20 Things You Didn't Know About Heat
18. Michael Mann Originally Had No Plans To Direct It Himself
Mann originally wrote the 180-page script for Heat way back in 1979, some 16 years before it would finally be released. He first mentioned the script in a 1983 interview, while professing that he in fact had no desire to direct it himself.
Mann even offered the directing gig to legendary action filmmaker Walter Hill (The Warriors), who turned him down, and so Mann eventually adapted his original script into a 90-minute TV pilot.
After filming the pilot, Mann and NBC failed to come to terms on casting for the main series, leading to the pilot being repackaged as a standalone TV movie, L.A. Takedown, aired in 1989.
After the success of The Last of the Mohicans, with his planned James Dean biopic falling through, Mann finally decided to helm Heat himself, and the rest is history.