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Universal are starting work on a new version of Scarface.
Now there’s doubtless a massive chorus
of heresy building up in the throats & fingertips of those who love the
1983 Brian De Palma film with Al Pacino & Michelle Pfeiffer; but they would
do well to remember that the same thing was said when De Palma set about making
a contemporary version of the 1932 Howard Hawks / Howard Hughes classic. That
film was, and still is, considered a gnuine classic of the Gangster genre, but
De Palma’s version has usurped it and is considered even better by many.
Another comparison could be The Maltese Falcon. The version of that book that everyone
remembers / knows is the Humphrey
Bogart film Noir version. That was the THIRD film of the book and, essentially,
a remake of the first film. More to the point whilst there were 51 years
between the first two Scarface films and will be at least 29 years between the
last one and this latest version; The first film of The Maltese Falcon was made
in 1931; The second (Satan Met A Lady) just 5 (FIVE) years later in 1936 and
the Bogart version just another 5 (YES FIVE) years after that one!
So you can see that there’s precedent for this being an OK
thing to do, and more than that a very successful thing to do. The question for
Scarface is what is the crime that this film can use to make a relevant, contemporary
film for the early 21st Century? The first film had an Italian Immigrant
moving his way up the crime ladder in Chicago. Prohibition era America, Chicago
in particular an the birth of the super gangsters provided plenty of topical
material for the original movie. As did the ethnic makeup of the various mobs;
Irish & Italian Americans.
The 1983 version update the themes with the immigrant this
time being Cuban and the crime being the cocaine trade. Relocated to Miami, the
best setting for those elements, the film was definitely timely, as was its
level of violence. Crime is always an issue when times are hard and people are
certainly feeling the financial squeeze all over right now; but what would the
contemporary crime be? Drugs are still a massive issue of course but that would
make the film feel more like a remake of film 2 than we’re led to believe this
is. The aim is to update the story using the main themes of the first two
films; Crime, immigrants, going freaking insane with gangster power, that sort
of thing. It’s hard to imagine a film where someone rises to the top f the
internet crime world; or the Identity theft mob. Human trafficking maybe? Well
we’ll have to wait and see.
(Incidentally, there was also a video game, based on the
1983 film, released 5 years ago)
Scarface 1932...
Scarface 1983...
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