Today it was announced by Variety that Yari Film Group is moving forward on Killing Pablo, a film that has been talked about forever with director Joe Carnahan attached to helm. The news comes as we learn that Javier Bardem and Christian Bale are set to star in the film about the late drug cartel leader Pablo Escobar.
Bardem is aboard to play Escobar with Bale on to play Major Steve Jacoby, the Delta Force commander who led the hunt for the man. 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.
The big question here is whether or not Joe Carnahan will be directing since he has White Jazz on the horizon and has even said that he has started casting the flick.
A quick trip over to his site finds a post dated September 29 saying:
Some stuff is going on we me professionally right now that will be resolved in the days to come. I’ll tell you all about it when it’s blown over. Suffice it to say it’s got me up at odd hours from lack of sleep. Nothing about WHITE JAZZ or anything like that. That’s all locked down. It’s something deep and long standing and it’s got me doing a lot of thinking…
I can only assume it has to do with this flick since he never waivered on directing Killing Pablo but since it has been a “long-gestating” film to use Variety‘s words he has moved on to White Jazz, with what I believe to be all intentions to return to Pablo once a studio was ready to move forward.
The Variety article does say that Carnahan remains attached to direct, but when Bob Yari tells the trade that the film 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 I have to think that Carnahan may have to drop the project. This would be a shame since it would be the second project for Joe to fall away from him since his project with Reese Witherspoon, Bunny Lake is Missing, fell apart earlier this year.
I can only assume the record will be set straight soon, but a movie about Pablo Escobar with Bale and Bardem would be amazing in the hands of a director like Carnahan. I hope it works out.
