The Departed’s William Monahan to rewrite the script for Mark Wahlberg drama, American Desperado

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Since 2008, Mark Wahlberg has been developing an adaptation of American Desperado: My Life as a Cocaine Cowboy from authors Jon Roberts and Evan Wright.

The story focuses on, “the criminal exploits of Jon Roberts, who made a fortune smuggling cocaine into the U.S. for the Medellin Cartel.” Wahlberg will more than likely play the role of Roberts. THE DEPARTED’s William Monahan is stepping in to rewrite the original draft of the script from Wright. Roberts and Wright last paired on GENERATION KILL.

In a 2006 documentary titled, COCAINE COWBOYS, we got our first insight into the exploits of Roberts and Mickey Munday. Right now that is in the process of being developed as a series for HBO. It will be executive produced by Wahlberg’s buddy, Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer.

Peter Berg was initially on as director, then decided to just produce. As I stated before, Walhberg should step-up to the role of, “Roberts, who died of cancer last December. After returning from Vietnam, Roberts headed to Miami and fell in with the Medellin drug cartel when it was moving billions of dollars of blow into the U.S. That led to excess and danger right out of the series Miami Vice, until he was caught by the DEA.”

Monahan previously did work on the script for Tom Cruise‘s OBLIVION, and will be working on Robert Rodriguez‘s SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR.

Source: Deadline

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