Joe Carnahan Casts Edgar Ramirez as Pablo Escobar in Killing Pablo
Posted on Thursday, August 14th, 2008 at 10:30 am by: Hunter Stephenson
I wonder how they celebrated? Smoking Aces director, Joe Carnahan, has hired Edgar Ramirez (right) for his Colombian nose candy kingpin, Pablo Escobar, in the true-crime epic Killing Pablo. Ramirez plays the revolutionary, Ciro Redondo, in both of Steven Soderbergh’s Che biopics, and he previously starred in The Bourne Ultimatum and Vantage Point. Our friends at CHUD got the scoop from a clearly amped Smokin’ Joe…
“…I couldn’t be more fired up by the prospect. He’s coming at it with boundless enthusiasm, conviction to the role and and the understanding that he’s going to have to pack on anywhere from 35 to 40lbs.�
My favorite part in the book, Killing Pablo, is when an especially tubby Escobar is at wit’s end, his crime syndicates fragmented or sniped, and he’s juggling phones and smoking joints by himself in bed. Carnahan’s going to rock this material, and I’m confident in his casting choice. Earlier this month we reported that Javier Bardem had dropped out of the titular role. CHUD didn’t discuss Christian Bale’s involvement, but he remains attached to play Steve Jacoby, the U.S. authority who lead the agonizingly complex hunt for Escobar. In a twist, on IMDB Ramierz is listed to play Escobar in Antoine Fuqua’s competing 2009 film Escobar, produced by Oliver Stone. I wonder how this switch played out?
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Javier Bardem Not Starring in Killing Pablo Opposite Christian Bale
http://www.obsessedwithfilm.com/movie-news/has-carnahan-stolen-oliver-...
Has Carnahan stolen Oliver Stone’s PABLO from under his nose?!?
Now this is either weird as shit crazy, the smartest actor coup ever pulled off between duelling projects or someone, somewhere, has got their wires terribly crossed.
CHUD are reporting that Edgar Ramirez will be Javier Bardem’s replacement as the infamous Columbian drug cartel leader Pablo Escobar in Joe Carnahan’s long time in development next movie Killing Pablo.
Which all things considered after his great turns in The Bourne Ultimatum, Domino and his big upcoming roles in the two Soderbergh biopics of Che Guevara, hardly seems a bad choice at all. The thing is Oliver Stone had already thought the same thing and had cast Ramirez for his version which Antoine Fuqua is directing!
So this is one story that you would instantly through out of the window as being NOT TRUE… someone clearly getting their wires mixed up somewhere but then you hear who CHUD’s source was.
Joe Carnahan himself! He says…
“I spent the last week in Colombia with Edgar Ramirez talking ‘Pablo’ and he has every intention of portraying Escobar and I couldn’t be more fired up by the prospect. He’s coming at it with boundless enthusiasm, conviction to the role and and the understanding that he’s going to have to pack on anywhere from 35 to 40lbs.�
Has the director just plucked the leading star of his rival project?
Smart, smart, smart move. Ramirez had probably already been preparing for the role somewhat and when script problems halted the Oliver Stone/Antoine Fuqua project, Carnahan did well to step in and make the bad situation of losing one of the best actors of modern day cinema into something much easier to swallow.
So what’s the truth then. Has Ramirez really left one Pablo project for another and are we finally any steps closer to see this movie come to fruition?
This sounds like the battle of the Fridas a few years ago when Salma Hayek and Jennifer Lopez were both attached to similar products. Of course Ms. J.Lo had to drop it along with Francis Ford Coppola who was also involved as soon as Salma Hayek came way ahead of them.
Let's just hope Christian Bale is still attached to the "Killing Pablo" movie because it sounds like even the role of Pablo itself is secondary. They lose Bale and the whole thing crumbles down.
Ramirez will next be seen in Vantage Point, opposite Forest Whitaker, Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox and directed by Pete Travis. He made his American film debut as Choco in Tony Scott's Domino, opposite Keira Knightley and Mickey Rourke.
Ramirez has additionally appeared in a number of international film productions. His past international film credits include El Don (The Boss), directed by J.R. Novoa (Venezuela/Spain); La Hora Cero (The Magic Hour), a short film directed by Guillermo Arriaga, the acclaimed screenwriter of Amores Perros and 21 Grams (Mexico); El Nudo (The Knot), directed by Alejandro Wiedermann (Venezuela); Yotama se va Volando (Yotama Flies Away), directed by Luis Armando Roche (Venezuela/France); Punto y Raya (Step Forward), directed by Elia K. Schneider (Venezuela/Spain/Chile/Uruguay), a nominee for Oscar consideration for 2004 Best Foreign Language Film; and Anonimo (Anonymous), directed by Enelio Farina (Venezuela).
Ramirez will next be seen internationally in Cyrano Fernandez, a Venezuelan-Spanish production based on the French play Cyrano de Bergerac. He was also seen in the recently released Elipsis, directed by Eduardo Arias-Nath.
In 2000, before turning to acting full time, Ramirez was the executive director of Ngo Dale Al Voto, a Venezuelan organization akin to Rock the Vote. In order to foster democratic values among young people, Ramirez and his team created cutting-edge campaigns for radio, television and cinema. The campaigns were well received by audiences throughout the country. He also lent his expertise to various Venezuelan multilateral organizations, including Organization of American States, Transparency International and Amnesty International.
Looking for more info? Read our other biography.
Tell us what you think in the Edgar Ramirez forum ...
Edgar Ramirez Facts
Occupation Actor
Birthday March 25, 1977 (31)
Sign Aries
Birthplace Caracas, Venezuela
Selected Filmography
Vantage Point
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Bourne Ultimatum/The Bourne Supremacy
Domino
Anchors Aweigh
Continue » Add/Update data | Find more details on the Edgar Ramirez Movies page
Edgar Ramirez may regret jumping ship on Oliver Stone's project. I don't know what the circumstances behind his decision, but if he had an agreement with Stone he should have stuck with it.
If I were Stone, I would now go after Benecio Del Torro, he was born to play Pablo Escobar.
Oliver Stone is producing "Escobar" with the script still under development, Joe Carnahan has been developing "Killing Pablo" for about five years, has a completed script which he wrote, and more importantly has a greenlight from the studios to shoot "Killing Pablo" in Colombia this fall.
I read the script a few months back and it's all about the men who hunted Pablo Escobar down, not so much a story about Pablo Escobar's rise to power. It definitely was a good read, can't wait for the movie.
Joe Carnahan was in Medellin last week scouting locations for the production of "Killing Pablo." He toured a few of them hillside barrios.....
"Huevos Rancheros en Medellin, No Quiero Taco Bell." - www.medellintraveler.com
Clear and Present Danger is a 1994 film directed by Phillip Noyce, based on the book of the same name by Tom Clancy.
As in the novel, Jack Ryan is appointed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Acting Deputy Director and discovers that he is being kept in the dark by colleagues who are conducting a covert war against drug lords in Colombia.
Plot
The movie opens with a United States Coast Guard patrol boat stopping a suspicious yacht, finding that an American businessman and his family had been murdered by several men still operating the craft. The murdered man happens to have been a close friend of President of the United States, Bennett. President Bennett (Donald Moffat) finds out that the man was murdered because of his ties to the Cali Cartel, having skimmed over $600 million from the Cartel for his own use. In his anger, the President tells James Cutter, his National Security Advisor, that the Colombian drug cartels represent "a clear and present danger" to the U.S., indirectly giving Cutter unofficial permission to take down the men responsible for his friend's death.
Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford), meanwhile, is appointed Deputy Director of Intelligence when his friend Admiral James Greer (James Earl Jones) is diagnosed with an aggressive, and ultimately fatal, case of pancreatic cancer. Upon his appointment, Ryan is asked to go before the United States Congress to request increased funding of $70 million for ongoing CIA intelligence operations in Colombia. Congress agrees to provide the funding, with Senator Mayo receiving Ryan's word that "no troops" or black-ops will be used in Colombia. Needing to keep an unwitting Ryan out of the loop, Cutter turns to CIA Deputy Director of Operations Robert Ritter, who secures a document giving him permission to do what he sees fit to take down the cartel. Ritter then assembles a black-ops team with the help of John Clark (Willem Dafoe), a secret field operative. John and his team travel to Colombia and begin destroying the various Cartel gangs, their equipment and hidden drug lab facilities.
The head of one of the drug gangs, Ernesto Escobedo, is enraged at having lost over $600 million as a result of the freezing of assets, and has his main operative, Felix Cortez (Joaquim de Almeida), take care of the problem. Felix, a former Cuban intelligence officer, happens to have an unwitting contact inside the U.S. government - Moira Wolfson, a secretary to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Emil Jacobs. Felix feigns romantic interest and uses Moira, who doesn't know of his true nature or intentions, to discover that Jacobs is visiting Colombia to negotiate with the local attorney general concerning the frozen money. Unaware of these covert dealings, Ryan finds himself caught in the middle of an assassination attempt on Jacobs, from which only Ryan survives. Felix travels to the United States and kills Moira under pretense of a romantic weekend getaway. Felix's real motivation is to cause distrust among the leaders of the Cartel (as none of them knows who ordered the ambush of the FBI Director). Felix also believes he can assume control of the cartel himself following the inevitable gang war that will result.
In retaliation for the assassination of Jacobs, Cutter orders the aerial bombing of a villa where all of the Cartel's leaders are supposed to meet to sort out the recent development. The bombing is mostly successful, killing a large number of the Cartel leaders and fooling the media and other observers into thinking that the destruction was caused by a car bomb set by a rival drug lord. However, Escobedo and Cortez happen to be running late. They avoid the bombing, but innocent women and children are also killed in the action, much to Cutter's dismay. The situation is exacerbated when Ryan and Cortez independently discover that the United States was responsible for the bombing.
Felix uses this knowledge to broker a deal with Cutter. Felix will assassinate Escobedo and take over the Cartel, then reduce drug shipments to the U.S. and allow the FBI to arrest some of his workers at regular intervals so as to make the U.S. appear to be winning the drug war. In exchange, Cutter will shut down all operations in Colombia and allow Cortez to capture and kill Clark's soldiers. Cutter agrees and orders Ritter to get rid of all evidence of their operations and cut off the troops in Colombia from all support.
Meanwhile, Ryan is told about this meeting between Cutter and Cortez. With some help, he hacks into Ritter's computer and discovers Ritter's and Cutter's work in Colombia. Ritter notices Ryan's presence on the computer while he deletes all of the files, and the two men soon confront each other. Ritter tells Ryan that he has written permission from the President to do anything necessary to defeat the Cali Cartel, and so does Cutter. That means that Jack will be the scapegoat for what has been happening since he doesn't have that protection and was responsible for the increased funding from Congress that made the Colombian operations possible.
Ryan is now informed that Greer has succumbed to cancer in hospital. As the funeral takes place, the black-ops team is ambushed in Colombia. After finding out, he decides to go to Colombia by himself in secret to find John Clark and save the soldiers. However, Ritter and Cutter find out about this and tell Clark (who is angry over the communications cut-off from his men) that Ryan was responsible for the operations' shut-down. Clark vows to kill Ryan, and almost does before Ryan convinces him that Ritter and Cutter are responsible.
Clark hires a local retired American pilot and Ryan buys a UH-1 Huey helicopter from a local owner using CIA money. They fly to where the soldiers were attacked and find the squad's scout/sniper, Domingo Chavez, who tells them that two of his unit members are being held prisoner and the rest are dead. Ryan decides to visit Escobedo's mansion and tell him (using the evidence from Cutter's meeting with Cortez) what Cortez has been doing. Enraged, Escobedo calls Cortez in and accuses him of treachery. One of Felix's men kills Escobedo and henchmen, but is shot by Chavez. Ryan, Clark, and Chavez then rescue the prisoners, kill Cortez, and escape.
Back home, Ryan angrily confronts the President, who was indirectly responsible for all the carnage. The President smugly tries to convince Ryan that he now holds 'a chip in the big game' - by being in the loop of what happened, Ryan can use the President for special favors, in return for keeping the debacle secret. But the late Admiral Greer would be the scapegoat instead. Ryan is unable to bear dishonoring the legacy of his mentor. He angrily tells the President that he intends to blow the whistle at a Congressional Oversight Committee session despite the damage it could do to his career. He then walks out of the Oval Office, and the movie ends with Ryan beginning his testimony to Congress. It is unclear how much blame is laid on Ritter or Cutter and lastly the President. Also left open-ended is the question of what details are conveyed to Congress, and which are made public, such as the missle attack on the cartel bosses or the existence of any secret US ops in Columbia.
The Numbers Rating: 6.50 (2 votes) Rate it - Rating Details
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 80% - Fresh
Theatrical Performance
Total US Gross $122,012,656
International Gross $85,487,344
Worldwide Gross $207,500,000
Released August 3, 1994
October 21, 1998 (DVD Sale)
Production Budget $62,000,000
MPAA Rating PG-13 for some intense action/violence and language
Highest Combined Star Gross 161 (see full chart)
Franchises Jack Ryan
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Original Story by Tom Clancy
Music Composed By James Horner
Source Based on Book/Short Story
Major Genre Action
Country United States
Production Method Live Action
Creative Type Contemporary Fiction
Director Phillip Noyce
News
Submit news for this movie Cast
Harrison Ford Jack Ryan
James Earl Jones Admiral James Greer
Thora Birch Sally Ryan
Benjamin Bratt Captain Ramirez
Willem Dafoe John Clark
Greg Germann Petey
Anne Archer Dr. Cathy Muller Ryan
Ted Raimi Satellite analyst
Dean Jones Judge Moore
Joaquim de Almeida Col. Felix Cortez
Vondie Curtis-Hall Voice-Print Analyst
Harris Yulin James Cutter
Henry Czerny Robert Ritter
External Links
IMDb Complete cast details, plot summary, reviews etc.
Movies at Entertainguide Pictures, memorabilia, links and more
I haven't read the book but I've seen the documentary on the History Channel twice now and it's very, very good only because they focus on Pablo Escobar and everything he did told by the people who caught him or who were involved in the project. If they do this in the movie, it'll be ok. Besides, having Bardem attached to it didnt' mean anything. Just look what he did with "Love in the Time of Cholera". Absolutely nothing. But having Bale still on board is pretty big since he's this year's box office king.
mariacvetanoski says on Aug 20 (today)
AGREE! But the real issue here is how the people of colombia have suffered and continue to suffer because of it -NO matter who plays in the movie...
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Absolutely. And that's why movies with this subject matter HAVE to be told and told the right way; otherwise, people will forget about history and it will repeat itself. That's the main reason why Steven Spielberg did "Schindler's List", because people were focused on WWII and not really on the victims. You have to tell the story right and remind people of what happened and why it happened.
romy says on Aug 20 (today)
I'm still hoping they make 'Medellin' and Vinny Chase plays Pablo
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Good thing it's all just an "Entourage" thing because it's so badly done it's hilarious. And of course Miss Tetas doesn't waste any time on getting filmed for anything. LOL!
this movie if it is done right, as Diana says will hopefully portray the real colombia as it was back then, and also at the SAME TIME, give credit to the actors, and directors doing this movie - ie there should be alot of ACADEMY AWARDS coming from this movie and should be a blockbuster of ALL movies as it is BASED ON A TRUE STORY!
