Anyone who lives in Florida knows how crazy it gets in the farthest Southern state – with the palm trees, the dolphins, and “Florida Man” doing something crazy on a daily basis that hits the headlines. It’s about time someone came out with a movie about this mysterious man and Netflix was the one to step up.
The “Florida Man” headlines are notorious and often humorous because this guy gets himself into just about everything. If he’s not getting arrested for flying a plane to draw a huge penis on the ATC radar, he’s getting arrested for having drugs while wearing a tee shirt that says, “WHO NEEDS DRUGS? No, Seriously, I have drugs.” Other headlines include a Florida man throwing an alligator through a Wendy’s drive-thru, trying to shoot down Hurricane Irma, stealing an ambulance to drive himself home from the hospital, and breaking into jail so that he could hang out with his friends.
There was bound to be a movie about this guy!
IMDb’s film description says, “When an ex-cop returns to his home state of Florida to find a mobster’s runaway girlfriend, what should’ve been a quick gig turns into a wild odyssey.”
Created by Donald Todd and starring Abbey Lee, Edgar Ramírez, and Anthony LaPaglia, the film was made by Aggregate Films, the production company founded by actor Jason Bateman. Netflix has a special deal with Jason Bateman that they get the first look at anything he does. With his track record, look forward to watching anything and everything he touches on the streaming platform that has now surpassed YouTube in traffic according to Sandvine, the APP QoE Company.
Abbey Lee — who we first saw in Mad Max: Fury Road in 2015, where she made her feature film debut with Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron — plays the runaway girlfriend. Edgar Ramirez — who we saw most recently in Wasp Network in 2019, Jungle Cruise in 2021, and Yes Day in 2021 — plays ex-cop Mike Valentine. And finally, Anthony LaPaglia — long-time veteran in the industry known for his Golden Globe Award-winning performance in the 2002-2009 series Without a Trace, and Primetime Emmy Award-winning performance in the 1993-2004 series Frasier — will portray Sonny Valentine, Mike’s brother.
According to Netflix, Florida Man will be released on April 13, just before the Florida sun begins to burn hot and the headlines start to hit the fan, and the series promises to have crazier situations than any actual “Florida Man” headline ever had. Ironically, the series was filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina, and that just goes to show anyone who might be wondering – even they didn’t want to film in the craziness of Florida.