Miami Vice Reboot Locks In Release Date With F1 Director at the Wheel
Universal has dated Joseph Kosinski’s Miami Vice reboot for a 2027 theatrical launch, revving the neon-soaked classic back onto the big screen.
Universal is officially firing up Miami Vice again, and they are aiming big. Joseph Kosinski is directing, it is headed to theaters in 2027, and yes, they are planning to shoot it for IMAX. That is a lot of neon at a very large scale.
What Universal just locked in
- Release window: 2027 in theaters (no exact date yet)
- Director: Joseph Kosinski, the guy behind Top Gun: Maverick and the recent hit F1
- Studio: Universal
- Scope/format: Filmed for IMAX
- Production timeline: Casting is underway; cameras are expected to roll next year
- Story angle: Set around the glamour and rot of mid-80s Miami, drawing directly from the original TV show’s early days
"The glamour and corruption of mid-80s Miami" and "inspired by the pilot episode and first season of the landmark television series that influenced culture and set the style of everything from fashion to filmmaking."
That last bit is the part that makes my ears perk up. Going back to the pilot and season one suggests this is not a continuation of Michael Mann’s 2006 movie, and not a total reinvention either. It sounds like Kosinski wants the clean-line, pastel-drenched energy of the earliest Miami Vice, just scaled up for a big-screen engine. Kosinski + IMAX + Vice is a very specific flex, and I am curious what that looks like when the sun goes down and the synths kick in.
A quick refresher on the Vice of it all
Miami Vice started life as a crime drama in 1984 and ran five seasons. It followed undercover Metro-Dade detectives James 'Sonny' Crockett (Don Johnson) and Ricardo 'Rico' Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) prowling Miami’s high-gloss, low-morals nightlife. The show was a cultural meteor: a police procedural wired into 1980s New Wave music, fashion, and style, and it got plenty of critical love for being so aggressively itself.
Creator Anthony Yerkovich launched it, and Michael Mann executive produced the series before making his own film version in 2006 with Jamie Foxx as Tubbs and Colin Farrell as Crockett. That movie got dinged at release but has since aged into a cult favorite, mainly on the strength of its mood, sound, and set-piece staging.
What we still do not know
Casting is the big mystery. No names yet, just that the search is on. Expect the rumor mill to heat up fast, especially if this is indeed riffing on the original pilot and first-season DNA. For now, the headline is simple: Universal wants Miami Vice back on the big screen, Kosinski is steering, IMAX is in play, and 2027 is the goal.