Training Day scripter David Ayer has been hired to write the remake of Scarface, reports Deadline Hollywood.
The writer and director last stepped behind the camera to direct the Keanu Reeves starring Street Kings, told Deadline "This is a fantasy for me, I can still remember when I saw the film at 13 and it blew my mind," he said. "I sought it out; I went after it hard. I see it as the story of the American dream, with a character whose moral compass points in a different direction. That puts it right in my wheelhouse. I studied both the original Ben Hecht-Howard Hawks movie and the DePalma-Pacino version and found some universal themes. I’m still under the hood figuring out the wiring that will translate, but both films had a specificity of place, there was unapologetic violence, and a main character who socially scared the shit out of people, but who had his own moral code. Each was faithful to the underworld of its time. There are enough opportunities in the real world today that provide an opportunity to do this right. If it was just an attempt to remake the 1983 film, that would never work."
Ayer is definitely scripting, but whether or not he'll direct or is thus far unclear. He has the Jake Gyllenhaal starrer, End Of Watch in the can.
