Pablo Escobar Movie Update: Wagner Moura To Reprise Role Again?
Netflix has given the world another character to die for. Back in 2015, when Narcos was first premiered, no one thought that Wagner Maura’s portrayal of the famous drug kingpin will be praised by everyone on such level. Now there are reports that a movie is under production showing the life and death of Pablo Escobar.
Fans of Netflix’s Narcos are going to be disappointed because the upcoming movie, Escobar, is not going to feature Wagner Maura in the lead.
According to Variety, the upcoming film will feature Oscar-winning Spanish actors Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz. According to official reports, the Spanish actor is going to portray the titular role, whereas his wife, Cruz, is set to portray the role of journalist Virginia Vallejo. In Narcos, the role of Virginia Vallejo was portrayed by Mexican actress Stephanie Sigman.
The Spanish-Bulgarian joint project will be filmed in Colombia and will go into production on October 24. The film’s producer, Miguel Menendez de Zubillaga, stated in his statement that the film is not going to be another biopic on the notorious drug lord.
“This is not a biopic, not just the story of a tough gangster. This is the story of the man who changed the history of crime in the last decades of the 20th century.”
This won’t be for the first time when a feature film is going into production on the life and death of notorious drug lord. Here are few major films that made an impact.
- Clear and Present Danger was released in 1994 and showed a fictional character Ernesto Escobedo (portrayed by Miguel Sandoval). The life of Ernesto was based on Escobar.
- Blow, a biopic by George Jung in which Cliff Curtis played the drug lord.
- Escobar: Paradise Lost depicted Benicio del Toro as the drug lord, acting as the uncle of a girl whom a surfer falls in love.
- The Infiltrator, based on the autobiography of the same name, depicted Robert Mazur (Bryan Cranston) who was a federal customs and excise agent who helped bust Escobar’s money-laundering business.
- Bloodline actor John Leguizamo is also in talks to feature the drug lord in the upcoming biopic, El Patron. The film is still in its early stage of production.
Meanwhile, there have been reports that Netflix’s Narcos will get canceled after Season 2. The show’s executive producer, Eric Newman, announced during the screening of the first episode that the fans should enjoy the story while it lasts.
“I think there’s a reason why we call this show Narcos and not Pablo Escobar. It’s very much about the trade. There are other drug dealers and there are alliances formed against Pablo, so there are a multitude of stories we could tackle,” Newman added.
Not only this, he did admit during his conversation with The Hollywood Reporter that fans will not go easy on the death of the protagonist at the end of Season 2.
“I remember the Titanic argument: Who’s going to see a movie where everyone knows the ending?” he added. “The decision to be able to actually invest time spent with Pablo Escobar knowing that the end is near will allow people to experience it in a different way.”
He also added that viewers are going to miss the character and it is going to become hard for them to say goodbye them as they have left a long-lasting impact on their lives.
“We love Pablo. We don’t love the man, but we love the character we’ve built, who Wagner has played so well. We want people to join in mourning him right away, because it’s hard to say goodbye to them.”
Do you think Wagner Maura will ever get the chance to portray Pablo Escobar again? Got any chance to catch Netflix’s Narcos Season 2? Sound off your views on the Netflix’s depiction of Escobar’s life and death in the comments below.
[Featured Image by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images]
