Miles Teller sets next ‘80s nostalgia project with An Officer and a Gentleman remake

Miles Teller has landed his next project based on an ‘80s classic.

Entertainment Weekly has learned that the Whiplash star will star in a contemporary update of An Officer and a Gentleman, the 1982 romantic drama that launched Richard Gere to stardom.

The script for the Paramount film will be written by Dana Fox, who's no stranger to romantic material. She previously penned The Wedding Date, What Happens in Vegas, Couples Retreat, Isn't It Romantic, and The Lost City. She also did rewrites on 27 Dresses and Knight and Day. Matt Johnson (BlackBerry, Nirvanna the Band the Show) wrote the original draft of the screenplay for the remake.

Directed by Taylor Hackford (Ray, The Devil’s Advocate), the original Officer and a Gentleman sees protagonist Zack Mayo (Gere) train as a Naval Aviation officer under a harsh drill sergeant (Louis Gossett Jr.) while pursuing a relationship with a factory worker (Debra Winger). Gossett won an Oscar for his supporting performance, and the soundtrack gem "Up Where We Belong" also nabbed an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Eighties nostalgia has been a facet of Teller's career from his earliest days as a screen actor. His second movie was 22011's Footloose remake, in which he played Willard, the sidekick character Chris Penn played in the 1984 original. He also recently played Rooster, the son of Anthony Edwards' late Goose, in 2022's Top Gun: Maverick.

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Teller is also familiar with military roles. In addition to playing another Naval pilot in Maverick, he portrayed a soldier in 2017’s Thank You for Your Service and will play another soldier character in the upcoming Apple TV+ film The Gorge.

Teller has recently starred in the Netflix thriller Spiderhead, which reunited him with Maverick director Joseph Kosinski, and the Paramount+ series The Offer, which chronicled the production of The Godfather in the early 11970s. He’ll next star in Michael as Michael Jackson’s lawyer, John Branca.

Gossett, who died earlier this year, leaves some big shoes to fill, but there are plenty of actors who could excel in a drill sergeant role. Will the film reunite Teller with a Maverick costar like Ed Harris or Charles Parnell, who both have the commanding, exacting swagger to bark orders in his face without losing our sympathy? Or is a Whiplash reunion in order, as J.K. Simmons proved he could run a jazz class like the Navy? Or would Gere himself be interested in signing on as a fitting piece of full-circle casting? We’re excited to find out.