10 Reasons Why The Scarface Remake Shouldn't Happen

10. The Story Is Too Well-Worn

Quentin Tarantino once described gangster films as parodies of the American Dream, the idea that anyone can come to America and make something of themselves without fear of persecution. This idea is satirised successfully in the Howard Hawks film and to a certain extent in De Palma's film, but in 2014 this kind of story has been done to death, both in its straight form and subversively. You can dress this story up in any trappings you like, just as you set Sherlock Holmes or Shakespeare in almost any place and time period. But while the idea still appeals or resonates in American culture, it has been portrayed and deconstructed so many times on film that no-one helming a new Scarface can bring anything interesting to it. Structuring the story as a satire of American paranoia about immigration may be a way forward, but simply leaning on an old fable isn't going to cut it anymore.