Luca Guadagnino is no longer directing ‘Scarface’ remake
Acclaimed director Luca Guadagnino has revealed that he is no longer attached to a Scarface remake written by the Coen brothers.
In 2020, it was revealed Universal Pictures had tapped up the Call Me By Your Name director to helm the remake. Talk of the new Scarface with a script from the Coen brothers has been widespread for many years, with Antoine Fuqua previously lined up for the task of directing before he dropped out of the project.
During an interview with Variety in 2020, Guadagnino previously said of his plans for the film: “Fifty years later, Oliver Stone and Brian De Palma make their version, which is so different from the Hawks film. Both can stand on the shelf as two wonderful pieces of sculpture.”
The director added: “Hopefully ours, forty-plus years later, will be another worthy reflection on a character who is a paradigm for our own compulsions for excess and ambition. I think my version will be very timely.”
However, over the last three years, speculation surrounding Guadagnino’s Scarface has died down, and now, he has revealed that it is no longer set to happen. “I’m not working on Scarface anymore,” the director said in a new interview with The Hindu.
While Guadagnino didn’t elaborate on his reasoning for why he’s no longer directing the film, elsewhere in the interview, he said of remakes: “For me, when approaching any book adaptation or remake, it’s about understanding what the story carries within itself that goes beyond the form of the original work. So that you can tell that story from a completely different perspective. Whether it’s fresh or not, I cannot tell. But it’s different.”
Guadagnino’s next project is Challengers, set for release on April 26th, 2024. The movie, starring Zendaya, was previously scheduled to open the Venice Film Festival, but it was pulled out from its slot due to the SAG-AFTRA Strike.
The film’s official synopsis reads: “Tennis player turned coach Tashi (Zendaya) has taken her husband, Art (Mike Faist), and transformed him into a world-famous grand slam champion. To jolt him out of his recent losing streak, she makes him play a ‘Challenger’ event — close to the lowest level of pro tournament — where he finds himself standing across the net from his former best friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend (Josh O’Connor).”
Watch the trailer for Challengers below.
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