Gaumont International Television and Netflix have found an intriguing actor to play Pablo Escobar, the villain in their new series Narcos. In what amounts to an Elite Squad re-team, director Jose Padilha has set Wagner Moura to play the Medellin Cartel leader.

The series will chronicle the life and death of Escobar, the ruthless cartel boss and known terrorist who also was a congressman, a family man and revered by the poor as a new Robin Hood. Padilha, is slated to oversee and direct the 13-episode first season, which is eying a 2014 debut on Netflix.

Chris Brancato, who worked on Hannibal for Gaumont and NBC, is running this series, which begins with the hunt for Escobar but moves on to the rise and subsequent fall of the Cali cartel, the north valley cartel, and the move into Mexico which gives the series plenty of ground to cover with an ambition to bring this to the current day battle to halt the drug trade.

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