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Josh Hutcherson Looks to Join Benicio Del Toro in Pablo Escobar Film

by Ethan Anderton
December 18, 2012

Just last month, we learned that Benicio Del Toro would follow his work as a drug thug in the wholly disappointing Savages with a bigger part in the world of drug dealing. The actor has been slated to play infamous drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in the film Paradise Lost. But Escobar isn't necessarily the main character as the story follows Nick, a surfer who visits his brother in Colombia and falls in love with a gorgeous local girl named Maria. But the couple's peaceful romance is disrupted when Nick discovers that Pablo Escobar is her uncle. Now Deadline says Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games) has the lead role.

This will be a great role for Hutcherson as he's actually the lead character, and the film has been described as being in the same vein of The Last King of Scotland, where an average person gets caught up in history with a larger than life character. Frankly, I can't wait to see Del Toro as Escobar, especially since several films have been trying to get off the ground featuring the drug baron. It sounds like this one will actually get off the ground with production slated to begin in March. The film will be directed and was written by Life of Pi star Andrea di Stefano, so we're looking forward to seeing how this one plays out.

Filed under Casting, Movie News

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