“Making Jack Falcone,” first appeared way back in 2008, as it was reported that Steven Soderbergh would be executive producing the film written by Peter Buchman (“Che”) and based on the true story of Joaquin “Jack” Garcia, a Cuban-American FBI agent who successfully infiltrated the Gambino crime family. That’s right, a Cuban agent infiltrated an Italian mob family, and for anyone who’s read the memoir it’s based on (we have, it’s fascinating), it was no easy feat.
Since then, we’ve pretty much heard nothing about the film until this morning, as Deadline Hollywood reports that Benicio Del Toro has signed on to tackle the lead role. We couldn’t be more pleased to find Del Toro heading the pic, but he’ll have some bulking up to do. Garcia was not a small man. At 6’4″, and topping 400 pounds, part of what made his undercover work so difficult is that unlike slimmer agents, Garcia was immediately identifiable. If it was ever revealed that he was actually an agent, he’s not exactly the easiest guy to hide in a crowd.
Soderbergh is still on board as an executive producer, and they will be working from Buchman’s script. The film was originally set up at Paramount, but Deadline reports the studio will likely drop it, leaving Soderbergh to shop the project around, much like he did with his forthcoming virus-thriller “Contagion.” There is no director attached, but we imagine that will change very soon.
