David Ayer's Scarface Reboot Wasn't Rejected Over Violence - It Was Something Else
Writer-director David Ayer is opening up about why his planned reboot of filmmaker Brian De Palma's mob movie classic "Scarface" never got off the ground.
In an interview with Total Film (via Games Radar), Ayer — whose credits include the war film "Fury" and DC's first "Suicide Squad" movie — said the reason his version of "Scarface" didn't move forward had nothing to do with its violent nature. "It wasn't too violent. Violence — I can cover it," Ayer told Total Film. "If someone gets shot, I can photograph it where a head explodes and have a hard R, and it's not going to alienate people. That's easy. That's filmmaker 101. I created this rich, soulful journey through the drug trade, and kind of what it is. The studio just wanted something more ... fun."
The question of excessive violence is rooted in De Palma's version of "Scarface," which stars Al Pacino as Miami drug kingpin Tony Montana. The film was famously slapped with an X-rating by the Motion Picture Association of America over a scene in which one of Montana's crew is brutally tortured and murdered with a chainsaw. As such, the MPAA wouldn't give De Palma's film an R-rating unless he trimmed the scene down. Even after the edit, the torture sequence became a scene that people tend to fast-forward through.
Ayers believes his Scarface script was one of his best
In retrospect, David Ayer is proud of what he achieved with his take on "Scarface," even though the film didn't get made. "One of the best scripts I've ever written was my Scarface draft," Ayer told Total Film. "It gets passed around in Hollywood, underground. It's funny when people talk about the project. 'Is it the Ayer script?' 'No, it's somebody else.' 'Oh, OK.'"
Calling "Scarface" the biggest piece of intellectual property after "Jurassic Park," Ayer explained to Total Film that the version he was hoping to make with his reboot didn't quite line up with Universal's hopes for the film. While the studio wanted to capture as big an audience as they could, that approach didn't quite sync with his plans. "I f***ing love Universal. Amazing people. I had this really honest conversation about the movie they wish they had, and the movie that I wished to make," Ayer told Total Film. "There's a lot of daylight between us. It's just easier to be like, 'Let's park this.'"
Another attempt to reboot "Scarface" happened in 2020, when "Call Me by Your Name" director Luca Guadagnino was brought aboard to helm the film. At the time, Guadagnino said he wanted his "Scarface" remake to be R-rated, shocking, and current. In November of 2023, however, Guadagnino confirmed for The Hindu that he left the "Scarface" remake, which was based on a script by "Fargo" and "No Country for Old Men" Oscar winners Joel and Ethan Coen.
The original version of "Scarface" was released in 1932. Directed by Howard Hawks and Richard Rosson, "Scarface" stars Paul Muni in the title role.