Brian De Palma will direct The Untouchables: Capone Rising, a prequel to his 1987 hit film about lawman Eliot Ness's takedown of Al Capone.

The film centers on young Al Capone's arrival in Chicago and his rise to criminal kingpin status. The drama charts his collision course with Irish cop Johnny Malone, the character played in the original by Sean Connery.

Any thoughts?

-Zavier

The last I had heard, Antoine Fuqua was up for this one...

Like most of De Palma's films this could go either way - he's always been amazingly inconsistent with his output. I will give him credit for being able to always turn out a hell of a setpiece though! I'm truly dreading his adaptation of 'The Black Dahlia' - I love that book, but Christ, who the hell thought it was a good idea to put Josh Hartnett in the lead. The script's also by the person who wrote Chain Reaction...

The presence of Scarlett Johansson might still get me in the cinema though...

But anyway, this threads about Capone Rising... Ahem... I'd love to know who the person was, out there, who thought that this was a prequel that people were asking for... The first movie is great, but will anyone really 'care' for a prequel now. It just stinks of a cash-in, why the 'Untouchables' tag? That name came around with Elliot Ness IIRC, also in the original movie there was no real indication that Malone had any particular animosity towards, or had even wrangled with, Al Capone... Strange...

I'm sure there's a good movie to be made in Al Capone's rise to power - and it's always been good to see De Palma working in the gangster genre - but this just doesn't seem the best way to go about it. If Mamet was returning also, I might think a little better of this, but at the moment, I'm filing this one under 'Bad Idea.'

Sounds good to me, I love the original film, The Untouchables.If Brian De Palma's directing it then I'll definitly see as I am a huge fan of his work, especially Scarface.
I agree that this film could go either way, althought I think that De Palma is pretty consistent. Overall this film can be an excellent masterpiece, or a major upset.

Finally an update.  

Antoine Fuqua recently sat down with Capone from Ain’t It Cool News to discuss his upcoming film, Shooter. During the interview, Fuqua confirmed that he’s no longer onboard “The Untouchables” prequel – not even in a producing capacity. He also confirmed that Brian DePalma is attached to direct. Oh and filming begins in June.

Check out the entire interview here. (scroll down)