Universal Pictures for years has been trying to put together a third Scarface film, the first made by director Howard Hawks in 1932 and the most notable version with Brian De Palma’s 1983 version starring Al Pacino.
Variety is reporting that Italian director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, Suspiria) is in talks with the studio to make the new version set in Los Angeles which has a recent draft penned by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen.
David Ayer (The Suicide Squad, Fury) and Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer) had previously been attached to the modern incarnation before exiting.
At one time, Narcos: Mexico star Diego Luna had been set to play the lead role.
Both films were controversial for their violence with the original taking direct inspiration from Al “Scarface” Capone, the Chicago gangster.
SCARFACE (1932) – Key lieutenant of South Side Chicago crime boss Johnny Lovo (Osgood Perkins), Tony Camonte (Paul Muni) is an ambitious and reckless gangster who ignores warnings not to mess with Irish gangs on the North Side. When the North Side retaliates, Tony essentially massacres them, leaving him on top of the world. Worried about Tony’s overconfidence, however, Johnny orders him killed, but this also backfires, and Tony finds himself even closer to becoming king of the city.
The 1980s film taking cues from the rise of cocaine cartels in Miami.
SCARFACE (1983) – After getting a green card in exchange for assassinating a Cuban government official, Tony Montana (Al Pacino) stakes a claim on the drug trade in Miami. Viciously murdering anyone who stands in his way, Tony eventually becomes the biggest drug lord in the state, controlling nearly all the cocaine that comes through Miami. But increased pressure from the police, wars with Colombian drug cartels and his own drug-fueled paranoia serve to fuel the flames of his eventual downfall.
