20 facts you might not know about 'Miami Vice'

Mann is synonymous with Miami Vice, both the TV show and the movie. He did write and direct the film, but his involvement in the TV show is not as robust as any assume. Mann was a producer on the show, and he helped shape the look and style, but he did not create the show, did not direct a single episode, and only wrote one episode, “Golden Triangle.”

Mann didn’t have the idea to turn the hit TV show into a film. It was actually Jamie Foxx who first wanted to make the movie. He had worked with Mann in Ali, and during a party in promotion for the film, Foxx suggested to Mann that they should turn Miami Vice into a film.

Miami Vice was built around Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs, and in the film, they are played by Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx. However, there are several more characters from the show in the film as well, including detectives like Trudy Joplin, Larry Zito, and Lieutenant Martin Castillo.

Reportedly, when Mann was starting production on Miami Vice, he was talking with Don Johnson, who played Sonny in the TV show, about casting. Johnson suggested Farrell for the role, and he ended up getting it.

Of course, Mann shot in South Florida — namely, Miami — but the film shot on location across the globe. The film shot in the Caribbean, in the Dominican Republic, as well as Uruguay and Paraguay. Atlantida in Uruguay served as Havana, since Mann couldn’t shoot in Cuba.

The filming of Miami Vice had a lot of problems. Some of that was avoidable, but some of it was out of Mann’s hands. Filming was delayed by three separate hurricanes: Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Mann did try to work through the hazardous weather on occasion, much to the dismay of the cast and crew.

Mann was apparently changing the script for his film on a whim, which is never easy for performers. On top of that, Mann shot where he wanted, regardless of whether it was sensible. The director would go to locations where the police did not want to go, and so Mann would find himself hiring local gang members to serve as security.

The combination of Mann and Foxx must have been brutal for everybody else. Foxx won an Oscar for Ray after signing on to star in Miami Vice, and suddenly, demands were flying fast and furious. The actor demanded top billing and for an increase in salary so that he would be paid more than Farrell. In addition, Foxx asked for a private plane because he refused to fly commercial. On top of that, he would not shoot scenes on planes or boats.

Down in the Dominican Republic, one day during filming, guns were fired on set. This was too much for Foxx. He left the country, returned to the United States, and refused to head overseas again. The original ending was supposed to be filmed in Paraguay, but Foxx would not shoot it. Mann then had to return to an ending he had discarded that he could shoot in Miami.

Edward James Olmos played Lieutenant Castillo on the Miami Vice TV show, and Mann gave him the opportunity to reprise the role in the film. Olmos declined, and Barry Shabaka Henley ended up taking the role.

Li was a star in her native China and had great success in Asian cinema. She had made her debut in an English-language movie in 2005’s Memoirs of a Geisha, which led to her taking another English-language role in Miami Vice. However, Li’s familiarity with English was limited. She learned all her lines phonetically and delivered them as such.

Crockett drives a Ferrari F430. At one point, blue flames come out of the exhaust. This wasn’t a flight of fancy from Mann. That car actually does produce blue flames out of the exhaust when it is revved up to full throttle.

The drug trafficker from the opening of the film that is running the “go-fast” boats? He’s played by Sal Magluta, one of Miami’s real “Cocaine Cowboys.” Eventually, things caught up with Magluta, who ended up getting a life sentence for money laundering.

To help his actors prepare for the movie, Mann had them go on real drug busts. Farrell was on a bust in which guns were drawn. He was admittedly shaken by the experience, but the next day the actor was told that the sting operation had been staged, and that he had not been in real danger. The bust was filmed, and parts of it are included on the DVD as extras.

Isabella says to Sonny, “Life is short, time is luck.” This is a line that Mann has an affinity for. It’s used in both Heat and Manhunter as well.

Mann wanted to help distance the film from the TV show with the music choices. The famed theme song for Miami Vice is not included in the film, and the show’s composer Jan Hammer was not called upon to score the movie.

Mann eschewed Hammer, and instead went in a different direction by hiring RZA from Wu-Tang Clan. However, for unknown reasons, RZA dropped out of the project. He was then replaced by the producing team of Organized Noize.

Mann’s film came in at $135 million in terms of budget. While the movie debuted atop the domestic box office, it proved to not be that big of a hit. The film made $164.2 million worldwide. On top of that, critics were decidedly mixed, and the movie has a 47 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

When Miami Vice debuted as the top film in the box office, it knocked Pirates of the Caribbean: Dean Man’s Chest from that spot. Both of those movies costarred Naomie Harris. She was actually shooting the film simultaneously for a while, shooting Miami Vice on weekdays and Dead Man’s Chest on weekends.

Farrell has spoken of his disappointment in Miami Vice, calling the movie “style over substance" to Total Film in 2010. Mann also has described it as a movie that “got away” from him, and he has talked about being disappointed in the revised ending that he had to throw together because of Foxx.