Miami Vice is Back?! (Again!)
A new adaptation from Joseph Kosinski is in talks to star Austin Butler
Sonny Crockett once said, “The secret to success, whether it’s women or money, is knowing when to quit.” And yet… Miami Vice is coming back!
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the director Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick) is planning a Miami Vice movie with Universl (slted to be , and Austin Butler is in talks to star as Sonny Crockett. Also in talks to star, as Crockett’s partner Ricardo “Rico” Tubbs, is Michael B. Jordan. The movie (which has a script by Eric Warren Singer and Dan Gilroy) apparently takes the pilot of the 80s TV adaptation as a springboard for a new adventure. The movie will, thankfully, be set in 1980s Miami.
Now, you might be thinking, wasn’t there another Miami Vice remake movie? Yes. Yes, there was. You’re thinking of Michael Mann’s Miami Vice (starring Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx), which came out in 2006. This was a polarizing film: a dark, modern-day noir about drug lords and murder. If this doesn’t sound like the TV show, you’re right.
Kosinski’s remke promises to be closer to the chill, swingin’ vibes of the original show.
Olivia Rutigliano
Olivia Rutigliano is an Editor at Lit Hub and CrimeReads. Her other work appears in Vanity Fair, Vulture, Lapham's Quarterly, AirMail, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Public Books, The Baffler, Bright Wall/Dark Room, Politics/Letters, The Toast, Truly Adventurous, and elsewhere. She has a PhD from the departments of English/comparative literature and theatre at Columbia University, where she was the Marion E. Ponsford fellow. She hosts the podcasst "Culture Schlock" at Lit Hub Radio. She is on instagram at @oldebean, twitter at @oldrutigliano, and bluesky at @oliviarutigliano.bsky.social.
