Michael B. Jordan, MGM to Remake 'The Thomas Crown Affair'
By Borys Kit
Michael B. Jordan, the star of the boxing hit Creed, is reteaming with MGM for a remake of heist thriller The Thomas Crown Affair.
The project is in the nascent stages as there is no writer or director attached. Yet the call is out and MGM brass, very happy with how things turned out with Creed, is intent on developing a vehicle around the actor. MGM had no comment.
Crown was initially a 1968 movie directed by Norman Jewison and starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. McQueen played a wealthy businessman who conducted robberies on the side. When an insurance investigator, played by Dunaway, starts to track him down, the two begin an affair even as Crown plans another heist.
MGM remade the movie in 1999 with Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo. While the 1968 movie ended with the pair on separate paths with hearts broken, the remake, which proved to be a hit both critically and commercially, had a Hollywood ending.
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The move is an example of Hollywood’s new diversity thinking in action as the potential new movie would go from having white actors in its incarnations to non-white.
Jordan has become one of the most promising young actors in Hollywood who broke out with the indie Fruitvale Station. While he starred in the panned Fantastic Four, Creed, the reboot of Rocky, proved to be major hit, grossing $109 million domestically on a budget of $35 million.
He has yet to sign on to his next go movie but the Crown development is an example of his solidifying in-demand status.
