Though more of a priority project when Variety first announced it months into the pandemic, the Luca Guadagnino-directed iteration of the long-in-the-works “Scarface” remake should arrive sooner or later. Whether it’s still based on a screenplay from the Coen Brothers, or from a different creative team altogether, its predecessor performed well enough during its 1983 theatrical release and forged enough of a cultural impact in years since to earn its modern-day revisitation.
But this should not invoke hysteria amongst fans. After all, Al Pacino was not the first facially-wounded immigrant gangster by the name of Tony to demand his enemies and audiences alike “say hello to his little friend” in a cinematic, furious, and fatal blaze. Although, to be fair, one of these Tony’s demises was heavily revised by way of the then-freshly installed Hays Code, which changed the shape of movie violence at the dawning of the age of the “talkie.”
Skeptics need to understand: Pacino only embarked on pursuing the explosive character study after falling head over heels upon walking into a matinee movie house screening Howard Hawks’ gangster saga of the same name. Starring Paul Muni as its lead, Tony Camonte, the film was also famously produced by the eccentric, obsessive-compulsive aviator, Howard Hughes.
Ergo, “Scarface” (1932) was a work put together by ingeniousness across the board, inspiring Pacino to assemble a world-class crack team of creatives to help him craft his own sendoff to the American Dream-weaving anti-hero’s journey.
“Carrie” filmmaker Brian De Palma would ultimately be tabbed to helm the reimagining based on a script from Oliver Stone – who later direct classics like “Platoon” and “JFK.” However, it was the brainchild of Pacino’s “Serpico” and “Dog Day Afternoon” director Sidney Lumet to set the film in then-contemporary Miami – with Tony no longer Italian, but rather a Cuban in the mold of a truly brutalizing, yet oh-so-bubbly post-revolution drug warlord.
Stone battled his own addiction to cocaine while writing the eventually iconic cocaine-transporting kingpin into the crime film zeitgeist. The role is synonymous with the film’s namesake, both almost too impactful for their own good, as nostalgic recallers take to Internet forums and regular conversation to assert their qualms; specifically, that such period-specific imagery can’t be replicated – rendering remake attempts categorically “unnecessary.”
In a scripted media landscape currently oversaturated with remakes and sequels, it’s hard for any single one, especially a non-superhero-affiliated enterprise, to significantly stand out.
But a “Scarface” for the 2020s sure would.
“The truth is that I’m interested in the Tony Montana character. He’s a symptom of the American Dream. And I think that these movies are made for their times. My own ‘Scarface’ will arrive 40 years after the previous one,” Guadagnino told the Venice Film Festival last year when plugging his vision, which reportedly involves latter-day Los Angeles and drug trafficking across the Mexican Border.
He added, “The important things are (a) It has to be well done, the script has to be great – and it is; (b) Our Tony Montana has to be current. I don’t want to imitate anything,” and “(c) this has to be shocking.”
Coming off the success of “Call Me by Your Name” and “Suspiria,” Guadagnino rides a definitive hot hand; plus, haven’t the Coen Brothers earned your trust enough already? If they deem the project worthy of their time, and as one of their final collaborative efforts in light of Joel’s retirement, then consider it equally worthy to wait for, and worthy of existing period.
Expect a king’s ransom of stars to court the titular kingpin role. If the Coens remain attached, one can’t help but think what their “No Country for Old Men” villain Javier Bardem could do with the character; a supremely more emotional killer, but killer all the same.
Anyone who assumes the daunting task will need to pay tribute to the scar-faced of two films past; and also stand tall enough on his own to prove why, even after all this time, we still need this particular bad guy to make us all feel better about ourselves.
