Caffeinated Clint
Yari Film Group greenlight Adrian Grenier-less Escobar project
This is rather amusing. Only a few weeks after the mock ‘Escobar’ movie “Medellin” premiered on TVs “Entourage”, a studio announces its intentions to make such a movie.
Javier Bardem and Christian Bale – no mention of Adrian Grenier, sad to say – will topline “Killing Pablo”, a Yari Film Group project that Joe Carnahan (“Smokin’ Aces”) will direct.
Bardem is slated to play Escobar, while Bale is in talks to play Major Steve Jacoby, the Delta Force commander who led the hunt for Escobar, says Variety.
Escobar’s rise as a leader of the drug cartel in Medellin, Colombia, began in the 1970s. After years of terrorizing police and political leaders, Escobar was targeted in 1992 by a coalition of Colombian police and military, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the CIA; he was killed the following year.
“This has been a passion project of mine for years, and it will be a tentpole for our company,” said Yari. “I have been patient to get this done because I wanted the ideal director and cast. It was worth the wait.”
Yari told Daily Variety that “Killing Pablo” could begin shooting as early as next June if the Screen Actors Guild (which has a June 30 expiration on its current contract) has reached a deal for a new contract at that point. If a strike’s imminent, production will wait until after the work stoppage.
