Way back in November we told you that Brian DePalma was planning a prequel of his 1987 masterpiece, The Untouchables. This was good news since almost every movie he’s made in the last 10 years has sucked. We then told you in May that Nic Cage was onboard and then, uh, offboard as the young Al Capone. But we haven’t heard much the last few months about The Untouchables: Capone Rising until DePalma spoke to the MTV Movies Blog. Looks like the movie continues to be on the top of the director’s agenda.
DePalma confirmed that the film, covering the relationship between Jimmy Malone and Al Capone in the years prior to the events of the first movie, will star Gerard Butler in the Malone role (previously played by Sean Connery.) “Gerry is still with us,” he noted. That makes it sounds like there was some concern that Butler is dead, but we know what he means. No replacement has been found for Cage in the role of Capone, but DePalma says that the actor needs to have ”that street animal sexuality.” That lets Kevin James and Rainn Wilson out, but I’d say most Italian or Italian-looking actors are still in the running.
Other comments DePalma made make it seem that there will be a similar look and feel of the prequel to the original. “I would like to use a lot of the original music from ‘The Untouchables,’ and the original locations in Chicago,” he said. Maybe he should use the same actors and dialogue. We call that a reissue instead of a remake, but it is likely to be more entertaining.
