rakontur blog

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from the July 2008 issue:

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Why Prisons Could Become Business Schools:

Watching a recent documentary called Cocaine Cowboys about the growth of the drug trade in Miami in the 1980s, I was reminded that many forms of crime are simply uninhibited capitalism – but on an illegal basis.

That implies that prisons are likely to be full of entrepreneurial talent that has strayed to the dark side. Moreover, there are plenty of hugely successful business leaders who have spent time inside, including Gerald Ronson, Martha Stewart and Lord Black, who is just starting his sentence in Florida.

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I can’t say too much about this yet, but since Variety ran with this story this morning I thought I’d post it. Stay tuned for more details as they get worked out:

Bruckheimer, Bay eye reteam
Blockbuster duo consider drug drama
By CYNTHIA LITTLETON

Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay, together again?

It may happen at HBO, on a Warner Bros. TV drama series project loosely based on the 2006 docu “Cocaine Cowboys.”

If a deal comes together, series would revolve around the drug trade in Miami in the 1980s. Instead of the flash of Crockett and Tubbs, skein would focus on the cutthroat world of drug dealers and the Colombian cocaine kingpins who set up shop in the once-sleepy Florida city. Bruckheimer and Bay, who collaborated on a string of blockbusters in the 1990s including “Bad Boys,” “The Rock” and “Armageddon,” would serve as exec producers.

Insiders caution that no deal has been finalized between HBO and Warners, though the Time Warner siblings have been in discussions on the project for some time. There is no writer attached.

Docu “Cocaine Cowboys,” directed by Billy Corben, made the film fest rounds a few years back and was distribbed domestically by Magnolia Pictures. Corben’s followup doc, “Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin’ With the Godmother,” was acquired in February by Magnolia’s genre arm, Magnet.

The first “Cowboys” docu has already piqued Hollywood’s interest. Paramount is developing a feature about Jon Roberts, one of the drug lords profiled in the doc, with Mark Wahlberg attached to star and Peter Berg onboard to direct (Daily Variety, Jan. 18).

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via Page Six:

Mark Wahlberg will play the drug kingpin Jon Roberts in the remake of the 2006 documentary Cocaine Cowboys, which chronicles the story of the largest cocaine trafficker in Miami in the 1970s and 1980s, and he’s persuaded Leonardo DiCaprio to play the supporting role.

The untitled flick “will blow Blow out of the water,” says a movie insider who added 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.”

This will be the third film that the pair has been in together. Mark, 36, and Leo, 33, starred in 1995’s The Basketball Diaries and most recently in 2006’s The Departed.

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