S. Samuel
Movie director Antoine Fuqua recently hit up SOHH and confirmed recent speculation that he is involved in the production of an upcoming Pablo Escobar biopic.
According to Fuqua, the project has been in production over the past few years.
“I’ve been working on it for a while, man,” Fuqua told SOHH about the film’s production. “I’m just trying to get the script right, it’s a big story. I don’t want to get it wrong, it’s a big story. A few years I’ve been working on it — it has nothing to do with hip-hop whatsoever, I spent a lot of time in Medellin and Bogota, Miami as well. [I know] some real cats that used to run with him, with Escobar, and this guy ‘Popeye,’ ‘Popeye’ was his right-hand man, he’s in prison. Colombia. I spent some time on the phone with Roberto, who is his brother, who was his accountant, and another cat who I can’t say his name, which was one of his accountants and lives on the East Coast now and a few people in Argentina. So you know, for me, it’s a little deeper than that, and I’m just trying to tell a story that’s really about a young dude, a revolutionary who lost his way. That’s really what Escobar was, he lost his way but he was on the path to do something great then he got lost and that’s the story.” (SOHH)
Speculation on the film has developed as far back as 2007.
Just a week ago we shared the news that Javier Bardem and Christian Bale had been cast in Joe Carnahan‘s Killing Pablo. Today, news comes of another Pablo Escobar-focused film, this one a biopic being directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Tears of the Sun, King Arthur) titled just Escobar. The film is based off of “Mi Hermano Pablo” (“My Brother Pablo”), a book written by Roberto Escobar Gaviria, who served as his brother’s accountant and confidant. Oliver Stone will produce the film as it heads towards production which is slated to begin in the first quarter of 2008 in Colombia and Puerto Rico. (Variety)
Fuqua is also reportedly set to begin work on another biopic in the near future.
Director Antoine Fuqua, of films like Training Day and Shooter, talked with ComingSoon after the Sundance premiere of his latest film, Brooklyn’s Finest, about another project in the very early stages of development, a biopic based on the life of Gregory Scarpa Sr. For those of you unfamiliar with the goings on of the Colombo crime family, Scarpa Sr., also known as “The Grim Reaper”, was their chief enforcer during the 70s and 80s and an FBI informant for over thirty years. And it’s looking like the role of Scarpa Sr. may be played by none other than Sean Penn. Fuqua says the project is called Scarpa and that “it’s New York again, Brooklyn, FBI, Italian gangsters, [and] it takes place from the ’60s to the ’90s.” (First Showing)
The director recently spoke with SOHH about the success of his new film, Brooklyn’s Finest.
“It’s gratifying,” he added about the film’s success. “I was on [this project] for two years, maybe a little bit more and normally I do studio movies so this is a gimme and I had full creative control going in it and so after Sundance and all of that — having Oveture [Films] being behind it and the response its been getting has been real real positive, the majority of it and the movie is doing well, making money, $17 million movie. I feel good about it, man, I’ve been blessed because it could have went the other way and got ugly.” (SOHH)
No further details have been revealed as of now.
Check out a recent Antoine Fuqua interview below:
