Paramount has set Mark Wahlberg to star in and Peter Berg (Hancock, The Kingdom) to direct an untitled film based on the life of international drug dealer Jon Roberts, whose rise and fall was chronicled in the documentary Cocaine Cowboys.
According to Variety, Film 44’s Berg and Sarah Aubrey will produce with Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson, both of whom are executive producers of HBO’s “Entourage.” Roberts’ rights are part of the package, and a writer will be set once the strike ends.
After returning from Vietnam as a decorated soldier, Roberts headed to Miami in the late ’70s and formed a relationship with the Medellin drug cartel, distributing cocaine worth billions of dollars. Wahlberg will play Roberts, who was turned in by a cohort and served a decade in jail for his crimes.
