The movie is based on the book by Mark Bowden, Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Outlaw. The movie has been in development for the last five years.
The movie will be directed by Joe Carnahan (Narc, Smokin’ Aces), and produced by Bob Yari, Mark Gordon and Jason Zelin.
Bardem will play Escobar, while Bale is in talks to play a commander form the Delta Force, Steve Jacoby, who led the search for Escobar.
Escobar was the head of drug trafficking in Colombia in the 1970’s. After terrorizing the police force and politicians for years, he was finally caught in 1993.