From revolutionary to drug lord, Benicio Del Toro is set to play Pablo Escobar in PARADISE LOST.
However, don’t go into this thinking it will be a biopic like CHE.
The Andrea di Stefano (LIFE OF PI) script centers on, “Nick, a young surfer who visits his brother in Colombia and falls madly in love with a beautiful local girl called Maria. Their romance seems idyllic until he meets her uncle, Escobar.”
Producer Dimitri Rassam says to think of it as, “a narrative structure in the vein of ‘The Last King of Scotland,’ weaving Nick and Maria’s romance with Nick’s ambivalent and destructive relationship with Escobar.”
It’s been hard for really anyone to get a biopic of Escobar off the ground. The closest thing we have is Cliff Curtis playing the role in BLOW. He actually did a great job for what little screen time he had. I know Del Toro’s look for Escobar will just remind me of Dr. Gonzo in FEAR IN LOATHING.
The eleven week shoot will begin in March of 2013 in Panama.