Christian Bale & Javier Bardem confirmed for KILLING PABLO

Joe Carnahan's long-gestured movie about the life of Pablo Escobar will star Bale and Bardem, with a June start date planned, although if the strike goes ahead it will be delayed shortly.

847poster.jpgKILLING PABLO is finally moving ahead. The much delayed project about the life of the late Pablo Escobar will be helmed by SMOKIN' ACES and NARC director Joe Carnahan with filming beginning in June, however the expected strike will probably see the project delayed by a month. Carnahan who will be working on WHITE JAZZ as a pre-strike movie, has wrote the script based on the book Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw. Javier Bardem will play Escobar, the leader of a powerful Columbian drug cartel in the 70's. After years of violent crimes which made him an astronomically rich man (he was the seventh richest man in the world according to Forbes Magazine in 1989), Escobar was targeted in 1992 by a coalition of Columbian Police and Military, the U.S. Drug Enforcement and the CIA, with the hunt on to bring him down. Bale will play Major Steve Jacoby, the Delta Force Commander in charge of the hunt for Escobar. In January, the film which was initially setup at Dreamworks and Paramount in conjunction with The Yari Film Group will have been in development for five full years without a single frame of footage shot. Variety say, Dreamworks and Paramount are no longer involved and it's just Yari going solo. This should be stellar stuff. Bale doesn't pick bad roles and he is easily the most exciting director working these days and Carnahan's energy and enthusiasm for film compliments his terrific talent. I love movies like this, where the hunt is on for a mob boss or drug boss. Loved THE DEPARTED. I can't wait for AMERICAN GANGSTER. Hell, even SMOKIN' ACES did this kind of thing. These are my movies.... and with Bale, Bardem and Carnahan this should be amazing. Another little side-note: What is Bale doing between now and June? He has no movie attached to his name? Is he taking the time off, or are Warner Brothers desperately offering him any deal under the sun to star in their JUSTICE LEAGUE movie. Do you think he might have read the script?
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Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.