Say Goodbye to My Little Friend... 'Scarface' Reboot Loses Director Antoine Fuqua

By Justin Kroll, Variety

Universal’s reboot of the classic gangster pic Scarface looks to have hit another bump in the road, as sources tell Variety that director Antoine Fuqua has departed the project.

Insiders say Sony and Denzel Washington want a sequel to Equalizer very quickly and need Fuqua back to being prepping the film, which caused conflicted with the Scarface schedule. Universal still wants the film up and running by the spring, and has already begun meeting with directors so production won’t be affected.

Sources have also told Variety that Diego Luna, star of Rogue One, is attached to star.

Sources say Fuqua very much wanted to do the film, and that he and his team were still trying to figure out a way to make it work even as Uni was meeting with other directors. But ultimately, Fuqua had already spent so much time developing the script for the next Equalizer that he simply couldn’t move on from a project he had so much invested in.

Sources say the studio still is high on Luna, but a new director may want to take the film in a different direction.

The film will be a Bluegrass Films and Global Produce production, and will be produced by Marc Shmuger, Scott Stuber, and Dylan Clark. Marty Bregman, producer of the 1983 Scarface film, will also produce.

Boardwalk Empire creator Terrence Winter penned the most recent draft.

The pic is a reimagining of the core immigrant story told in both the 1932 and 1983 films. The new film will be set in Los Angeles and will focus on a Mexican immigrant.

Exec VP of production Jon Mone and VP of production Jay Polidoro will oversee the project for Universal.

Fuqua is repped by CAA.