Bale, Bardem and Pablo

Javier Bardem and Christian Bale will star in KILLING PABLO, the long-in-development Pablo Escobar biopic from director Joe Carnahan. Bardem has officially signed on to star as Escobar after months of rumors and Bale would play Major Steve Jacoby, the US commander who led the hunt for Escobar and helped bring him down. The Yari Film Group is fast-tracking the project, though the fast-track seems to move pretty slow as Yari indicates the earliest it would begin filming is next June. If they can’t get their stuff together before June and the strike, production will wait until after a new deal is reached and the strike is over. So don’t get too excited to see PABLO just yet. Hell, at this rate, the “Entourage” film-within-a-show “Medellin” could be out on fake DVD before PABLO begins shooting. Carnahan is expected to next direct WHITE JAZZ, the LA CONFIDENTIAL quasi-sequel with George Clooney set to star. Bardem can be seen this fall in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN while Bale has the Bob Dylan biopic I’M NOT THERE upcoming.