Scarface Remake Has a New Writer
The Scarface remake that updates the story to modern day LA has just hired the screenwriter of Straight Outta Compton.
The fabled journey of an immigrant mobster may be one straight to the top, but that doesn’t mean there are not a lot of writers’ hands crafting it along the way. Indeed, the Scarface remake is getting a facelift again as Jonathan Herman (Straight Outta Compton) has been hired to provide a scripting rewrite. Herman is at least the third name attached to pen the film, which has already had work done by Paul Attanasio (Donnie Brasco) and David Ayer (Training Day, Suicide Squad).
But lest any fans get too upset about the Pablo Larrain directed remake of Scarface, the film you likely treasure is also a remake.
The original Scarface was released in 1932 by United Artists. That picture, which was produced by Howard Hughes and directed by Howard Hawks, itself is based on a 1929 Armitage Trail novel of the same name, and is a play on a nickname reserved during the 1920s for Al Capone in Chicago. Starring Paul Muni as the titular wiseguy, it was even a controversial brand then as the Hays Office had the ending changed two times in the scripting stage—Muni’s Scarface went from dying in a blaze of glory to going out like a yellow belly with a bullet in his back as he runs away.
It was Oliver Stone and Brian De Palma who first broached the idea of a Scarface remake in 1983 with the focus being on a Cuban immigrant in ‘80s Miami. After Al Pacino was cast to chew every last ounce of scenery, the rest became history.
For the record, the new Scarface is intended to be about a Mexican immigrant carving out his bloody slice of the American dream in 21st century Los Angeles.