Austin Butler is in early talks to star in Universal Pictures’ Miami Vice reboot directed by Joseph Kosinski.
If the deal is finalized, Butler will play James “Sonny” Crockett, and Michael B. Jordan will play Ricardo “Rico” Tubbs, the mild-mannered South Florida detective played by Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas in the classic ’80s TV series. (Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx played the roles in 2006’s “Miami Vice,” the first big-screen adaptation directed by Michael Mann.)
Butler’s portrayal of rock ‘n’ roll legend Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis won him a Golden Globe and a BAFTA, as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, catapulting him to the top of Hollywood’s list of leading roles. Butler began her career on teen shows like Zoey 101, Switched at Birth, and The Carrie Diaries, then made her Broadway debut in the revival of The Iceman and landed her breakout screen role in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Butler has become one of the industry’s most versatile stars, with projects such as “Dune: Part 2,” in which he played the sociopathic villain Fayed Lausa, and most recently Darren Aronofsky’s crime thriller “Catch-Stealing,” on his resume.
Kosinski, whose recent forays into existing IP with “Top Gun: Maverick” and “F1: The Movie” have proven both innovative and lucrative, now explores “the glamor and corruption of mid-’80s Miami” with the rebooted “Miami Vice.” According to the official logline, the film is “inspired by the pilot episode and first season of the groundbreaking television series that influenced culture and set the style for everything from fashion to filmmaking.” Production on the project, which will be shot for Imax, is expected to begin next year. The date for “Miami Vice” is August 6, 2027.
The script was written by Eric Warren Singer and Dan Gilroy, based on the characters created by Anthony Yerkovich from the series, which was produced by Dylan Clark and Kosinski and executive produced by Yerkovich and Mann.
Universal Pictures had no comment.
