News

A new feature documentary has secured exclusive access to the story of Peter McAleese, the Scottish mercenary and ex-Sas operative who was hired by a Colombian drug cartel to assassinate drug baron Pablo Escobar.

Produced by Glasgow-based Two Rivers Media and Salon Pictures, the producers of David Bowie film “Stardust,” “Killing Escobar” is told in McAleese’s own words and features never-before-seen footage of his 1989 Colombian mission. The doc also reveals how McAleese’s violent upbringing in Glasgow, Sas training and experience as a mercenary in Africa led him to take on the daring — and seemingly suicidal — assignment.

Commissioned by BBC Scotland, the film is backed by fledgling distributor Abacus Media Rights, who hold international distribution rights, as well as The National Lottery through Screen Scotland. Directed by award-winning filmmaker David Whitney, the film will bow at the Glasgow Film Festival on March 7 and air on BBC Scotland later this year.

Exclusive: Joe and Anthony Russo’s next big-budget action pic at Netflix is building quite the ensemble. Sources tell Deadline that Jessica Henwick, Wagner Moura, Dhanush and Julia Butters are joining the Russos’ The Gray Man. Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans and Ana De Armas are already on board to star.

The Russos have been developing the project for some time at Sony, and when the package went back on the market over the summer, Netflix was quick to acquire it and set Gosling and Evans to star. The film will be the biggest-budget film in Netflix’s history on the feature side.

The Russos penned the script with a recent polish by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. The Russos along with Mike Larocca will produce on behalf of Agbo along with Joe Roth, Jeff Kirschenbaum and Chris Castaldi through their Roth Kirschenbaum banner.

The Gray Man is based on the debut novel by Mark Greaney,...

The world of drug trafficking is filled with ruthless men and Netflix series Narcos, as well as its spinoff Narcos: Mexico, highlight their brutality in lurid detail. As President Gaviria said in the first season of the original series, "God made our land so beautiful it was unfair to the rest of the world. So to even the score, God populated the land with a race of evil men."

Related: Narcos: 10 Most Brutal Kills, Ranked

Even though the major traffickers like Pablo Escobar, Pacho Herrera, and Miguel Félix Gallardo commit plenty of murders with glee and gore, most of the bloody work is done by their loyal (and sometimes disloyal) henchmen.

Netflix renewed the crime drama “Narcos: Mexico” for a third season on Wednesday. The upcoming season of the show will not include series star Diego Luna, who portrayed drug cartel leader Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo earlier in the series.

Luna’s departure from the series had been anticipated; the actor told IndieWire earlier in the year that the show’s heavy subject matter had weighed him down and he was eager to dedicate time to comparably lighter projects.

“Not for now, not for now, no, no, no,” Luna told IndieWire in April when asked about filming more “Narcos: Mexico” episodes. “At the beginning it was fun, but then it became really heavy for me. I need rest, those two years were really intense for me.”

Per Netflix, “Narcos: Mexico” Season 3 will also feature a new showrunner; Eric Newman will hand over day-to-day showrunning duties to co-creator and long-time collaborator Carlo Bernard.

Narcos: Mexico will smuggle onto Netflix for a third season, amid showrunner changes as Eric Newman steps down and hands the day-to-day showrunning duties to co-creator and longtime collaborator Carlo Bernard. Netflix has renewed Narcos: Mexico for season 3, with Narcos alum Wagner Moura confirming his return as Pablo Escobar — and as a director of multiple episodes. Narcos: Mexico will see […]

The post ‘Narcos: Mexico’ Season 3 Renewed by Netflix, With a New Showrunner and Without Diego Luna appeared first on /Film.

Netflix is keeping Narcos: Mexico around.

The streamer has confirmed that a third season has been ordered, almost nine months after the sophomore run dropped.

There will be some changes behind-the-scenes ahead of the new season.

Series co-creator Carlo Bernard is taking over as showrunner reins from the longtime Narcos boss Eric Newman.

Newman is currently under an overall deal with the streamer on both the feature side and the television side and he will segue into overseeing a broadening Netflix slate that includes the previously announced opioid TV drama Painkiller, Escape From Spiderhead starring Chris Hemsworth and Miles Teller, and The Upper World starring Daniel Kaluuya.

Newman will continue to executive produce alongside Bernard and Jose Padilha, so he will still have input on the show.

In addition, Wagner Moura, who starred as Pablo Escobar during the first two seasons of Narcos, will return to the series, directing two episodes in the new season.

Netflix has ordered a third season of drug-trafficking drama series Narcos: Mexico. When it returns it will be without series lead Diego Luna, who portrayed drug cartel leader Félix Gallardo, and with a new showrunner.

Season 2 ended with Luna’s Gallardo sentenced to prison for his drug trafficking crimes and there had been much speculation he would not return if the series was renewed for a third season. Luna is set to reprise his Cassian Andor character in Disney+’s Star Wars spinoff series Rogue One, which is currently in pre-production.

Series co-creator Carlo Bernard will be taking over day-to-day showrunning duties from Eric Newman who is stepping back after five seasons. Newman will continue to executive produce the series alongside Bernard, Jose Padilha, Sidonie Dumas, Christophe Riandee, Nicolas Atlan, Doug Miro and Andrés Baiz. Wagner Moura, who starred as Pablo Escobar during the first two seasons of Narcos, also will return to the series,...

Nearly nine months after Season 2 came and went, Narcos: Mexico has been renewed for a third season at Netflix. In confirming the news, the streamer also announced a big change behind-the-scenes: Series co-creator Carlo Bernard will take the showrunner reins from the longtime Narcos boss Eric Newman.

The Narcos franchise first launched on Netflix back in August 2015. Its first two seasons focused exclusively on Pablo Escobar, while Season 3 turned its attention to the rise of the Cali Cartel in the wake of the cocaine kingpin’s death. Opting not to order a fourth season, Netflix in 2018 instead launched Narcos: Mexico,...

“Narcos: Mexico” has been renewed for Season 3 at Netflix.

Along with the renewal, Netflix announced that Wagner Moura — who played Pablo Escobar in the first two seasons of “Narcos” — will board Season 3 in order to direct two episodes of the season.

In addition, series showrunner Eric Newman will exit that role after five seasons and turn things over to series co-creator Carlos Bernard.

“I am grateful for my five years at the helm of ‘Narcos’ and ‘Narcos: Mexico’ and am immensely proud of what this spectacular team has achieved with these shows,” Newman said. “Carlo Bernard is the first person I ever spoke to about this project, over ten years ago, and I am extremely pleased to leave the steering of Season 3 of ‘Narcos: Mexico’ in his very capable hands.”

Originally intended as a fourth season of “Narcos,” which focused on the rise of the cocaine business in Colombia under Escobar and his Medellín Cartel,...

Netflix has renewed “Narcos: Mexico” for a third season, but showrunner Eric Newman is handing over the reins to Carlo Bernard.

Newman had been showrunner for all five seasons of the “Narcos” franchise, including the first three that centered on Pablo Escobar. The two most recent seasons, called “Narcos: Mexico,” shifted both the setting and time period, along with the majority of the cast.

Newman is under an overall deal with Netflix and will transition to overseeing the streaming service’s upcoming opioid drama “Painkiller,” “Escape From Spiderhead” with Chris Hemsworth, and “The Upper World” with Daniel Kaluuya. He will remain executive producer on “Narcos” alongside Bernard and Jose Padilla.

“I am grateful for my five years at the helm of ‘Narcos’ and ‘Narcos: Mexico’ and am immensely proud of what this spectacular team has achieved with these shows,” Newman said. “Carlo Bernard is the first person I ever spoke to about this project,...

A month and a half after being elevated to Head of Global TV at Netflix, Bela Bajaria has reorganized the streamer’s U.S. TV operation with an increased focus on tentpole shows and getting the most from mega overall deals. The realignment also enhances the portfolios of some executives on her international bench.

The U.S. streamlining includes the closing of the Young Adult/Family series department whose duties will be absorbed by the Drama and Comedy teams. The consolidation has led to the departures of fewer than 10 members of the series content team below VP level. Brian Wright, who ran the YA/family group, will now head a new Overall Deals department, while Jinny Howe and Renate Radford will lead the drama team. Meanwhile, Peter Friedlander, who led the Genre & Thrillers subsection of the drama department, will now head a new Spectacle/Event programming department that will be separate from drama and comedy.

Exclusive: Wagner Moura, a Golden Globe nominee for his role as Pablo Escobar in the Netflix acclaimed series Narcos, has signed with WME.

Moura, who was previously repped by UTA, can currently be seen starring in two Netflix film; Sergio, which he also produced, and Wasp Network, opposite Penelope Cruz and Gael Garcia Bernal.

Wagner made his directorial debut with Marighella, which premiered at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival. Other credits include Walter Salles’ Behind The Sun for Miramax, Sony’s Elysium, opposite Matt Damon, and Jose Padilha’s Elite Squad, which won the Golden Bear at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival.

Moura continues to be repped by Brent Travers and attorney Greg Slewett.

Matthew Heineman has spent his entire career shooting hell from the inside out, and after a string of hyper-visceral films about drug smuggling (“Cartel Land”), the Syrian civil war (“City of Ghosts”), and a journalist who died covering it (“A Private War”), you’d be forgiven for assuming that his “The Boy from Medellín” is a real-life version of the guts and glory Pablo Escobar biopic that Vinny Chase starred in on “Entourage.” But it turns out that Heineman’s latest documentary is a very different vision of Colombia — one seen through the eyes of a very different (but no less famous) Colombian. And while it’s not short on political violence and volatility, the hell that it captures is of a more interior sort, and seemingly only a stone’s throw away from heaven.

Not that the Escobar connection is an accident. and as a Colombian in the tumultuous...

Smithsonian Channel will mix forensics, true crime, and well-known names in its new series The Curious Life and Death of… Hosted by famed medical historian Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris, the show performs post-mortem examinations on some of the most puzzling deaths in history. The six-part series will premiere on Sunday, Sept. 6 at 9 p.m. Et.

“Whether its 90s icon Brittany Murphy, Rolling Stone founder Brian Jones, or axe-murderess Lizzie Borden, the lives of these fascinating individuals are revealed through tests, investigation and autopsies as medical historian, Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris provides a curious and sometimes macabre glimpse into a biography from the morgue,” according to the press statement.

Over the run of the season, a revolving cast of experts, including Scotland Yard detectives, medical examiners, and weapons gurus will probe the mysterious death of Harry Houdini and the infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar. The team will also attempt to identify a tiny body,...

Netflix's Narcos: Mexico was announced by Netflix after the huge success of Narcos, which saw the story of one of the biggest mafias ever, Pablo Escobar. Based in Guadalajara, Netflix's Narcos: Mexico takes a deep dive into the world of narcotics and the rise of Felix Gallardo, from a simple man to one of the biggest drug traffickers in the world.

Related: The Best Horror Movies On Netflix

Also, the series tells the story of the American Drug Enforcement Agency and the battles of the police officers, who try to put a stop to these massive drug cartels.

Before the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the world, we wrote about a fascinating Netflix movie in development called Cocaine Hippos, which touches on the exotic animals that notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar had imported to his personal Colombian estate. It’s a wild story, and perhaps unsurprisingly, that subject matter is so compelling that we now have […]

The post ‘The Hunt for Escobar’s Hippos’ Means There Are Now Dueling Cocaine Hippo Projects in the Works appeared first on /Film.

Ozark has become Netflix's biggest drug, and crime drama since Narcos, and Darlene may just be the deadliest villain since Pablo Escobar. Lisa Emery is so good at bringing life into the psychopathic poppy farmer who is also a silent activist for the rights of the indigenous Ozarks. In the first season, Darlene was cold, with no feelings for anyone except Jacob. She didn't think before acting, and her impulsive acts would make anyone hate her.

Related: Ozark: 10 Best Quotes From The Kids

However, after Jacob's death, fans have been introduced to a new version of Darlene. Still a psycho but one that has feelings, can make reasonable calculations, and even negotiate. Through her development, there have been a few moments when viewers couldn't help but love Darlene, although they just have to hate her in most cases.

Bolstered by generous incentives that have sparked a production boom, Dominican filmmakers are exploring a diversity of genres, both mainstream and alternative.

Growing in equal measure are the ranks of below-the-line crew working on both local and international projects. Training programs abound for grips, lighting technicians, and so on. Pinewood Dr holds workshops in underwater filming as well as in production accounting, location management, Upm, production design and set construction, among others. More film workshops and courses have been introduced at universities or technical institutes, giving rise to a new generation that have studied at home.

“My generation had to go abroad to study film, this latest crop will have a new perspective,” says Andres Farias, an assistant director on such Dominican films as “Cocote” and “Carpinteros.”

He has taught his craft at the Chavon School of Design, which will transfer its campus to Santo Domingo by September, says its film studies director Tanya Valette,...

Pablo Escobar's family is suing rapper 2 Chainz for at least $10 million over his Atlanta restaurant. 2 Chainz has two restaurants called Escobar Restaurant and Tapas. While the name alone wouldn't be that bad, the rapper also uses the infamous drug lord's likeness all over the premises and on merchandise, along with menu items like the Escobar Crab Cakes. Escobar Inc. is not happy about the restaurant as they claim it violates federal law with unauthorized commercial use of the Escobar name and likeness.

Escobar Inc. reportedly wants the monetary damage as a bare minimum, "plus an injunction blocking use of the name and likeness at the restaurants." It looks like 2 Chainz really has no choice in the matter since he did not ask for permission before naming two restaurants with Pablo Escobar's name and likeness for publicity. The rapper has found his name in the headlines quite a bit lately,...

The producer of Narcos takes us on a walk through some of the movies that made him.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Contagion (2011)

Panic In The Streets (1950)

Rififi (1955)

Night And The City (1950)

Thieves’ Highway (1949)

Never on Sunday (1960)

The Karate Kid (1984)

The Game (1997)

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

The Great Escape (1963)

Children of Men (2006)

Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (1971)

If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969)

Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (2005)

The Wild Bunch (1969)

The Godfather (1972)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Animal House (1978)

An American Werewolf In London (1981)

Trading Places (1983)

Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004)

Fellini Satyricon (1969)

The Beastmaster (1982)

Sheena (1984)

High Risk (1981)

Ghostbusters (1984)

The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

Piranha (1978)

Gallipoli (1981)

Witness (1985)

The Killing Fields (1984)

Mad Max (1980)

Max Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975)

The Last Wave (1978)

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

The Lord of the Rings (1978)

The Hobbit (1977)

The Return of the King (1980)

Class (1983)

The Great Santini (1979)

Fast Times At Ridgemont High...

Netflix is undoubtedly one of the best streaming services in the world right now and if you are looking for action & adventure Netflix won’t make you disappointed! With access to hundreds of different series, films, and documentaries within a large variety of genres, they have almost become a benchmark for what quality and variety are expected of an online streaming platform in the UK. With so many options to choose from, the biggest problem one has is to choose what to watch. As a complete nerd of films starring “bad boys”, I put together a list of my top 5 favorite Netflix films and series that have just knocked it out of the park. Here they are:

1. Breaking Bad

Many people regard this series to be the most successful and entertaining of them all. It ran for 62 episodes between 2008-2013 and was turned into a film in 2019. The series follows...

Exclusive: On the eve of the Amazon Prime launch of his FIFA-Gate futbol scandal series El Presidente, Argentinian Academy Award winning writer-filmmaker Armando Bó has launched About Entertainment. The new production company will produce elevated scripted, non-scripted, and brand-integrated content across all genres. Bó is accompanied by a diverse and seasoned team: Content Development will be led by Mercedes Reincke, a former Vice President of Content Development at Viacom; Natacha Cervi (Rizoma Films) leads Production & Operations; Mariana Levy leads the Screenwriting division and Ezequiel Olemberg leads the Financial and Legal department.

Bó shared the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay with Nicolás Giacobone, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, and Alexander Dinelaris for Birdman. The quartet also won the Golden Globe. He followed by writing/directing and producing Animal. Bó is putting together the first projects for About Entertainment but hasn’t solidified the first slate.

Bó’s series El Presidente is Amazon Prime...

The coming together of the creative brains behind two of Netflix’s biggest international hits, The Crown and Money Heist, certainly sounds like an eye-catching proposition on paper. For Netflix, it was irresistible.

Left Bank Pictures boss Andy Harries and Vancouver Media’s Álex Pina flew into La in February 2018 to sell their vision for a sun-soaked, sepia-toned saga, set in the breathtaking climes of the Balearic Islands.

Netflix was their first stop, with their meeting coming just weeks after Money Heist had taken off like a rocket on the streaming service. “They basically bought it in the room,” Harries recalls.

Fast-forward more than two years and Netflix is dropping White Lines this Friday, a 10-part series that tells the story of a British Ibiza DJ who is brutally murdered in the 1990s and his sister’s investigation into his death 20 years on.

Not only is the drama set across two different periods in time,...

"Sergio" stars Brazilian ace Wagner Moura -- that's Pablo Escobar in "Narcos" for you -- with Cuban origin actress Ana de Armas. You've seen her knock on the doors of global stardom with "Knives Out" so far, and she is the next Bond girl in "No Time To Die". The mainstream marquee introduction would be enough for most to check out this biopic.

Those who dig deeper into international cinema, though, would perhaps want to check out the name of the director. Greg Barker's resume as a chronicler of contemporary human history includes brilliant documentary efforts as "Koran By Heart" and "The Longest War". That in itself gives this project added heft.

With "Sergio", Barker moves into feature film terrain. The film is a bio-pic of Brazilian United Nations diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello, a titan of world socio-politics whose efforts at international harmony and security left a global impact.

Like many authors navigating the Covid-19 pandemic, Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt has continued to promote her new book, The Gift of Forgiveness, through virtual chats. On Tuesday, the author gave advice about the importance of forgiveness and communication for married couples—drawing from her own relationship with new husband Chris Pratt.

Her suggestion? Talk to each other.

“I’m a big communicator—I got married last June. Communication constantly is really the most amazing gift you can have in a partnership and relationship,” Schwarzenegger Pratt, 30, said during a chat with Amy Nelson, founder and CEO of The Riveter, a community and...

BossLogic has revealed an Avengers: Endgame poster design that didn’t go to market.

“Kode Abdo announced an exclusive Endgame poster for Atom Tickets on April 2, 2019. The poster features the surviving Avengers (post-Snap) with a column of flames ripping through the center. At the base of the fire, Thanos wields the Infinity Gauntlet, far above him is Captain Marvel, forecasting an epic showdown between the two Marvel characters.”

Read more at Inverse.

The Honest Trailer spoof of 2019 box office flop Cats is here, and it’s brutal.

“It’s no secret that we here at Tms are big fans of the gang over at Screen Junkies, and their addictive video series Honest Trailers. So of course as soon as the critically reviled Cats movie was released, we’ve been waiting for their signature take on 2019’s biggest box office flop.”

Read more at The Mary Sue.

It shouldn’t need to be said,...

The Last Dance, one of the most ambitious sports documentaries to come from ESPN since the birth of its 30 for 30 series 11 years ago, is set to air its first two episodes at 9 p.m. Et Sunday, April 19 on the network and its streaming platform.

Over the next five Sundays, the 10-hour miniseries from director Jason Hehir will tell the story of Michael Jordan’s final NBA championship run with the Chicago Bulls during the 1997-98 season. That runtime eclipses even the Worldwide Leader’s lengthy Academy Award-winning marathon doc by more than two hours.

The 30 for 30 franchise and its related endeavors from ESPN Films have produced scores of enthralling feature films, shorts, and podcasts since 2009. For those looking to fill this time without live sports, it’s hard to go wrong by simply picking something at random from the back catalog of sports documentaries available through an ESPN+ subscription.

But...

You might recognize Wagner Moura starring as the late United Nations diplomat Sérgio Vieira de Mello in Netflix’s new film “Sergio.” Or maybe not. Moura looked a lot different when he earned a Golden Globe nomination in 2016 for his work as Pablo Escobar in the first two seasons of the streamer’s “Narcos.”

He packed on 40 pounds for his portrayal of the notorious Colombian drug kingpin. “I was hanging out with [my kids] and eating whatever they were having — pizzas and burgers,” the Brazilian actor says during an appearance on this week’s episode of the Variety and iHeart podcast “The Big Ticket.” “But there was a point when that started to make me feel really bad because that wasn’t my body and I was just eating junk food.”

Fortunately, playing Vieira de Mello — who spent more than three decades as the U.N. diplomat from Brazil brokering peace...

If a movie about geopolitics centered around the true story of “Sergio” Vieira de Mello, a United Nations diplomat from Brazil, doesn’t strike you as must-viewing during a pandemic, you couldn’t be more wrong. What better time to celebrate a man who put human rights above politics as usual? Sergio, a Sundance sleeper debuting on Netflix on April 17th, is history brought to life, with a few extra bells, whistles, and caveats. Director Greg Barker, working from a frustratingly soft script by Craig Borten, takes dramatic license with...

Not many fully human television villains can withstand Walter White or Heisenberg's criminal genius. Walter White literally went from a school teacher to an international-level druglord in the span of just two years. Even a feat would have made Pablo Escobar green with envy and brimming with admiration. Heisenberg is simply too much for most television villains.

Related: Breaking Bad: 10 Most Shameless Things Walter White Has Ever Done

That's why we turn our attention to Hollywood with its more dramatic flair for theatrics and over-the-top antagonists. How exactly does Heisenberg match up against these villains ought to be quite an interesting subject since he's one of the few television villains to actually succeed. For the sake of more objective comparison, these Hollywood villains are all human and have no superpowers. Will Heisenberg still be the danger when it comes to these Hollywood heavyweights or will he just someone who...

To date, Narcos still remains one of the best TV shows ever made by Netflix. The series which revolved around the Colombian drug trade and focussed on notorious drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, as well as the Cali Cartel, was a huge hit. The spinoff Narcos: Mexico focussing on Mexican drug lords was also made and it has received great reviews too.

Related: Narcos: 10 Real-Life Stories About The Illegal Drug Trade That Could Work As A Narcos Spin-Off

However, thanks to Escobar's notoriety, the original show will always be the more popular one. Aside from the captivating plot of the original series, there are a number of behind-the-scenes secrets that only true fans happen to be aware of. Here are some of them.

Den of Geek Staff Feb 21, 2020

Foldable smartphones, Princess Diana's handwritten letters, the best memes of 2020 so far, plus more in today's Link Tank!

Foldable smartphones are the latest rage within the tech industry, but the average consumer may not be as taken with them as previously thought.

"Foldable smartphones are a big trend in the tech world lately, from Samsung's Galaxy Fold and its upcoming Z Flip to the resurrection of the Motorola Razr. Even Pablo Escobar's brother is launching one (sort of). But what they all seem to have in common is a lackluster reception from consumers, who are not quite ready to invest more than $1,000 in one of these devices."

Read more at PCMag.

A collection of Princess Diana's handwritten letters are going up for auction, along with a number of other personal items of hers.

"On June 25, 1997, just months before Princess Diana’s death in August,...

Netflix is developing a movie based on Pablo Escobar's hippos. Naturally, it's called Cocaine Hippos, named after Escobar's number one export. Escobar dominated the 1980s and is known today as one of the most successful drug lords of all time. He had drugs exported all over the world and was dubbed "The King of Cocaine." He is also known as the wealthiest criminal in history, after amassing an estimated net worth of $30 billion by the time of his death in 1993, which is the equivalent to $59 billion as of 2019 in today's currency.

Needless to say, whatever Pablo Escobar wanted, he received and he got it fast. So when he wanted to create a zoo on his Colombian property in the 1980s, he had no problem obtaining exotic animals from all over the world and had them delivered to make up his own personal zoo. 4 Hippos were originally brought in from Africa,...

I don’t know about you, but when I see the words “cocaine” and “hippos” next to each other, I pay attention. And when the context is that a major company is developing a movie called Cocaine Hippos, I perk up even more. So Netflix certainly has my attention with its new upcoming comedy, which, oddly […]

The post Netflix Developing ‘Cocaine Hippos’, a Movie About What Happened to Drug Kingpin Pablo Escobar’s Zoo Animals appeared first on /Film.

It is easy to see what "Narcos: Mexico" season 2 lacks. Just like season 1, it lacks Pablo Escobar. There are characters that transcend the space of fiction, to end up leaving the stamp of either cult status or sustaining popularity of the cinematic effort they belong to. The Wagner Moura-enacted Colombian drug baron Escobar did both, for the original "Narcos" series.

Aided by imaginative storytelling, Moura's Escobar set a high yardstick for the template of crime drama and criminal protagonists on screens small and big -- one that even its spin-off series, "Narcos: Mexico", has struggled to live up to once the story moved on beyond the Escobar saga.

"Narcos: Mexico 2" isn't a bad show. Only, it triggers off a sense of deja vu, in the sense that it leaves you with the same impression you had after watching the first season of this spin-off series. You begin to realise,...

Hollywood is a zoo, and Netflix is now home to some hippos.

The streamer has picked up the comedy package Cocaine Hippos, with comedian Jermaine Fowler set to star.

The story, which comes from writer Jordan VanDina, who is also writing the script, was inspired by the hippopotamuses that were brought into Colombia from Africa in the 1980s to populate the palatial estate of drug lord Pablo Escobar. When Escobar was killed in 1993, his menagerie of animals were taken to zoos or sold, save for the hippos, who were left to their own devices and populated, becoming an invasive species. ...

Hollywood is a zoo, and Netflix is now home to some hippos.

The streamer has picked up the comedy package Cocaine Hippos, with comedian Jermaine Fowler set to star.

The story, which comes from writer Jordan VanDina, who is also writing the script, was inspired by the hippopotamuses that were brought into Colombia from Africa in the 1980s to populate the palatial estate of drug lord Pablo Escobar. When Escobar was killed in 1993, his menagerie of animals were taken to zoos or sold, save for the hippos, who were left to their own devices and populated, becoming an invasive species. ...

The second season of Narcos: Mexico is set to be released on Netflix on February 13th. The series tells the stories of key drug lords in Mexico's history. Currently, the focus is on Miguel Félix Gallardo, the ambitious boss of the Guadalajara Cartel who started out as a police officer and rose to be the biggest Mexican drug lord in the 80s.

Related: 10 Movies About The Cartels To Watch Before Binging Narcos: Mexico Season 2

Narcos: Mexico is a spinoff of the original Narcos which chronicled the lives of Colombian kingpins Pablo Escobar and the Orejuela brothers of the Cali Cartel. Diego Luna will reprise his role as Félix in the new season while there will be several new characters, including Scott McNair as DEA agent Walt Breslin.

Here are questions that the second season of Narcos: Mexico needs to answer.

In 2015, Netflix released the first season of the Spanish language TV series Narcos. The show, which focussed on notorious Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, became an instant hit. When Escobar's story was concluded in the second season, the focus shifted to his quieter rivals, the Cali Cartel, in the third season. And when that was done, a spinoff show called Narcos: Mexico was introduced.

Related: Narcos: 5 Reasons Why The Mexico Story Is Better (& 5 Why The Colombia Story Is)

This time the focus was on Miguel Felix Gallardo aka "El Padrino" (The Godfather). Felix was the founder of the Guadalajara Cartel. An ambitious man, he went on to unify all the Mexican cartels then installed himself as their leader. Narcos: Mexico also features a young El Chapo, so we are likely to see him as the main character in the near future. However, there are other stories that would also work well as Narcos Spin-offs.

In 2009, documentarian Greg Barker made Sergio, a look at the unbelievable life of Un diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello and his harrowing ordeal in a bomb blast in Baghdad. But Barker wasn't examining his subject. Now, 11 years later, Barker has made a new Sergio, his narrative fiction debut, examining the diplomat from a different vantage point. After a Sundance stint, the film comes to Netflix this spring -- and we have the official trailer. [caption id="attachment_866556" align="alignright" width="350"] Image via Netflix/caption] Netflix vet Wagner Boura, best known as Pablo Escobar on Narcos, stars as …...

From 2015 to 2017, Netflix's Narcos chronicled the exploits of infamous Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. That story continued even after Escobar's death (spoilers?), but rather than wrap things up there, co-creators Carlo Bernard, Chris Brancato, and Doug Miro opted to center the drama on the emerging Guadalajara Cartel in Narcos: Mexico. The continuation saw Diego Luna take the lead as cartel boss Félix Gallardo whose organization was tracked by Michael Peña's DEA agent, Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena; see what Peña had to say about his role here. Now, as the first teaser trailer …...

In early 2017, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee inadvertently kicked off a global Latin pop renaissance with their reggaetón lento, “Despacito.” The song gave a second wind to the Puerto Rican artists, both of whose respective heydays seemed to have come and gone in the 2000s. Soon, they would once again dominate Latin music charts in the United States.

Justin Bieber happened upon the song while club-hopping in Colombia; he liked it enough to propose a remix with Fonsi and Yankee, who gave their green light with gusto. With some help...

The drug trade has plenty of fascinating stories and most of them are covered quite extensively by Netflix's two sister shows Narcos and Narcos: Mexico. You don't need to grab a history book or watch a documentary narrated by a person with a deep 'National Geographic' voice to know who people like Amado Carillo Fuentes and Pacho Hererra were. Just sit down and watch.

Related: Ranked: Top 10 Most Dangerous Characters On Narcos

Narcos tells the story of two major Colombian Cartels - the Medellin Cartel, which was led by the celebrity drug lord Pablo Escobar (Wagner Moura) and the Cali Cartel which was led by the more reserved Orejuela brothers. Narcos: Mexico, on the other hand, tells the story of Miguel Felix Gallardo (Diego Luna), the head of the Guadalajara Cartel who rose to become the unifying boss of all the Mexican crime families. So, which...

Tony Sokol Dec 2, 2019

Crime is part of the American experience, says Paul Eckstein, creator of Godfather of Harlem.

Martin Scorsese's The Irishman appears to be a swan song for an era of the gangster film. But Epix's Godfather of Harlem, which just closed out its premiere season, is keeping the genre fresh.

The series bridges generations of actors to tell the story of a mob kingpin who bridged the criminal worlds. Bumpy Johnson, played by Oscar-winning actor and director Forest Whitaker, ran Harlem under Mafia protection in a deal brokered by "Lucky" Luciano which lasted forty years. By the time he was 30, Johnson had spent almost half his life in prison. He went back in for a 15-year stretch in 1951 for conspiring to sell heroin. The series paints him as a standup guy, who did time rather than implicate his Mafia partners.

Johnson was a poet who contributed to...

A court has sided with Netflix in a “Narcos” copyright infringement lawsuit brought by Virginia Vallejo, a Colombian journalist and former girlfriend of drug lord Pablo Escobar.

The suit, filed in Florida district court in Jan. 2018, accused the producers and distributors of the show of two counts of copyright infringement, saying the company borrowed from Vallejo’s 2006 memoir to inform two specific scenes, called “Caress of a Revolver” and “That Palace in Flames.”

Florida district court judge Rodney Smith granted Netflix’s motion for summary judgment and denied Vallejo’s Friday.

Also Read: Netflix Sets Premiere Date for Kenya Barris' 'Astronomy Club' - Watch the First Sketch (Video)

The memoir, “Amando a Pablo, Odiando a Escobar”, details Vallejo’s relationship with Escobar and her cooperation with Colombian and U.S. authorities in prosecuting an ex-Colombian senator as well as drug cartel bosses. In “Narcos,” Vallejo’s likeness is portrayed...

It took a few attempts, but Netflix and Gaumont Television finally prevailed against a Colombian journalist who alleged Narcos infringed her memoir about Pablo Escobar. On Friday, a Florida federal court granted summary judgment to defendants. The ruling avoids a trial that was scheduled to begin this month.

The plaintiff in the case was Virginia Vallejo, who wrote about her close relationship with the notorious drug kingpin in the 1980s. A popular television journalist, her memoir was titled Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar, which itself became the basis for a film starring Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz in 2017.

In May, a ...

Virginia Vallejo, a Colombian journalist who wrote about her close relationship with Pablo Escobar in the 1980s, may soon get to tell a Florida jury how Netflix's Narcos infringed her memoir. On Monday, a federal judge rejected arguments from Netflix and Gaumont Television premised on Vallejo's own deal with movie producers. The two sides appear to be preparing for a trial that could begin early next month.

Vallejo, once a popular television journalist in Colombia, is the author of Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar.

In May, U.S. District Court Judge K. Michael Moore narrowed Vallejo's lawsuit. She couldn't ...

Brazilian actor Wagner Moura, best known for his role of Pablo Escobar in "Narcos", is set to visit India in November, as a guest at International Film Festival of India (Iffi) in Goa.

Moura's directorial debut "Marighella" is in debut competition at Iffi this year, and he will be there at the festival to present his film.

Also Read:?Jennifer Lopez looks like an ageless beauty

While at Iffi, Moura and will also attend an In Conversation session titled 'The Magnificent Artist', where he will talk about his journey as an actor and a filmmaker.

The 43-year-old Moura is also known for his performances in the "Elite Squad" film series, besides in the acclaimed Brazilian film "Carandiru" and the Matt-Damon-starrer Hollywood sci-fi hit, "Elysium".

This year, Iffi celebrates its 50th edition and will take place from November 20 to 28.

The jury for International Competition has renowned names such as French filmmaker Robin Campillo,...

CBS Corp.'s Smithsonian Channel, a joint venture between Showtime Networks and the Smithsonian Institution, has commissioned new series The Curious Life and Death of..., which will explore mysterious deaths of famous people.

Host Lindsey Fitzharris, an author and medical historian who has a doctorate from the University of Oxford, will "use science, tests and demonstrations to shed new light on famous murders, suicides and freak diseases," the network said in unveiling the news at Mipcom in Cannes. "Working alongside a variety of experts and eyewitnesses, Dr. Fitzharris will uncover the secrets of icons ranging from ...

Discovery Channel has renewed “Finding Escobar’s Millions” for a second season, TheWrap has learned exclusively. This one will feature new DEA agents hunting for Pablo Escobar’s buried treasure.

We’ve also secured your first look at what’s the boys are unearthing this time around. Watch the Season 2 trailer above.

Below is the lengthy-yet-interesting Season 2 description.

Also Read: Discovery's David Zaslav Says Regional Sports Networks Have Ruined Skinny Bundles: It's 'Depressing'

“Most people know that notorious crime lord Pablo Escobar brought in outrageous amounts of money during his reign. At the height of his power, Escobar raked in billions of dollars a year, making him one of the richest men in the world. Escobar strategically buried stashes of cash all over Colombia, yet much of it hasn’t been found. With unprecedented access and permission from the Colombian government, two former DEA agents, Chris Feistl and Jerry Salameh,...