One of the biggest surprises of the year thus far has been the Brad Furman-directed The Lincoln Lawyer. It turns out that getting Matthew McConaughey back into the courtroom was exactly what the actor needed to start getting respect from critics again, and while it wasn't a perfect film, it was a compelling courtroom drama with a terrific ensemble cast. The movie also showed a great deal of promise from the director, and now it seems he's lined up his next project.
THR reports that Furman has entered talks to direct a biopic about the life and times of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. Matt Aldrich, who wrote the upcoming Father Daughter Time (which is Matt Damon is preparing to direct with John Krasinski starring) is penning the screenplay, which producer Scott Steindorff calls, "the Latino Godfather." When he was alive Escobar was called the "World's Greatest Outlaw" and is considered one of the richest criminals of all time. Escobar was killed in 1993 when he and his bodyguard were shot by Colombian National Police. Said Steindorff about how the film would be plotted, "We’re showing the story of his family, the structure of his enterprise, his rise—the man had the largest criminal organization in the world. In the end, it was a war between Colombia and one man."
The real big question is how Escobar will be portrayed in the film. While the man was a criminal in every sense of the word - he was convicted for drug trafficking and smuggling, assassinations, bombing, bribery, racketeering, money laundering, murder and political corruption - the poor of Colombia saw him as a Robin Hood figure as he gave a lot of money back to those areas of the community. It'll be interesting to see how they straddle that line.
