Universal Pictures’ plans to produce yet another remake of gangster classic Scarface prompted quite a bit of discussion but the latest update on the project might win over some of its early critics.
The studio announced that the upcoming film — which is now officially titled Scarface — will have its script worked on by four-time Academy Award winners Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, the filmmaking duo collectively known as the Coen Brothers. The movie also received an official release date of August 10, 2018.
Set to star Rogue One: A Star Wars Story actor Diego Luna, the new Scarface will be a modern reimagining of the story told in both Howard Hawks’ original 1932 film and director Brian De Palma’s 1983 remake. The film is expected to be set in Los Angeles and features a Mexican immigrant as the lead character (presumably played by Luna).
There is currently no director attached to Scarface after filmmaker Antoine Fuqua (The Magnificent Seven, Training Day) departed the film to work on the sequel to The Equalizer. With the Coen Brothers working on the script and the film’s star already in place, the search for a director will likely move quickly to meet the 2018 release date.
Originally inspired by Armitage Trail’s 1929 novel of the same name, which was loosely based on the rise and fall of infamous mobster Al Capone, the 1932 film Scarface follows an Irish immigrant in 1920s Chicago as he rises through the ranks of the criminal underworld. De Palma later helmed a remake of the film from a script penned by Oliver Stone, and famously cast Al Pacino as Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee who rode the drug trade to power in 1980s Miami.
