“Top Gun: Maverick” and “Captain America: Brave New World” actor Danny Ramirez is set to both produce and star in a new version of “Scarface” his production company Pinstripes is developing.
Run by himself and longtime friend and collaborator Tom Culliver, the company is doing a new spin on the original 1930 novel by Armitage Trail, which inspired the original Howard Hawks 1932 film.
That novel is in the public domain, whereas the most famous adaptation to date is Brian De Palma’s 1983 Miami-set version with Al Pacino in the title role – that version is still owned by Universal Pictures. Speaking with Deadline, Culver says:
“We want to modernise it, adapting the original novel. Obviously, there’s the Pacino legacy of it from the ’80s and then the original 1932 movie, but I think it’s ripe for modernising, and to have someone like Danny in the lead is really exciting.”
Ramirez says the role will allow him to really incorporate his own Colombian and Mexican heritage into a character:
“Scarface, to us, is the one that it’s been a dream role to play, but also to develop it in a way that I understand it. I think in 2025, it’s more relevant now than ever. So that’s where we’re excited to take this on.”
The company has reportedly landed development financing and plans to keep the new version both contemporary and not lean on nostalgia. Culliver says:
“We’re not going to do this cravenly; we have something to say with the material. There’s been too much of that in the last 20 years to just go around making remakes because you can latch onto some audience built into the IP. You’ve got to have a new story to tell within it.”
Ramirez has been filming “Avengers: Doomsday” and has a budy time ahead. He will co-star with Pedro Pascal in Todd Haynes’ “De Noche” shooting early next year, and then gets an expanded version of his second season role of Manny in Pascal’s prior HBO series “The Last of Us” for its third season shooting next year.
