The Great Escape 2? Ridley Scott to make film about drugs lord El Chapo

Hollywood director Ridley Scott is teaming up with studio giant Fox to film a novel paralleling the life of escaped Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. The Blade Runner and Alien filmmaker will adapt The Cartel by Don Winslow, published just a month before Guzman escaped from prison for the second time in 14 years. Scott, 77, will direct the film, based on a screenplay by Shane Salerno, who will also produce. Winslow did extensive research for The Cartel, spending over a decade learning about El Chapo. It includes a fictional version of the drug baron’s first jail escape in 2001, when he supposedly hid in a laundry cart. Earlier this month, Guzman slipped out of his cell through a 1.5km (1mile) tunnel dug under his private shower in the Altiplano maximum-security prison, 90km west of Mexico City. Last week, prosecutors formally placed 22 prison officials in custody over suspicions that the infamous fugitive had inside help.

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