Variety reports that television and film screenwriter Terence Winter (The Wolf of Wall Street) has been hired to do rewrite work on Antonie Fuqua‘s (Training Day, The Equalizer, Magnificent Seven) new take on the classic 1932 and 1983 gangster tale Scarface.
Sources tell Variety, Winter has signed on to do a polish of Jonathan Herman’s latest draft of Universal’s new retelling of the “Scarface” story. Given Winter’s expertise creating such characters, and the fact that Winter has real-life relationships with former crime figures, the studio was quick to turn to the writer for “Scarface,” sources said.
Winter is best known for his work tackling the gangster underworld with hit HBO shows The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire. An excellent successor to Oliver Stone, who wrote Brian de Palma’s version that starred Al Pacino.
This third incarnation of the Al Capone story, an immigrant turned mob boss will see a Mexican immigrant’s rise to power with a criminal empire in contemporary Los Angeles.
Of course, Winter chronicled the life of the hot-head gangster Al Capone in his HBO series Boardwalk Empire, so he’s the perfect writer to get involved on the project.
There’s plenty of actors we’d love to see apart of the project and possibly in the lead role. Our wish-list includes talented actors such as Michael Pena (Crash, End of Watch, Gangster Squad, Fury), Diego Luna (Blood Father, Elysium, Rogue One), Clifton Collins Jr. (Traffic, Triple 9), Demian Bichir (Che, The Hateful Eight) and Pedro Pascal (Narcos, Game of Thrones, Kingsman: The Golden Circle).
Universal hasn’t officially set a release date for the film.
SOURCE: VARIETY