The upcoming Scarface remake has a new director and writer. After previously leaving the project, Antoine Fuqua is back onboard, and he will collaborate with a notable Mexico-born screenwriter.
Many know Fuqua for his work with Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington. In 2001, the pair teamed up for Training Day, a story about a rogue Los Angeles cop and his naive partner. A decade later, Fuqua and Washington reunited for The Equalizer - a vigilante action thriller - and teamed up once again for 2016’s The Magnificent Seven, a remake of the original 1960 classic. With a history of directing successful films with big names in leading roles, Fuqua seems like a logical choice for the latest Scarface film. The original 1932 movie - produced by Howard Hughes, directed by Howard Hawks, and starring Paul Muni as Tony Camonte - is widely regarded as a classic, both for aesthetic purposes and for the inherent controversy surrounding its production. For Brian De Palma’s 1983 remake, he enlisted Al Pacino to play the Cuban-American gangster Tony Montana, resulting in an iconic performance and a lasting presence in pop culture.
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Per The Wrap, the Mexico-born writer Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer has been hired to write Universal Pictures’ updated take on Scarface. While he doesn’t have the resume to match Fuqua, Dunnet-Alcocer has directed nine short films over the past decade, and wrote the screenplay for the upcoming Miss Bala, an American remake of Gerardo Naranjo’s 2011 Mexican film. At the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, Dunnet-Alcocer's short film Contrapelo received a Jury Award nomination for Best Narrative Short, and the film won several other awards during its festival run.
Scarface has already gone through several pre-production changes. The Coen Brothers once worked on the screenplay, while Suicide Squad filmmaker David Ayer was attached to direct after Fuqua originally stepped down. With Universal now settling on Dunnet-Alcocer, audiences can expect a culturally sensitive representation, as the lead character will be a Los Angeles-based Mexican drug lord. Diego Luna was previously attached to play the role, but that may no longer be the case.
Know that we can anticipate the visual style of the upcoming Scarface remake, which actor seems like the best fit? If Luna doesn’t move forward with the film, perhaps his frequent collaborator (and fellow Mexican) Gael García Bernal could step in. The two starred together in Alfonso Cuarón’s 2001 film Y Tu Mamá También, and later starred opposite Will Ferrell in 2011’s Casa de mi padre. Luna and Bernal also co-own the Mexican film production company Canana Films. In the past, actors Paul Muni and Al Pacino put their own spin on the Scarface persona, but will audiences embrace a new, and perhaps even more controversial, character? By hiring Dunnet-Alcocer, Universal seems to be moving in the right direction, anyway.
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We will bring you more information on the Scarface remake as it becomes available.
Source: The Wrap