Screenwriter David McKenna Talks Scarface

David McKenna has made a career out of writing gritty films that are rooted in crime like American History X, Get Carter, and Blow. The Hollywood screenwriter grew up a huge fan of Brian DePalma's Scarface, so when he heard that the movie was becoming a game, he offered his services. When players experience the story of Scarface™: The World Is Yours on Xbox®, they have McKenna to thank for every word.

Nothing says macho like a white suit.

"First of all, the people who built the game at Radical are the ones who deserve the credit for this game," said McKenna. "I wrote 80 pages of script and lots of dialogue and dozens of auxiliary scenes, but those guys took what I wrote and made it on their own."

Resurrection
While McKenna is not a gamer himself, he has great respect for the people who create games. He kept in close contact with Radical during the long production process. Going into the project, he knew the basic story would be that Tony Montana had survived the mansion massacre at the end of the film and has to rebuild his drug empire from scratch.

"I knew I had to create a lot of scenes and I knew I had restrictions on what they could and couldn't build within the game," said McKenna. "I just spent a lot of time writing scene after scene with all of the types of characters that you'd think would be in this type of world."

Every line of in-game dialogue was written by McKenna.

One of the things that stood out for McKenna from watching the film numerous times was its humor. Beyond the violence, sex, and drugs, there were a lot of funny moments in the film.

"There's a lot of humor in it that was overshadowed because the violence was so strong," said McKenna. "When you're playing a game, you're playing a game. You want to laugh. That was the goal."

Sequelitis
McKenna is not a fan of Hollywood sequels and refuses to write them. When asked about Scarface being a sequel to the film, he said he treats the game and the film as separate entities. One has nothing to do with the other, in his mind. In fact, the original film was based on a true story. The video game is completely fictional.

Star Power
Once McKenna had written dialogue for the hundreds of NPCs that inhabit the game, Vivendi went out and hired a long list of Hollywood actors to breathe life into the roles. The game includes original voice work from actors like James Woods (TV's Shark); Robert Davi (Die Hard); Michael Rapaport (The War at Home); Ice T (Law & Order: SVU); Oliver Platt (The Ice Harvest); Daniel Dae Kim (Lost); Wilmer Valderrama (That 70s Show); and Entourage's Kevin Dillon and Jerry Ferrara.

Explore new areas not shown in the film.

"I think it's going to help sell the game," said McKenna, who didn't know what actors would be filling most of these roles when he was writing the script. "I think it's cool to recognize a voice here and there. It's a fun thing to have the actors involved because this movie has affected a lot of actors' lives."

The World Is Yours

McKenna joked that he wished he had a cut of the game's sales. The screenwriter entered the interactive realm because of his love of the source material, not for the money. He took a pay cut to do the game, as Hollywood offers much richer rewards than game publishers do. Because of his no sequel stance, if Scarface: The World is Yours becomes a hit for Vivendi Games, don't expect McKenna to write another script.

Article by John Gaudiosi