Michael B. Jordan is working on a reboot of ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images )
Getty Images
Amazon has revealed that it has thrown millions of Dollars of support behind Black Panther superstar Michael B. Jordan’s next movie project in an attempt to make him the new face of the studio.
Called The Thomas Crown Affair, it is the second remake of the 1968 classic romantic heist movie starring Steve McQueen as a bored millionaire who plans robberies for thrills and ends up falling for an insurance investigator pursuing him played by Faye Dunaway.
In 1999 the movie was remade with Rene Russo and Pierce Brosnan, fresh off his success playing James Bond. Despite grossing a respectable $124.3 million it remained a ‘one and done’ though it wasn’t for want of trying.
The original starred Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
Getty Images
In February 2016, following the success of Rocky spinoff Creed, Jordan reportedly approached MGM to pitch a new adaptation of The Thomas Crown Affair with the hope of starring in the title role. He wasn’t the only one who was thinking about the movie as it came to light in April 2019 that Anthony Russo and Joe Russo wanted to remake it through their AGBO production company.
The turning point came in March 2022 when Amazon paid $8.5 billion for MGM in a bid to become a Hollywood giant. Just over a year later it announced that The Thomas Crown Affair reboot would be one of its star attractions and last year revealed that Jordan would direct and produce it, alongside AGBO, with a script written by Drew Pearce who penned Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Iron Man 3 and The Fall Guy.
It is Jordan’s second directorial role after 2023’s Creed III and it reunites him with costume designer Ruth Carter who won a Oscar for her elaborate African costumes in Black Panther. Principal photography on the movie began in July at London’s historic Elstree Studios and this shines a spotlight on how much Amazon is spending on it.
The 1999 remake starred Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo (Photo by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty Images)
Getty Images
Studios filming in the U.K. get a reimbursement of up to 25.5% of the money they spend in the country provided that at least 10% of their core costs are incurred there. In order to demonstrate this to the authorities, studios set up separate companies to produce each film in the U.K. and they are obliged to file legally-binding earnings releases.
The Amazon subsidiary behind The Thomas Crown Affair is called Crown Leo UK Productions in a nod to the title character and MGM’s roaring lion logo. The company filed its first earnings release yesterday which revealed that over just seven months to the end of last year $9.3 million (£7.4 million) was spent on the picture.
This is set to surge in its next filings as they will cover the year to the end of 2025 which will include the remaining cost of pre-production, filming and some post-production. That is when lavish visual effects will be added ahead of the movie’s release in March 2027. With Amazon’s status as a Hollywood heavyweight up for grabs there is a lot on the line.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2025/09/19/michael-b-jordans-thomas-crown-affair-reboot-is-getting-a-massive-investment-from-amazon/
