I wonder how they celebrated? Smoking Aces director, Joe Carnahan, has hired Edgar Ramirez (right) for his Colombian nose candy kingpin, Pablo Escobar, in the true-crime epic Killing Pablo. Ramirez plays the revolutionary, Ciro Redondo, in both of Steven Soderbergh’s Che biopics, and he previously starred in The Bourne Ultimatum and Vantage Point. Our friends at CHUD got the scoop from a clearly amped Smokin’ Joe…

“…I couldn’t be more fired up by the prospect. He’s coming at it with boundless enthusiasm, conviction to the role and and the understanding that he’s going to have to pack on anywhere from 35 to 40lbs.”

My favorite part in the book, Killing Pablo, is when an especially tubby Escobar is at wit’s end, his crime syndicates fragmented or sniped, and he’s juggling phones and smoking joints by himself in bed. Carnahan’s going to rock this material, and I’m confident in his casting choice. Earlier this month we reported that Javier Bardem had dropped out of the titular role. CHUD didn’t discuss Christian Bale’s involvement, but he remains attached to play Steve Jacoby, the U.S. authority who lead the agonizingly complex hunt for Escobar. In a twist, on IMDB Ramierz is listed to play Escobar in Antoine Fuqua’s competing 2009 film Escobar, produced by Oliver Stone. I wonder how this switch played out?