It's been in development for five years, but some things are obviously worth waiting for, because Killing Pablo, the biopic of the legendary drug baron Pablo Escobar, is finally going into production, with a doozie of a cast and Joe Carnahan directing.
Javier Bardem is set to play the man himself, who rose to prominence in 1970s Medellin, Colombia, terrorising local police and taking over the cocaine business. His long career rested on efforts to either bribe or assassinate any authorities who dared stand up to him, and was so successful that he was even elected to office in Colombia, also becoming a folk hero to the poor of his home town of Medellin. At one point in the late 1980s Forbes Magazine estimated that he was the 7th richest man in the world.
In 1991, Escobar turned himself in to the Colombian authorities, fearing murder by a rival cartel or extradition to the States, and was allowed to build his own luxury prison (seriously) in return. But he soon escaped, so in 1992 a coalition of Colombian police and military teamed with the US Drug Enforcement Agency and CIA to bring him down, sending Delta Force soldiers after him. Christian Bale is in talks to play Major Steve Jacoby, the leader of those troops.
Joe Carnahan's been attached to direct for a while and is also writing the screenplay, with the story based on Mark Bowden's book "Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw". "Great" in the sense of biggest, we're thinking, rather than in the sense of "Yay drug barons!".
The film should start shooting in June of next year if the threatened actors' strike is called off; otherwise it will go into production as soon as work resumes - but can any film possibly hope to capture a life story this weird?