The Sinners star’s second directorial effort has started production.
Black Panther and Creed star Michael B. Jordan has begun production on his second directorial feature, a remake of Norman Jewison’s 1968 romantic thriller, The Thomas Crown Affair.
The original film starred Steve McQueen as Crown, a millionaire adrenaline fiend who staves off ennui by, among other things, staging a series of daring, lucrative robberies. This draws the attention of insurance investigator Vicki Anderson, played by Faye Dunaway. But Crown is just so ruggedly charming, and so we get a cat-and-mouse crime caper and a dizzyingly cool romantic duel between two perfectly matched sparring partners.
It was remade in 1999 by Die Hard and The Hunt For Red October director John McTiernan with Pierce Brosnan, who’s about 20% less rugged than McQueen, but 30% more charming. We won’t be making comparisons between Dunaway and Rene Russo, who plays her character with a new name, Catherine Banning.
Both are pretty great, both feature the weirdly wonderful tune “The Windmills of Your Mind“, and both are extremely of their time, so a remake another 25ish years after McTiernan’s sleek effort makes sense. Apparently it made sense to Jordan a while back, too. Much like Clint Eastwood did with Unforgiven, he sat on the project until he felt he was old enough to play the lead role (he first pitched a take in 2016).
According to Deadline, who broke the story, Jordan will star in, direct, and produce the 21st century redux of The Thomas Crown Affair for Amazon MGM Studios through his production company, Outlier Society. Drew Pearce is on writing duties.
Joining Jordan are Kenneth Branagh, Lily Gladstone, Taylor Russell, Danai Gurira, Aiysha Hart, and Pilou Asbæk. Roles are under wraps, but the received wisdom is that Hart will be stepping into the Dunaway/Russo role.
The plot is also a secret, but given the existence of two prior incarnations, we think we can sus it out. It has been announced that Crown and company will be haring around Europe, as opposed to Boston (’68) and New York (’99).
Jordan’s stock couldn’t be higher right now following the incredible success of Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. He’s only previously directed one feature, but it was Creed III, which counts for a lot. Seems like the Crown can rest easy in MBJ’s hands. The Thomas Crown Affair starts filming in London on July 14, with a projected US theatrical release of March 5, 2027, so we’ll be getting it around the same time, all else being equal.
In the meantime, have some trailers.
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