Oscar winners Sean Penn and Javier Bardem go after drug Cartel

Oscar winner Sean Penn is in negotiations to star in a drama for Universal Pictures and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment called Cartel, which Asger Leth (Ghosts of Cité Soleil) is attached to direct, according to Variety.

Latino Review also reported last week that Oscar winner Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) is also in talks to board the cast.

Written by Peter Craig – who wrote the script for the upcoming Cowboy Bebop movie – the movie follows a man trying to protect his son after his wife is brutally murdered in the gritty world of Mexican drug cartels.

The drama began at Imagine as a remake of the 1993 Italian film crime thriller La Scorta, which followed four cops’ struggle to guard a special prosecutor trying to bring mob bosses to justice. It’s evolved since then in a vehicle for Penn.