Joe Carnahan Considers Killing Pablo Before White Jazz

George Clooney and Chris Pine leave the big screen adaptation of White Jazz, so what is writer/director Joe Carnahan to do?

Kill Pablo instead?

That is an option that Smokin' Joe is currently considering. Caranaha's Pablo Escobar biopic, titled Killing Pablo, was finally greenlit earlier this month, after years of development. Carnahan originally planned to shoot the film with Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) attached to star, after White Jazz wrapped this Summer.

"White Jazz is something, that as much as it kills me to say this, can wait," wrote Carnahan on his online blog. What can't is PABLO since another version of that story (albeit inferior) is being prepped right now."

"The only downside would be Bardem, who just committed to a film and therefore wouldn't be available for KP. There is, however another suggestion that's just as thrilling and somebody who had already expressed an earlier interest in this script. If he were to agree to play Pablo, I might have to pull up stakes and go make that film, toot sweet. I don't want to get beat to the punch on something that I put that much time and effort into. I didn't slave over the NARC script like I did over KILLING PABLO. It's a high class problem I've got but it's still a f*cking problem."

"Anybody familiar with the state of screenplays in town will tell you, WJ is one of the best out there. That much I know. What makes that advantageous, is if this ridiculous writer's strike does in fact drop, we can press on making that movie, sans rewrite."

"The KP situation would also allow me to go absolutely nuts with the casting. That script has got no shortage of fans and the great thing is, a lot of those roles you can board (schedule) in and out so I can load some badass cameos in that film."

Carnahan insists that there are "pros and there's cons but no scale to tip" the scale. The biggest factor in this pre-strike world, seems to be time.

"I don't want to lose out to this other flick and when I say 'lose out' I mean foreign buyers will basically snap up the first PABLO project that gets going, regardless of script or talent, etc. It's commerce and if you're the first one in, that's all that counts."

My pick is White Jazz. I've been waiting for years for a good Pablo Escobar film, but Jazz seems like it could be the more solid film. Plus, the conceptual photos that Carnahan has released online has gotten me very excited for Jazz. It seems that Carnahan has this film very thought out, and now is the time to strike.