World Trade Center screenwriter Andrea Berloff has been tapped to write the feature version of Cocaine Cowboys, Paramount’s narrative adaptation of the documentary by Square Grouper director Billy Corben. [THR]
Cocaine Cowboys is the true story of Jon Roberts, a wounded Vietnam vet who went on to be a cocaine kingpin in Miami in the 1970’s before becoming a government prisoner. The documentary chronicles the vast tapestry of the drugs, crime and vice that forever linked the words “coke” and “Miami.”
Berloff – who also has the NWA bio Straight Outta Compton in development – takes over the project from Generation Kill screenwriter Evan Wright, whose book on the subject (co-written with Roberts), American Desperado: My Life — From Mafia Soldier to Cocaine Cowboy to Secret Government Asset, will be published later this year.
Having written Oliver Stone‘s fairly tepid World Trade Center, let’s hope a little of Stone’s old-school lunacy seeps into her Cocaine Cowboys script. This project has the potential to be a crime epic on the real-life scale of GoodFellas, or maybe an updated version of Brian DePalma‘s Stone-scripted Scarface. In the meantime, check out the TFS SXSW interview with director Billy Corben.
Have you seen the documentary Cocaine Cowboys? Do you think it will work as a narrative feature?