The Insider: Carnahan’s Killing Pablo Endorsed by Escobar Son

Writer-director Joe Carnahan is just giddy about his new friend, Pablo Escobar’s son.

Joe Carnahan just picked up an interesting offer of help for his Pablo Escobar story, Killing Pablo.

Carnahan, whose Escobar flick is in a race with the Oliver Stone produced, Antoine Fuqua directed Escobar, wrote on his blog that he received a letter from the former Juan Pablo Escobar, the only son of Medellin drug cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar. The younger Escobar, who’s changed his name and is living undercover, offered Carnahan full access to the family history, photos, films, and letters. The next step is a meeting between the two (give us a full report, Joe, won’t you?!).

According to Variety, the Stone-Fuqua film is based on the book Mi Hermano Pablo, by Roberto Escobar Gaviria, Pablo’s brother. Gaviria was Pablo’s accountant and holds the literary rights to the Escobar family story, via his company STL Holdings. Carnahan’s film is based on a book by Mark Bowden about the hunt for Escobar. This is undoubtedly a fine source, but it looks good for Carnahan to have a little insider family knowledge (then again, it also looks pretty darn good to have a cast that includes Javier Bardem and Christian Bale).

As for the Escobars…don’t know if they’ll be gathering together for any holiday dinners as they both try to be the one to cash in tell the true story of their infamous relative.