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A new version of the film Scarface, with a screenplay by the Coen brothers and set in Los Angeles instead of Miami, is released by a new director at Universal Pictures, a source familiar with the project told AFP.

The film will be directed by Oscar nominee Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name) and will be the third version of this story about the bloody underworld of immigrants in the United States.

The original 1932 film, directed by Howard Hawks, featured the Chicago Italian mafia and was based on a novel about part of Al Capone's life.

In Brian de Palma's 1983 version, the story moved to Miami with Al Pacino in the starring role of Tony Montana, a merciless Cuban refugee who builds a cocaine-based criminal empire.

The new film will give a new approach "to the immigrant story" that was at the center of the 1932 and 1983 versions.

In adapting the story once again, Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo) follow in the footsteps of Oliver Stone, who won applause for his ultraviolent script in the second version, which featured Pacino's immortal phrase: "Say hello to my little friend. "

The Coen brothers, several times Oscar winners, wrote the latest version of the script based on previous drafts for the project, which has had a long gestation.

Italian filmmaker Guadagnino is also working on a sequel to Call Me By Your Name and an adaptation of Lord of the Flies.

While Hollywood film production is completely halted by the coronavirus pandemic, the new version of Scarface has no release date yet and the cast of the film is unknown.