The Challenge of Bringing Something Fresh and New to Miami Vice: The comparisons to the TV series don’t bother Jamie Foxx. “Not everybody is thinking about the television series because I don’t think that people are actually remembering every single episode,” explained Foxx. “That’s why it’s a different thing. This is just a hot concept, hot movie, and I don’t think they’re going to be comparing the two. I always view things like this, and you tell me if this plays true to you [to Farrell], I view things like, ‘What do I want to see when I’m in the movie theater?’ I’m not quite as dense as Michael Mann is, in that sense. I’ve got my popcorn, I’m sitting there, and I’m thinking, ‘What would be hot to see right now? A car, two guys in Miami, Jay-Z on the soundtrack, and something is going down.’ Not everybody is relating back to what they saw [on TV]. They know what happened with Miami Vice years ago, but they’re ready to go see what the new thing is.
A lot of kids who are like 17, 18, 19, 21, that are watching this trailer are into the hipness of Colin Farrell, of maybe Jamie Foxx, and they’re going, ‘That looks hot. I want to see that.’ I put my hoodie on and sneak into the theater, or take a girl to the theater and act like I don’t know the trailer’s about to run. (Laughing) I go, ‘Oh, they’re running this? Oh, this is crazy!’ And then I heard people say, ‘Oh, man, I’ve got to go see that,’ and then I pull the hoodie off and let people see that I’m in the theater - and then I bounce. I do that a lot. That’s how it is. For the sake of it, it’s commercial. It’s really that commercial thing that you attach yourself to and you go with that, but like I said, this is where you’re grounded, in that situation. I don’t think that there’s going to be that comparison.”
If the comparisons won’t be made, then why even call it Miami Vice? Foxx answered, “You saw Starsky and Hutch but it wasn’t anything like [the original]. Do you understand what I’m saying? You’re not taking Miami Vice the series. You’re taking the spirit of that and you’re doing the movie.”
The Difference in Tone Between the TV Series and the Feature Film: Farrell said, “As I remember it, and a lot of people I know remember it, Miami Vice only became camp in hindsight. At the time it was a really cutting edge show. The subject matter was really dark - drugs, prostitution, so on and so forth - with Crockett’s backstory, with his two children and his wife. Some very reality-based situations were dealt with very honestly for the time, and this has just been elevated to today’s modern age. I saw a twinkle in Jamie’s eye when I was watching it.”
Colin Farrell and Gong Li – Getting the Chemistry Right Onscreen: Obviously there’s a language barrier between the two actors who play lovers in the film. While Colin Farrell joked that he signs and that’s how they communicated, Gong Li said, “There are a lot of things that you don’t have to use language to communicate. You can use eye contact, body language, and so on. That’s what art is about.”
