Michael Bay Eyed To Direct ‘Hunting El Chapo’

Michael Bay — who is for real totally done with exploding toys after “Transformers: The Last Knight“— has yet to line up a follow-up project. As always, he’s busy on the producing front (including some kind of Trump-esque sci-fi thing), but Sony is hoping to get the director behind the camera soon for a fast-moving project.

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The studio has snapped up the rights to Cole Merrell and Douglas Century‘s forthcoming book “Hunting El Chapo: The Thrilling Inside Story of The American Lawman Who Captured The World’s Most-Wanted Drug Lord.” (The plot details are pretty much described that title.) The interesting thing is that Bay himself was chasing the property earlier this month, presumably through his Platinum Dunes shingle, but lost out. But clearly his passion was so strongly felt that Sony want to go with him anyway.

With El Chapo set to go on trial soon, you can bet Sony will want this one rolling as quickly as possible. They are particularly eager to keep the momentum going as Ridley Scott has a rival project in “The Cartel,” based on the book by Don Winslow. However, with Scott turning his attention to “All The Money In The World,” Sony could take advantage of the open window to get ahead of the competition.

Bay’s last non-“Transformers” movie, “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi,” was also based on a true story and headline-grabbing subject matter. And ‘El Chapo’ sounds like there’s enough material that it won’t stray too far from Bay’s usual brand of muscular filmmaking. [Deadline/Variety]