By There have been several failed attempts at bringing the life of notorious drug kingpin Pablo Escobar to the big screen. There has been no word of Antoine Fuqua/Oliver Stone’s Escobar, Joe Carnahan’s adaptation of the book Killing Escobar is seemingly kaput and Medellin nearly destroyed Vincent Chase’s fictional career. Still, that hasn’t stopped director Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer) from throwing his hat into the Don Quixote-like project that is the Pablo Escobar biopic. He will be directing and collaborating with writer Matt Aldrich to bring to fruition what Furman calls “a dark story [and] a human-interest piece” and producer Scott Steindoff calls “The Latino Godfather” (which sounds INCREDIBLY stupid).
For gringos not in the know, the lurid tale of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar involves lots of cocaine, bribery, political corruption, philanthropy, gangland assassinations, a (successful) run for political office, and a prison escape (from a prison he built, no less). As someone of Colombian heritage, I can’t help but be cautious of a film glorifying the terrorist that essentially tore my country apart and forced many of my relatives to flee from their homes, but it’d be dumb of me not to realize it for the rich, fascinating story it is and how well that can translate to film. For those wanting to learn more about Pablo Escobar’s twisted legacy, there’s an excellent documentary called The Two Escobars that was produced for ESPN’s 30 for 30 series that I can’t recommend enough.
When awful story arcs from Entourage start bleeding into real life, I start to worry. If an Aquaman film ever actually gets made, I’ll lose my sh*t.
[Via Empire]