Meet the new Crockett and Tubbs! It’s official, Austin Butler and Michael B. Jordan will star in Universal Pictures’ Miami Vice reboot. The film also now has a new title, Miami Vice ’85, letting you know this will be a period piece set in the neon-colored 1980s, full of flashy suits and speedboats galore.
The film will be directed by Joseph Kosinski, of Top Gun: Maverick and F1 fame. He’s been red-hot lately, so this is quite a score. On the screenplay is Dan Gilroy, best known for Nightcrawler, Roman J. Israel Esq., and Velvet Buzzsaw. His version of Miami Vice will pay homage to the period, and draw inspiration from the first episode and season of the silky smooth detective series.
Original series co-creators Anthony Yerkovich and Michael Mann are exec-producers. Eric Warren Singer wrote an earlier version of the script.
The most recent attempt to revive Miami Vice was Mann’s contemporary 2006 film starring Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx. Considered a dud at the time, it went on to earn $164M and became a cult favorite.
Now, the most interesting thing will be who they get to play the movie’s villain. With Kosinski aboard, the rumor mill has already started to swirl that he might try to dial up Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt. That would be pretty damn cool. We’ll see if that happens.
