NEW YORK, NY - MAY 05: John Leguizamo attends Pre-Met Ball Special Screening Of “The Great Gatsby” at MOMA on May 5, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images)
Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer, the upcoming Affleck/Timberlake joint Runner Runner) is making a Pablo Escobar biopic called The King of Cocaine, and John Leguizamo just scored the lead. Oscar Isaac and Benicio Del Toro were considered, but Leguizamo won out “because he refused to take no for an answer, a trait that Escobar could probably relate to if he was still alive,” Deadline slightly weirdly writes. To persuade Furman, Leguizamo not only spent $15,000 of his own cash on a “fat suit and prosthetic makeup that rendered him a dead ringer for Escobar at his prime” — he even went so far as to be born in Colombia.
