Hollywood really gets fascinating when this kind of thing happens. A couple of years ago Baz Luhrmann (Romeo & Juliet, Moulin Rouge) was to bring a tale of Alexander the Great to the big screen with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role but Olivier Stone got their first, and production started on his Alexander epic with Colin Farrell.

The result was Luhrmann’s film was halted because they just couldn’t see the point in two movies about the same subject, and sadly Stone’s film went on to be a bit of a disaster. Who knows what Luhrmann could have done with his Alexander movie, he could have made it truly ‘Great’ but it will forever be in the annuals of the Hollywood, ‘what could have been’.

Getting a project off the ground FIRST about the same subject is VITAL. Just look at Capote in 2005 which won all the Oscar acclaim and was adapted from the same novel In Cold Blood as the movie Infamous came some months later, which was pretty awesome in it’s own right but no-one cared… because Capote had already dealt with that story.

Now…

We know that next summer Smokin’ Joe Carnahan is to direct Killing Pablo, an adaptation of Mark Bowden’s book about the bringing down of Pablo Escobar, the Columbian leader of a drug cartel who became one of the most wanted men in the world in the early 90’s.

Javier Bardem has already committed as Escobar, with Christian Bale on board as the lead F.B.I. agent who is tracking him down.

Today…

Variety say Antoine Fuqua (King Arthur, Shooter) is to direct the movie Escobar for producer Olivier Stone and Bob Yari, with production actually set to begin in the first quarter of next year, which beats out Killing Pablo.

“Escobar” is based on “Mi Hermano Pablo,” a book written by Roberto Escobar Gaviria, who served as his brother’s accountant and confidant and whose company, STL Holdings, committed the life and literary rights of the Escobar family.

Man, this is fascinating.

Fuqua has the support of the Escobar family and Olivier Stone is said to have been putting this project together for over a year now and Carnahan is stone locked in with his George Clooney starrer White Jazz before he could begin work on Killing Pablo.

The race is on here folks but remarkably it’s Fuqua’s film that was come out of nowhere to take the leading edge. We really can’t downplay the importance of getting off the ground first, and that’s gonna be hard for Carnahan.

More on this one as we get it… but Carnahan has been wanting to make Killing Pablo for years but something keeps halting the project and then for this to happen!. He’s cursed I tells ya!