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Posts with tag CocaineCowboys

News Round-Up For Thursday, July 24

Here's a round-up of today's news:
  • Jamie Kennedy is going to produce an indie called In Northwood, which stars Nick Stahl as a man condemned to a mental hospital after committing murder. THR
  • Cocaine Cowboys has picked itself up a scribe -- gonzo journalist and screenwriter Evan Wright. THR
  • Everyone's favorite pot-smoking Jay, aka Jason Mewes, has nabbed a starring role in the indie slasher flick Silent But Deadly, which shoots in Ontario next month. Variety
  • Phillip Noyce, meanwhile, is going to hit the plank and write the remake of Captain Blood. THR
  • Check out Jennifer's blood-dripping lips, which just so happens to look like a certain television poster that was released recently. JoBlo
  • Get ready for Robot Chicken: Star Wars: Episode 2! Coming Soon
  • Posters: The Day The Earth Stood Still and Max Payne

Mark Wahlberg and Leonardo DiCaprio are 'Cocaine Cowboys'

Filed under: Action », Drama », Casting », RumorMonger », Remakes and Sequels »

Mid-strike, filmmaker Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg signed on for Cocaine Cowboys, a feature adaptation of that cocaine trafficking documentary that came out back in 2006. Mr. Wahlberg was set to play Jon Roberts, a Miami drug dealer who distributed billions of dollars worth of cocaine. Now Page Six says that he'll be joined by Departed co-star Leonardo DiCaprio for all of the retro drug shenanigans.

A movie insider told the site that this film "will blow Blow out of the water," and that Leo "is excited about the opportunity to play the airplane pilot who travels with Mark's character to obtain kilos of cocaine from Pablo Escobar." Correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume that means Leo will be Mickey Munday? (Get more info on the story through the above doc link, or in an old interview here.)

Considering how schnazzy the documentary about Roberts is, I would hope that this isn't just a straight-out drama, but something with a Basketball Diaries sort of life to it -- the film that first brought Marky Mark and Leo together. I like Leo best when he gets to be a little crazy -- a poetic, struggling Jim Carroll, or a wacky Howard Hughes, and would love to see him with a little flair in this. But what do you think? Are you ready for Leo and Marky Part 3?

Peter Berg will Make Mark Wahlberg into a Cocaine Cowboy

Filed under: Drama », Casting », Deals »

Back in 1981, Miami was "Paradise Lost" -- suffering from its gig as the cocaine center of the States and murder capital to boot. In 2006, Billy Corben and Alfred Spellman set out to document those times, and former dealer Jon Roberts, in Cocaine Cowboys -- a film Martha Fischer said was "celebrating what it set out to simply document." Still, there's a story in all of that, and Paramount is planning on capturing it. Variety reports that the company has tapped Mark Wahlberg to star in the untitled film, which will focus on Roberts' life, with Peter Berg slipping into the directorial chair.

Roberts was a Vietnam soldier who headed to Miami after returning home. Somehow, he fell in with the wrong crowd and "formed a relationship with the Medellin drug cartel, distributing cocaine worth billions of dollars. Wahlberg will play Roberts, who was turned in by a cohort and served a decade in jail for his crimes." Marky Mark must really like this project, since it's going to be a while before it gets made. First, they have to wait for the WGA strike to end, then get together a working script, and then figure out scheduling. In the meantime -- Wahlberg's making some Lovely Bones and fighting with Brad Pitt, while Berg is in the throes of post-production on Hancock.

Review: Cocaine Cowboys

Filed under: Documentary », Independent », Tribeca », Theatrical Reviews », Cinematical Indie »

Note: This review originally ran during the Tribeca Film Festival. It's being rerun now, because the film is opening this weekend. - ed.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Miami grew from a sleepy, retirement community into the glittering, money-filled metropolis it is today. During that time, the city also became cocaine center of the US, as well as the country's murder capital; in 1981, things were so bad that a Time Magazine cover story dubbed Miami "Paradise Lost," and suggested that Americans traveling there might be putting their lives in danger. After meeting Jon Roberts, a former dealer who lived through Miami's heyday (and did time for his involvement), the team of director Billy Corben and producer Alfred Spellman decided to make a movie about those days, and Cocaine Cowboys is the result.

Clocking in at just under two hours, Corben and Spellman's film has a very strange tone. Ostensibly a serious exploration of how cocaine affected Miami during the 1970s and 1980s, the movie devotes an awful lot of time to watching Roberts crow about his accomplishments and brag about his money. Also prominently featured with Roberts is Mickey Munday, a less flashy, fellow ex-con whose involvement in the cocaine trade was in transportation rather than distribution. The two men carefully lay out the structure though which cocaine was produced, brought into the US and sold, with the filmmakers eating up every word. Later, when the movie shifts to the financial impact the drug had on Miami -- despite the downturn the rest of the country was experiencing, the cash being spent by those involved in the cocaine trade made the city virtually recession-proof -- the two men again dominate the screen, detailing their spending habits, and telling gleeful anecdotes about being on first-name terms with the guy at the Mercedes dealership, and owning dozens of racehorses.
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