Escobar: Paradise Lost (also known as Paradise Lost) is a 2014 romantic thriller film written and directed by Andrea Di Stefano in his directorial debut. The film chronicles the life of a surfer who falls in love while working with his brother in Colombia and finds out that the girl's uncle is Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.
RADiUS-TWC acquired the North American distribution rights of the film in February 2014. The film premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2014. and had a limited release in the United States on June 26, 2015.
Video Escobar: Paradise Lost
Cast
- Benicio del Toro as Pablo Escobar
- Josh Hutcherson as Nick Brady
- Claudia Traisac as Maria
- Brady Corbet as Dylan Brady
- Carlos Bardem as Drago
- Ana Girardot as Anne
- Aaron Zebede as Pepito Torres
- Frank Spano as Christo
- Laura Londoño as María Victoria
- Micke Moreno as Martin
Maps Escobar: Paradise Lost
Production
Pre-production
Of the storyline, Di Stefano claimed "the idea came from three sentences [I] heard from a police officer about a real-life young Italian fellow who went to Colombia to meet his brother, somehow became close to the Escobar family, and then got in trouble."
Hutcherson served as an executive producer for the film, alongside Andrea Di Stefano, assisting with casting and blocking shots.
Casting
On December 17, 2012, it was rumoured that Josh Hutcherson was in talks to be cast in the leading role. An announcement was made the following day that he had been cast as Nick Brady, the lead role. On March 25, 2013, Brady Corbet was cast as the lead character's brother, Dylan Brady.
Filming
Principal photography was expected to begin in Panama in March 2013. Filming was initially expected to last a month and a half, finishing on May 30, 2013. However, it was rumored filming was also conducted during June and July 2013.
Release
Escobar: Paradise Lost made its world premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2014. It also screened at the 2014 Telluride Film Festival, San Sebastian Film Festival, Rome Film Festival, and Zurich Film Festival.
The film was released in France, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates. It was going to be theatrically released in the United States on January 16, 2015, but the release has been delayed to the second quarter of the year. It will be released on July 9, 2015, in Germany. The film had a limited release in the United States on June 26, 2015.
Marketing
On July 14, 2014, a teaser trailer was released. In August 2014, four new stills were released. Official trailers were released on September 3, 2014 and November 13, 2014.
Home media
Escobar: Paradise Lost was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on March 19, 2015 in France and April 15, 2015 in Australia and New Zealand. Further DVD and Blu-Ray releases include in the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands on September 21, 2015.
Reception
Box office
During its opening in France, the film debuted with a weekend total of $601,554. Its opening weekend in Spain brought in $620,845 and $79,637 in the United Arab Emirates. As of September 7, 2015, the film had grossed $3,562,536 in the six foreign markets the film has been released in.
Domestically, the film earned $195,792 during its first two weeks from its limited theatrical release in June and July 2015.
Critical response
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 52% approval rating, based on reviews from 41 critics, with an average score of 5.8/10. Metacritic gives the film a score of 56 out of 100, based on reviews from 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
At the Telluride Film Festival, Escobar: Paradise Lost received a generally positive critical response. Writing for The Hollywood Reporter, Todd McCarthy called the film "an absorbing and suspenseful drug trade drama" along with citing that "del Toro's presence, like Brando's in The Godfather, looms over everything that happens here". McCarthy also stated that "Di Stefano shows some real directorial chops in the film's central and impressively extended action-suspense sequence". However, "the romantic interplay between Nick and Maria gets a bit tiresome and redundant due to the fact that they're both so extremely nice and agreeable; Nick's naivete and goody two-shoes Canadianism (he stresses that he's not a Yank) also prove wearisome".
Writing for Indiewire, Eric Kohn gave the film a B and praised the performances of del Toro and Hutcherson writing that del Toro "turns Escobar into a subdued terror whose ability to order murders with ease provides the movie with its chief source of dread", while Hutcherson "imbues the character with a believability that transcends the script's limitations". However, Kohn also criticised the film as it "fails to develop the rest of its characters as well as it does for its two central men. The screenplay is similarly marred by formula, lagging whenever it hits certain high melodramatic notes, and reminding us of the stakes in play with mopey, dime-store gravitas".
Accolades
References
External links
- Escobar: Paradise Lost on IMDb
- Escobar: Paradise Lost at Box Office Mojo
- Escobar: Paradise Lost at Rotten Tomatoes
- Escobar: Paradise Lost at Metacritic
Source of article : Wikipedia
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