Weird Early Appearances By Iconic Film Characters

10. Hanna And Macaulay's LA Takedown

Over his long and storied career Michael Mann has introduced us to some of the most iconic on-screen characters in history: in 1984 he was executive producer of Miami Vice, bringing the crime fighting duo of Crockett and Tubbs to the world; he was the first to bring Hannibal Lecter (then spelt Lecktor) to the movies with 1986's Manhunter; 2004 saw one of Tom Cruise's all-time greatest performances, as greying hitman Vincent in Collateral; and then he came full circle by resurrecting Crockett and Tubbs in the guise of Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx for 2006's film adaptation of Miami Vice. Perhaps his most enduring pair of fictional creations, however, were two that only appeared in one scene together - but in doing so, united two of the greatest actors of a generation. A lot happens in Heat, Mann's 1995 crime thriller about bank robbers and the police who love, erm, hunt them, but it's the coffee shop showdown between Al Pacino's Lieutenant Vincent Hanna and Robert de Niro's Neil McCauley. It's not only a pair of iconic film characters, but also one of the most iconic scenes in movie history. Which you could've seen an earlier, embryonic version of if you'd been channel surfing some six years earlier and come across LA Takedown, the made-for-TV movie version of Heat that Mann originally directed for NBC, with the far less compelling duo of Scott Plank (who?) and Patrick McLaren (what?) in the roles that would one day be inhabited by Pacino and de Niro. It's weird seeing such famous parts being played by no-name actors, in such a comparatively cheap production, when you're used to the big-budget theatrics of Heat.