Gonzo
journalist-screenwriter Evan Wright has moved from American
cowboys on the Iraqi frontier to the cocaine cowboys of 1970s
Miami.
Wright, who wrote the nonfiction book on which the HBO
miniseries "Generation Kill" is based, has closed a deal to
write the feature "Cocaine Cowboys" for Paramount. The deal
grew out of his work on a book that Crown will publish in 2009.
Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg ("Hancock") have been attached
to star in and direct, respectively, the story of Jon Roberts,
an injured Vietnam vet by age 20 who ended up involved in
gangland takeovers of New York City nightclubs in the early
'70s (his uncle was the consigliere to Carlo Gambino). By the
end of the decade, Roberts landed in Miami, dealt billions of
dollars worth of coke for the Medellin drug cartel and
ultimately spent 10 years in prison.
Billy Corben's documentary "Cocaine Cowboys," released by
Magnolia in 2006, covered a slice of Roberts' history.
"It's really an exciting story about the secret history of
America," Wright said. "It's also a story that outwardly seems
familiar, but the more you get into it, it's never really been
told this way. It's about a guy who was a cocaine smuggler in a
mafia -- we kind of know those stories -- but he also worked
closely with the government to smuggle arms for the Contras."
Wright was a Rolling Stone reporter embedded with the 1st
Reconnaissance Battalion Marines for two months during the 2003
invasion of Iraq. He went on to co-write the HBO miniseries
airing this month, and he's adapting his March 2007 Vanity Fair
article, "Pat Dollard's War on Hollywood," for Fox.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
In Theaters 
