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Benicio del Toro is in "final negotiations" to play a notorious Colombian drug trafficker in Paradise Lost.
Inspired by real events, the Panama-set thriller focuses on a young surfer whose romance with a local girl gets complicated when he meets her uncle, cocaine dealer Pablo Escobar, Variety reports.
Producer Dimitri Rassam told the website that Benicio was "one of the rare actors with enough charisma and range to play such a multi-faceted character as Escobar, who could be wonderfully charming yet dangerous and menacing".
Italian actor Andrea di Stefano has written the script and will make his directorial debut with the film.
Filming is set to begin in Panama in March.
