Maverick director Joseph Kosinski Dan Gilroy Script

Universal Pictures has set Joseph Kosinski to direct Miami Vice, a drama based on the iconic ’80s NBC series about undercover cops taking down drug dealers. Dan Gilroy is rewriting a first draft script by Eric Warren Singer. No cast yet. Dylan Clark is producing along with Kosinski.

They’ve been percolating this one for a bit, and Kosinski has one of the summer buzz titles in the Brad Pitt-starring Formula One movie F1 made by Apple and headed for theaters through Warner Bros. He’s expected next to reteam with F1 producer Jerry Bruckheimer for an untitled UFO project at Apple, and this will come after. Kosinski and Bruckheimer also teamed on Top Gun: Maverick.

Hatched by NBC topper Brandon Tartikoff, who sent a note essentially asking for a cop drama with the flash of MTV that was so popular at the time, the series was created by Anthony Yerkovich. Michael Mann turned it into a visually iconic zeitgeist cultural symbol of the 1980s, as undercover cops Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs — played by Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas — dressed in cool pastel wardrobes, driving fast cars and taking down drug dealers smuggling in cocaine supplied by the Mexican cartels in the neon-soaked vistas of Miami with a cutting-edge synthesizer soundtrack and the top 40 songs of the moment. The show lasted five seasons.

Mann turned the series into the 2006 film Miami Vice for Universal that starred Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx as the undercover duo. Gilroy wrote and directed Nightcrawler and most recently worked on the Lucasfilm series Andor for Disney+. Gilroy will be rewriting a first draft by Eric Warren Singer, the writer behind American Hustle who worked with Kosinski on Top Gun Maverick. Singer was unavailable to continue because he moved to the Best of Enemies project he sold to Amazon with Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper attached.

Kosinski is repped by CAA, Untitled and Sloane Offer; Gilroy is CAA, LBI and Howard Abrahamson. Singer is WME, Range Media Partners and Gochman Law Group. Uni EVP of production/development Sara Scott is overseeing for the studio.