Miami Vice is getting ready to hit the big screen, with Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx currently in negotiations to star in the pivotal roles of Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs. Also in negotiations (according to Variety) to collaborate with Universal, is Michael Mann (“Collateral”, “Ali”), the show's original executive producer, who is considering producing/directing/writing the film. Anthony Yarkovich, the show’s creator, is currently on board as executive producer.
The series, which aired on NBC from 1984-1989, followed the perfectly coiffed Crockett and Tubbs as they zipped around Miami in a white Ferrari, kicking butt over the drug lords by day, and romancing the ladies by night—all without the benefit of a pair of socks. “Miami Vice” also featured intoxicating art direction, snappy dialogue and a pulsing soundtrack by Jan Hammer. It was not only groundbreaking as a TV show, it dictated much of 1980’s fashion, doing for the men’s blazer what “Dynasty” did for women’s shoulder pads. And men everywhere tried to replicate the ‘five o’clock shadow’ that Don Johnson sported so fetchingly.
Talks of a revamp have been going on since 2001, when the box office success of “Charlie’s Angels” was fresh in everyone's mind. If Michael Mann writes/directs the picture, it will doubtlessly be a straight contemporary remake, as opposed to a campy send-up, like “Angels” and “Starsky and Hutch”. Either way, it is sure to be a disappointment artistically, if not financially. The ‘retro’ thing has been so over done that it has actually become passé. And to take a show that was so quintessentially a part of the eighties and set it in 2004 is completely pointless. It’s not a revamp so much as a gratuitous exploitation of a name, which is the standard in Hollywood as of late. Why should they take a chance on a new idea, when they’ve got an endless supply of old, tired ones to revamp, remake, redo, regurgitate.
Revolting.
“Miami Vice” was a television landmark, which will most likely be turned into a run-of-the-mill film. Spend your time and money on the DVD version of the series, which is due to be released in the near future.
