Sean Penn action vehicle based on an early 90's Italian thriller?

by Matt Holmes
Variety tell us this morning that Universal are taking the 1993 Italian thriller LA SCORTA about four cops attempting to guard a prosecutor trying to bring mob bosses to justice and turning it into a Sean Penn action vehicle, that follows a father who journeys to Mexico to protect his son after his wife is brutally murdered by the Mexican cartels. The movie is titled CARTEL and Penn is in talks to star. First time director Asger Leth will helm based on a script by relatively unknown scribe Peter Craig. Leth previously won a DGA Award for directing the 2006 documentary GHOSTS OF CITE SOLEIL, of which the trailer I have added below...

Universal, desperate to use the momentum from Penn's Academy Award for MILK, want this to shoot in the Summer but they are competing with a lot of projects Penn is looking to make as his next picture. FAIR GAME, the thriller about outed former C.I.A. member Valerie Plame for Doug Liman (JUMPER) and co-starring Naomi Watts, seems to be the more conventional and likely choice to be his next picture.
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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.