According to Variety, Brian De Palma has returned to the scene of the crime for The Untouchables: Capone Rising, a Paramount Pictures prequel to his 1987 hit film about lawman Eliot Ness's takedown of Al Capone.

De Palma has joined forces with The Untouchables producer Art Linson, with whom he recently worked on The Black Dahlia, which was just acquired by Universal Pictures.

Linson got the prequel going at Par, drafting Rounders scribes Brian Koppelman and David Levien to write a film that 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 pic by Sean Connery. Antoine Fuqua was originally attached to direct.

De Palma became interested in the subject matter over the past two months. The director and Linson will continue developing the project with the scribes. Their hope is to get the prequel into production next year.

John Linson will serve as exec producer.