Is a planned movie adaptation of Magic City still going ahead? Jeffrey Dean Morgan started his career with odd jobs on shows like The Burning Zone, but he really began to breakthrough in the early 2000s. This includes a short but crucial run as John Winchester on the first season of Supernatural, who is the father of main characters Sam and Dean. His role as the ill-fated Denny Duquette on Grey's Anatomy really cemented his stardom, and he's been a regular presence on the big and small screen ever since.
One of his best, but sadly underseen projects, was the Magic City TV show. Magic City cast Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Ike Evans, the owner of the luxurious Miramar Playa hotel in Miami. In order to keep afloat, he has to make a deal with vicious gangster Ben "The Butcher" Diamond and the show itself balanced the glitz and glamour of its era setting while exploring the violence and corruption running beneath it. While the series received good reviews following its 2012 debut on Starz, it didn't receive great ratings and was eventually cancelled after the second season.
Soon after the Magic City series came to an end, talk of a movie adaptation cropped up, but is this still in development?
A Magic City Movie Was Announced In 2014
It didn't take long after Starz cancelled the show for a Magic City movie spinoff to be announced in 2014. The story was said to take place in 1962 with all the key players from the series - including Morgan, Huston and Olga Kurylenko - returning, while creator Mitch Glazer would write and direct. The Magic City film also snagged some extra star power, with Bruce Willis and Glazer's good chum Bill Murray set to appear too. The former was going to play a mob boss while Murray would play the alcoholic head of the CIA in Miami.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan Offered A Magic City Movie Update In 2019
Seems there's some crossover between fans of Magic City and The Walking Dead, as most of the recent updates about the movie's status come from fans of the latter asking Morgan about it. At Walker Stalker Cruise 2019, Morgan stated once again a script for the movie was written and he and the team were more than up for returning, but there were no signs of it happening.
Morgan was asked similiar questions at prior Walker Stalker Cruises, but in 2018 - in response to a direct query from Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman no less - that he loved Magic City, he didn't think there was much hope of it returning.
The Magic City Movie Probably Isn't Happening
While the Magic City movie once seemed to have some heat behind it, the chances of it happening now feel slim. The show has been off the air for seven years and counting, while Jeffrey Dean Morgan's career keeps him busy on other projects. The period setting would also require a high budget to pull it off convincingly, so while it would be great to see Magic City return, it's looking less and less likely to happen.