Fresh off his triumphant return to the Oscars, Michael B. Jordan visited CinemaCon to show off his latest directorial effort, a clever remake of The Thomas Crown Affair.
A glimpse of Jordan’s project was shown at the annual movie theater owners convention. The project is the third big-screen adaptation of the story of a billionaire who uses his lazy hands to orchestrate a massive art theft. The original 1968 version starred Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo released a remake in 1999.
Distributor Amazon MGM Studios cold-opened its CinemaCon presentation with a trailer, showcasing Jordan in all his starring glory. As the titular billionaire, Jordan faces off against former FBI agent Adria Arjona and is pursued by a heist in search of the truth. While the two play cat and mouse, a cunning supervillain played by Kenneth Branagh looms over their heads and threatens to destroy Jordan. The trailer was played on a rooftop, and in a stroke of perfect timing, Jordan hasn’t been seen since his surprising Best Actor win for “Sinners.”
Between the shiny shirtless crunches and sexy dancing, Clown’s motives become clearer. He wants to reclaim priceless artifacts that have been misused, stolen, or sold over the centuries from their rightful creators, not from the 1% who buy and sell history and human lives.
“I didn’t want a reboot. I wanted a reimagining. The first two movies were about rich white people stealing for fun. That doesn’t work today,” Jordan told Variety in November. “Ours is more personal. The stakes are higher. There’s still fashion and romance.”
Drew Pearce wrote the screenplay, based on the original 1968 film starring Steve McQueen, from an earlier draft by Wes Tooke and Justin Britt-Gibson. Jordan and Elizabeth Raposo are producing the Outlier Society video with Charles Roven through Atlas Entertainment. Patrick McCormick and Mark Toberoff of Toberoff Productions will also produce. Alan Trustman, the screenwriter of the first film, will serve as executive producer.
