Despite several eye-rolls around the office, it's now looking like the ill-advised Scarface remake is moving forward.

Chilean director Pablo Larrain, who directed the fantastic political drama No with Gael Garcia Bernal, has been tapped to direct whilst there's a very suspicious rumour that Tony Montana will be played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Yeah, we're scratching our heads at that one.

GQ Australia claims that Universal has officially announced the news, although we haven't seen anything confirmed in any of the major trades or anything like an official announcement from the studio itself. Take that with an Titanic iceberg-sized pinch of salt, frankly.

Meanwhile, scripting duties are being looked after by Straight Outta Compton's writer Jonathan Herman. Training Day's David Ayer took a run at the script a couple of years ago, however Herman now appears to be the go-to writer for Universal.

So, what does Pacino make of all this? Not a whole lot, as you'd expect. "Oh, it's fine... It's part of what we do. We remake things," said Pacino, also snagging the award for Most Non-Committal Answer with that one.

The Scarface remake has been in the works since 2011 and there's still no sign of it seeing the light of day any time soon.

Usually there's a release date pencilled in, even provisionally - we're seeing nothing of the like here. To be honest, a Scarface remake sounds a bit daft.

Yes, the 1983 version was a remake of Howard Hawks' gangster classic - but what made Scarface so fascinating is that it was so clearly of its time. It encapsulated the excess of the '80s into one film.

If they do a remake and set in the '80s, that's just cheapening what came before. If they try to set in our current times, what's going to separate it from any other gangster flick?

Don't get us wrong - Pablo Larrain directing is a very good choice and we're hearing nothing but good reports about Straight Outta Compton so these are all positives.

It'd have to be something really special to supersede Oliver Stone and Brian DePalma's version.

 

UPDATE: As you'd expect, the Leonardo DiCaprio rumour is more than likely false and GQ has taken their article offline.

 

Via GQ Australia / THR