Written by new-contact on Aug 27, 2015. Posted in On Location

Pablo Escobar Netflix miniseries Narcos films Colombia

New ten-part Netflix miniseries Narcos tells the story of infamous Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar and got a filming incentive of USD 2 million to film in Bogota. Colombia recently launched a formal filming incentive of up to 40% for international producers.

Pablo Escobar gained international notoriety by dominating the global cocaine trade throughout the late 1970s and 1980s. Escobar became a billionaire and his brutality extended to political assassinations and even an airline bombing.

Narcos comes from filmmaker José Padilha and is based on the accounts of the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Steve Murphy and his Mexican partner Javier Peña. Netflix worked in Bogota with Colombian production service company Dynamo.

Escobar himself is played by Brazilian actor Wagner Moura, who previously starred in Padilha’s acclaimed Rio-set drug war movie Elite Squad and its sequel.

“It was basically the most difficult thing I have ever done, in my life, because I didn’t speak Spanish before doing the show,” Moura told Collider of his work on Narcos.

“I flew to Medellín and stayed there six months before the rest of the cast and before I even signed with Netflix. I booked myself in a university for a Spanish course for foreigners, and I think I’ve read basically everything that was written about Pablo Escobar and modern Colombian history.”

Colombia’s filming incentive has helped boost the country’s international profile. Mining drama The 33 was the first foreign feature to use in the incentive and jungle adventure movie Lost City of Z will film locally in the next few weeks.

Narcos launches on Netflix on 28 August 2015.

(Image: Daniel Daza/Netflix)