International star Benicio del Toro (Best Actor in Cannes in 2008 for Che and who has just been on set for Arnaud Desplechin’s Jimmy Picard) and newcomer Josh Hutcherson (Peeta in Hunger Games) are to star in Italian actor Andrea Di Stefano’s directorial debut, Paradise Lost. These media-friendly American actors’ participation in the project was revealed by its French production company Chapter 2.
Written by the recent filmmaker, the screenplay is to follow Nick (Josh Hutcherson), a young Irish surfer who thinks that all his dreams have come true when he goes to visit his brother in Colombia. In an idyllic setting of blue lagoons and white sand beaches, he falls madly in love with a young Colombian called Maria. Everything seems perfect until he meets her uncle, a man named Pablo Escobar (Benicio del Toro)…
Born in 1949, Pablo Escobar was a famous Colombian cocaine trafficker who headed the Medellin Cartel. He died in 1993 after a large scale manhunt to find him.
Produced by Dimitri Rassam for Chapter 2, Paradise Lost, whose last 11 weeks of filming are to start next March in Panama, is co-produced by Studio 37 and Pathé (also to handle the film’s distribution in France and international sales).

                     Josh Hutcherson @ Personal Photos 

This year, Josh Hutcherson will become the youngest recipient of the Vanguard Award at the GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles for his work with the group Straight But Not Narrow, a non-profit strives to positively influence the straight youth’s perceptions of, and behavior towards, their LGBT peers. Congratulations to Josh!

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