USA: Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx reflect on the "reality" behind Michael Mann's updated version of Miami Vice

Record ID: 827967

  • Title: USA: Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx reflect on the "reality" behind Michael Mann's updated version of Miami Vice
  • Date: 4th August 2006
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (RECENT) (REUTERS) SOUNDBITE (English) COLIN FARRELL, "MIAMI VICE" ACTOR, SAYING: "I mean, you've heard the thing 'it's a thin line that separates the cop from the criminal,' and although their intentions and their reasons for doing what they do are completely different and kind of oppose each other, their skills are very much the same, and with the advent of intelligence and counter-intel, and all that kind of stuff, I mean, technology is so far advanced now, but at the root of it all, for these guys, playing two undercover cops, they get to be on the right side of the lawbook, they get to experience as Ciaran Hinds' character says in the film, a 'renegade' attitude, a renegade existence. They get to go into highly volatile, high-pressurized situations, and live the life a little bit, and live on the razor's edge, you know, they get to get out of the office, so to speak.
  • Embargoed: 19th August 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVAB3LOQ6EDQZMRMJ6CKSCOLTML0
  • Story Text: Director Michael Mann ushers "Miami Vice" into theatres on Friday promising a reality-based movie with the sort of raw grit and steamy sex that never would have played on the hit 1980s television show of the same name he helped create. In the updated 2006 depiction of the quintessential eighties buddy cop series, detectives Ricardo Tubbs and Sonny Crockett are played by Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell, respectively. This film is much darker and grittier than its pastelled predecessor, and attempts to show the real lives of undercover cops engaged in operations of questionable legality.
    "I mean, you've heard the thing 'it's a thin line that separates the cop from the criminal,' and although their intentions and their reasons for doing what they do are completely different and kind of oppose each other, their skills are very much the same, and with the advent of intelligence and counter-intel, and all that kind of stuff, I mean, technology is so far advanced now, but at the root of it all, for these guys, playing two undercover cops, they get to be on the right side of the lawbook, they get to experience as Ciaran Hinds' character says in the film, a 'renegade' attitude, a renegade existence. They get to go into highly volatile, high-pressurized situations, and live the life a little bit, and live on the razor's edge, you know, they get to get out of the office, so to speak," says actor Colin Farrell, who plays Det. Sonny Crockett in "Miami Vice."
    This new "Miami Vice" doesn't so much bring audiences on a journey to an explosive climax as it parachutes them into a fast-paced tale of murderous thugs and ruthless drug runners.
    Tubbs and Crockett see one of their key informants killed after an FBI sting operation goes bad. They take on identities as drug runners to ferret out the murderers and are plunged into a drug-making ring led by a powerful drug lord (Luis Tosar) and his key lieutenant, Isabella (Gong Li). To heighten the movie's air of reality, the actors trained with weapons and worked with undercover cops. They acted out scenarios for drug buys, and Farrell even tagged along on a mishandled drug bust he thought was real.
    "I think that what is appealing is just the word 'Miami Vice.' You know, you think about it, just American pop culture, and to be able to re-do it, step into the characters of Crockett and Tubbs, and hopefully re-invent it, you know, Michael Mann didn't do it like the television show, he did it very dark, he did it very gritty and everything like that, so it's just that. What I take out of it is, it's cool to be Tubbs, it's cool to be Crockett, you know?" says actor Jamie Foxx, who plays Det. Ricardo Tubbs in "Miami Vice."
    Romance also figures into the story as Crockett falls in love with Isabella, while back home Tubbs' new undercover identity puts the life of his lover, fellow Miami cop, Trudy (Naomie Harris), in peril. The two are conflicted by their lives and loves, but resolute in their goal to bring down Montoya.
    "Miami Vice" is the first English speaking action film for Chinese film star Gong Li, famous for her role in 1993s "Farewell My Concubine," and while she is used to playing strong women, she relishes in the the complexities of her Isabella.
    "Yes, I like this kind of character, I like to have characters that are very multi-dimensional, very complicated, not just flat but in fact, three dimensional. She's a little bit like a diamond perhaps -- there's a lot of different facets, but inside, there might be some deep inner flaws, and that gives you something to really dig for, something to shoot for as you are developing the character, that is something that interests me quite a bit," says actress Gong Li, who plays Isabella in "Miami Vice."
    In a career spanning more than three decades in Hollywood, writer/producer/director Mann has made a speciality of lending his movies a sense of realism few other filmmakers can match. Mann, 63, got his start in the 1970s writing for cop shows like "Police Story" and "Starsky and Hutch." In 1984, he executive-produced mega-hit "Miami Vice," which became a pop culture phenomenon influencing TV, movies, music and fashion. He rose up the ranks of TV writers, but Mann said his goal always was to make movies, and by the 1990s he was turning out suspense-filled dramas such as "Heat," starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, and "The Insider" with Russell Crowe.
    While obviously hoping to attract viewers who remember the TV series, Mann said the only elements shared by movie and TV show are a rapidly moving story and a world of allure filled with drug runners and corrupt cops -- a world called Miami.
    Mann said he always pictured the script for the original "Miami Vice" as a movie, but by the time he read it, the TV networks already had stepped in. It was about four years ago that Foxx approached Mann about the idea of a new movie, and the writer/director finally saw the opportunity to create the film he'd always wanted.
    "I would want to see Miami Vice made for real, I would not want to see PG-13 Miami Vice, and I don't just mean in the ratings, I'm talking about the content and what that means. In other words, if I am going to see the life of Tubbs, I'm gonna see the life of Crockett, I want to see the real life of these guys -- they meet a woman, they fall in love, I want to see falling in love and lovemaking, I don't want to see a PG-13 watered-down version of that. And that was the proposal, to do that, so once you've decided 'OK, I'm gonna do 'Miami Vice',' a new iteration of it, the same way of having very emotional stories being told, because you look at those first episodes for the pilot and the first couple years, those are very emotional stories being told," says Michael Mann, Director of "Miami Vice."
    "Miami Vice" opens in theatres nation-wide on Friday, July 28th.
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