Top > Business > 2006 > July > 2006-07-28

Is Miami a Magical City?

Michael Mann, director of the latest cop movie, an adaptation of the 80s staple "Miami Vice", says that his new movie depicts Miami in a way different from the show, partly because of the city?s economic growth over the past two decades. ?If you?re going to deal with what Miami is today, you have to go real high-end, really muscular,? Mann says. ?Big shipping, container ports, the biggest container cranes in the United States. It?s a super-horsepower fueled economy. That?s the look of Miami right now: Open to the sky, open to fabulous views of the ocean and clouds going by, open to the weather."

Jeff Peel, who is the director of Miami-Dade Mayor?s Office of Film and Television says, "The TV series helped define Miami for people who had never been here then, and to some degree, the film has the opportunity to do the same now.

"Whenever you talk to anyone from around the world and say you?re from Miami, if they know nothing else they know `Miami Vice`," notes Peel. "That conjures up all kinds of images of what the city looks like, and to redefine the city for the current era and say here?s what Miami looks like in 2006 will be helpful for tourism."