On screen, we’ve already seen Michael B. Jordan conduct an art heist of sorts – that brilliantly memorable museum scene in Black Panther, in which his Killmonger liberates artefacts shamelessly nabbed by the British during colonial rule. Now, get ready for a different kind of Jordan-pilfers-precious-art outing – the man is getting ready to step into the shoes of Steve McQueen and Pierce Brosnan, as the latest incarnation of super-smooth criminal mastermind Thomas Crown. A new take on The Thomas Crown Affair is officially on the way – with Jordan not only set to take the title role (a notion that's been hanging around in Hollywood since 2016), but also to direct.
As reported by Deadline, Jordan is lining up his second feature as director, following Creed III – and the new Thomas Crown looks set to be it. He’ll be producing via his Outline Society production banner for Amazon MGM Studios – with the plan being to release the film in cinemas (likely followed by a Prime Video streaming launch). The script has been penned by Drew Pearce, previously behind Iron Man 3, Hotel Artemis (which he also directed), Fast spin-off Hobbs & Shaw – and, most recently, this summer’s action-comedy-romance The Fall Guy.
Beyond that, details are under wraps for now. The original Thomas Crown Affair, starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, was released back in 1968, with John McTiernan’s remake (led by Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo) arriving three decades later in 1999. It’s unconfirmed yet who’ll be taking the Dunaway/Russo role – the insurance investigator who’ll be caught up in a romantic entanglement with Crown while trying to track him down. Since it’s early days on Thomas Crown, don’t expect to see this one for a while yet – but in the meantime, we’ll see Jordan next in Ryan Coogler’s as-yet-unnamed but hotly-anticipated original vampire movie, set to arrive in cinemas in March 2025.