Pablo Escobar is all the rage these days, with multiple new TV and film adaptations detailing the drug lord’s life out now, and in the works. Now, Sony Pictures Television is getting in on the drug-lord mania, producing an upcoming teleseries that will take a magnified look at the search squad that helped to bring down Escobar’s corrupt empire.
The 70-episode series (yes, 70!) from Sony will be called Bloque de Busqueda (“Search Bloc”), and will follow the stories of Colonel Hernan Martin and Captain Antonio Gavilan, who created the task force that eventually brought Escobar down. It will be distributed in Latin America and the U.S., as well as other markets worldwide.
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The new series will be another in a crowd of previous adaptations detailing the drug kingpin’s notorious escapades, and will also compete with several new films and TV shows. For reference, those include the 2014 Benicio Del Toro flick, Escobar: Paradise Lost, the popular new Netflix series detailing the druglord’s rise, Narcos, a Colombian TV series called Pablo Escobar: El Patron del Mal, and an upcoming film about the man starring Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz called Escobar.
It’s no secret why Escobar’s life is such fertile soil for TV and film studios. Known as the “King of Cocaine,” he’s considered the world’s most notorious drug dealer, not to mention the most successful, having reportedly amassed a fortune that exceeded $30 billion through his time in the criminal business that spanned several decades, from the ’70s through to his death in 1993. And that did not include money that may have been buried throughout his home country of Colombia. While Escobar was no doubt a vicious criminal, many people in his hometown saw the man as a sort of Robin Hood figure, as he often used his drug money to help build the community and provide for the poor.
Escobar’s reign came to an end in 1993 when he was shot and killed while trying to flee authorities. His death, however, still remains a mystery, as there are questions over whether he was shot amidst gunfire, executed, or committed suicide. It will be interesting to see what angle this teleseries may take in telling the story.
Sony Pictures Entertainment also handled the Hispanic version of Breaking Bad, as well as other series including Metastasis, El Mariachi, Senorita Polvora, and El Dandy.
While we know production has already begun on Bloque de Busqueda, there’s no word on when the series may debut.
