Miami Vice '85 adds Haley Lu Richardson to a film built on a pilot that aired in 1984

Haley Lu Richardson has joined the cast of Miami Vice '85, Universal's new film version of the 1980s cop show, Deadline reports. Her role has not been disclosed. Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler lead as detectives Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs and James "Sonny" Crockett.

The title puts the film in 1985. Its story, Deadline says, draws on the show's pilot episode, "Brother's Keeper". That pilot aired in 1984.

A film named for 1985, built on 1984

Miami Vice premiered on NBC on September 16, 1984, and ran for five seasons, to June 28, 1989, on Friday nights. "Brother's Keeper" is the episode that introduced Crockett and Tubbs. Deadline describes the film as exploring the glamour and corruption of mid-'80s Miami, a period, not the year of the episode it adapts.

The production geography has its own distance from the title. According to Wikipedia, filming began in October 2026 in Wayne, New Jersey, with shooting also due in New York City and Miami.

What the show left to adapt

The series built a look and a sound that any remake has to answer to. Jan Hammer's music went beyond the episodes into albums, including Escape from Television (1987) and Snapshots (1989), and a Miami Vice: The Complete Collection compilation in 2002 after many requests from fans. A Grumman Turbo Mallard amphibious plane operated by Chalk's International Airlines appeared in the opening credits and in the pilot itself.

The show also changed over its run. Its fifth and final season, 1988 to 1989, returned to the original 10 p.m. Friday slot and took a darker, grittier tone. A film that draws on the pilot is choosing the very start of that arc.

Who is making it

• Director: Joseph Kosinski (F1), who also produces.
• Script: Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler); Eric Warren Singer wrote an earlier draft.
• Producer: Dylan Clark of Dylan Clark Productions (The Batman, The Penguin).
• Cinematographer: Claudio Miranda, per Wikipedia.
• Source: characters created by Anthony Yerkovich for the series he executive produced with Michael Mann.
• Studio: Universal Pictures.

The cast, and a spelling

Deadline lists the supporting cast as Alden Ehrenreich, Whitney Peak, Camila Morrone, John Leguizamo, Danny Ramirez, Walton Goggins, Andrew Schultz, Edi Gathegi, André Holland and Michael Irby. Wikipedia spells one of them Andrew Schulz, and adds Dominic Sessa, who is not in Deadline's list. Leguizamo plays the film's antagonist; Irby plays Lou Rodriguez.

The casting came in waves, by Wikipedia's timeline:

• April 2025: the project is announced, with Kosinski directing and Gilroy writing.
• October 2025: Jordan and Butler enter negotiations. Glen Powell had also been considered for Crockett.
• April 2026: the leads are confirmed and the film is retitled Miami Vice '85.
• August 2026: Ehrenreich, Peak, Morrone and Ramirez join.
• September 2026: Leguizamo, Schulz and Gathegi.
• October 2026: Goggins, Holland, Irby, Sessa and Richardson.

Richardson is known for the second season of The White Lotus. Her recent work includes Peacock's Cold War thriller series Ponies, opposite Emilia Clarke, and Gore Verbinski's Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die.

A release date that already moved

Miami Vice '85 is set for US cinemas on May 19, 2028. It was originally dated for August 6, 2027. The date moved back by more than nine months.

The last time Universal tried this

Michael Mann himself turned Miami Vice into a film in 2006, writing and directing it, with Colin Farrell as Crockett and Jamie Foxx as Tubbs, alongside Gong Li and Naomie Harris. It premiered in Westwood on July 20, 2006, and opened in the US on July 28. According to Wikipedia, it cost between $135 million and $150 million and grossed $164.2 million worldwide. Dion Beebe shot it; it ran 133 minutes.

That film was Mann's own adaptation of a show he produced, and it barely made back its production budget at the box office. The new one has a different director, a period title and more than a year and a half until release.

What is still unknown

• Richardson's role, and most of the supporting roles.
• How closely it follows "Brother's Keeper". Deadline says further plot details are being kept under wraps.
• The budget. Not reported.
• Whether Mann has any involvement. None has been announced.
• International release dates, including Australia.

Miami Vice '85 is named for a year the show's pilot predates, shot in New Jersey and dated for 2028. The detectives are still called Crockett and Tubbs.