Heat 2 is the novelized sequel-prequel to the 1996 Michael Mann movie, Heat. It jumps timelines frequently to tell the stories of Neil McCauley, Vincent Hanna, and Chris Shiherlis as their experiences in the criminal world are tied together through the violent consequences of one reckless criminal's actions. Without a movie yet in production, I envisioned the poster of the hypothetical adaptation as an homage to the original.
I rewatched Heat and did some sketches in order to get a sense for what kind of style I wanted to use to depict the characters, as well as just getting a general sense of how to capture their likeness.
As I began designing thumbnails for the Heat 2 poster, I thought a good amount about which visual elements were essential to the story of 2, and what angle I could take depending on which story element I would focus on.
In the story, Otis Wardell is an imposing figure whose shadow looms large over the lives of everyone he meets. I thought about centralizing the story around his dark presence and how it haunts the characters, most of all Neil McCauley.
I settled on a handful of comps, the first one showing Otis in the doorway and his extended shadow taking up a big part of the composition. Within the shadow, I wanted to show the climactic final shootout on the highway. Preserving a sense of kitschiness with the floating heads of the main characters was my way of still making this a movie poster, showing the stars so as to sell tickets. The second comp shows Neil McCauley mourning the loss of his lover (caused by Otis) within the larger portrait of Otis. I thought that while the idea was there, there was something strange about centering Otis' face too much, giving the impression that he might be a more sympathetic, humanized character than he functions in the story.
Ultimately, I went for an homage to the scene in Heat (which itself is an homage to Alex Colville) where Neil contemplates his life in the doorway of his empty Los Angeles home. The imagery is one that many find synonymous with the film, so by repurposing it in the setting of Heat 2 with Otis' grin inside the silhouette, I could convey his haunting, shadow-like role in both Neil's life and the story as a whole.
