The third time's a charm when it comes to telling the story of a powerful criminal figure nicknamed Scarface. Following the 1932 and 1983 theatrical tales, a new Scarface movie is on the way, this time with Training Day director Antoine Fuqua at the helm. Fuqua already has plenty of experience with showing action on the big screen, but when it comes to the gritty crime elements, the remake just received a huge boost with The Sopranos writer Terence Winter joining the project.
Winter has been brought aboard to polish the latest draft of writer Jonathan Herman's Scarface script. According to Variety's sources, Universal chose him not only for his vast experience with fictional crime characters, making a project like this practically tailor-made for him, but also because of his "real-life relationships with former crime figures." That said, it's unclear how much of Herman's script Winter will change, though we wouldn't be surprised if the studio gives Winter free rein on any alterations he wants to make. No specific Scarface plot details have been revealed yet, but this story will be set in Los Angeles and focus on a Mexican immigrant.
Up to this point, Terence Winter's most prominent crime-related projects rest in the realm of television. From 2000 to 2007, he was a writer/producer (later promoted to executive producer) on HBO's The Sopranos, which followed both the criminal and home life of the infamous Tony Soprano. A few years later, he created Boardwalk Empire for the same premium cable channel, which told the story of New Jersey gangster Nucky Thompson (based on real-life gangster Nucky Johnson) during the Prohibition era. However, Winter no stranger when it comes to telling crime stories on the big screen. He penned 2005's Get Rich or Die Tryin' and 2007's Brooklyn Rules, but his biggest cinematic accomplishment so far is writing 2013's The Wolf of Wall Street, which earned him an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay nomination. Outside of the crime genre, Winter recently oversaw Vinyl for its only season, and he's been hired to write the Jared Leto-led Andy Warhol biopic and an untitled Mike Tyson biopic starring Jamie Foxx as the boxer.
Just like how 1983's Scarface wasn't a direct remake of the 1932 movie, we can expect there will be quite a few differences with this present-day Scarface tale. Nevertheless, with Terence Winter involved, we can breathe slightly easier. He's proved time and time that he knows how to tell compelling stories about gangsters and gunmen, and his words combined with Antoine Fuqua's direction will hopefully prove an excellent combination for making the Scarface remake the best it can be.
Scarface hasn't been assigned a release date yet, but stay tuned to Cinema Blend for all the relevant updates surrounding it as more news comes in.
