Bradford Young to DP Michael B Jordan's ‘Thomas Crown Affair'

Surprising, but much welcome news. Michael B. Jordan’s “Thomas Crown Affair” remake, which is shooting right now, features cinematography by Bradford Young. This was confirmed by talent agency Lux.

Young had a very promising start to his career (“Arrival,” “A Most Violent Year,” “Selma”), deemed by some as a future great in cinematography, and then he just stopped making movies. Maybe he was soured by the experience he had on his last one, 2018’s “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” which was filled with behind the scenes chaos, including its director (Phil and Chris Lord) exiting the film during production.

In a recent interview on the Team Deakins podcast, Young spoke about potentially leaving the industry for good. I can also confirm the rumors about his early participation in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “Bardo.” He was optioned as the main DP on that film but had major disagreements with Iñarritu, being later “replaced” by Darius Khondji.

It’s not like Young hasn’t been doing other things these last six years. He is a co-owner of "Tribe7" — a successful cinema lens company. Young has also branched out into the ad world and directing his own shorts. More recently, he lent his services to Asif Kapadia’s experimental docu-fiction, “2073.”

Meanwhile, “Creed III” was Michael B. Jordan’s directing debut, and ‘Thomas Crown Affair’ is being set up his sophomore effort. Amazon MGM Studios is planning to release the film in theaters. Drew Pearce wrote the script. A previous draft, based on the original film, was written by Wes Tooke and Justin Britt-Gibson.

This will be the third ‘Thomas Crown’ film. The most recent one, released in 1999, starred Pierce Brosnan as a rich philantropist who enjoys stealing art for a hobby and meets his match in an insurance investigator (played by Rene Russo). They quickly fall for each other. The original 1968 film, directed by Norman Jewison, paired Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway.