Though his last remake, The Magnificent Seven, wasn’t terribly well received, that hasn’t stopped Antoine Fuqua from trying his hand at putting a new spin on another classic tale. The director is hard at work on his upcoming remake of the classic 1983 film Scarface, and the project has just taken a significant step forward today by drafting in The Wolf Of Wall Street scribe Terence Winter.
According to Variety, the writer will be polishing the original script, which was penned by Straight Outta Compton‘s Jonathan Herman. Given Winter’s extensive experience on HBO’s The Sopranos, not to mention Boardwalk Empire, we can’t think of a better candidate to pen a mobster story such as this one.
In terms of what direction Fuqua’s remake is looking to head in, well, it’s been touted as a reimagining of both the 1932 and 1983 films. Furthermore, it’ll be set in Los Angeles and focus on a Mexican immigrant. Quite a bit going on then to differentiate itself from its predecessors – but it still begs the question, do we really need another Scarface?
The 1983 film is a classic and it’s highly unlikely that Fuqua will be able to top it. Despite the shortcomings of The Magnificent Seven, he is a talented filmmaker and could definitely bring a gritty sense of realism to the story, but can he really do better than Brian De Palma? As of now, we’d say the answer to that question is probably not. But who knows?
With Fuqua behind the camera and Winter now on writing duties, we’ll remain cautiously optimistic that this new version of Scarface might just be a worthwhile remake.