Padilha Teaming up with Gran Torino Writer Schenk for Tri-Border

Golden Bear Award, Brazilian director of the Brazilian films Bus 174, Tropa de Elite (Elite Squad), Jose Padilha has joined up with Gran Torino penner Nick Schenk for Tri-Border, a political action thriller that will be in English. His project is self-financing development.

The picture is set against the notorious anarchic South American zone trisected by Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, where opposing crime organizations and law enforcement agencies fight for the control.

The story centers on a Boston-based DEA agent who is reluctantly sent to Paraguay for having seized the son of an US senator during a drug raid. The script will explore the fine points of the diverse crime organizations and law enforcement agencies in the area, as the agent attempts to understand how the place works in order to capture his ticket back home – a leading drug dealer.

The idea is to have a political film hidden inside an action film, a film that can entertain and teach people about the tri-border and the international crime in general,”

Padilha writes in an email to THR from the province, where he and Schenk are doing research. And Schenk adds:

How can you write about something like the tri-border area without ever seeing it first hand? I’ve learned that landlocked Paraguay has a Navy. I’ve also learned that the Brazilian Federal Police and the Paraguayan Navy commonly exchange gunfire on the river that separates the two countries.”

Padilha deems Elite Squad to be a more local story, while Tri-Border will be a tale of international effect. The script will be over by the end of August. Not to be mistaken with Kathryn Bigelow’s Triple Frontier, which was in development until she changed over to focus on her Osama bin Laden project.

Check out original Elite Squad, a severe and surprising look at Rio de Janeiro’s infamous favelas, the dangerous slums on the edge of the city. The flick is set in 1997 and presents a personal look at the city’s vast and intricate web of corruption.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb-rUfBTQ1g[/youtube]

Elite Squad Official Trailer

And a funny scene from Gran Torino, of course.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXD8yOxIPB0[/youtube]

Gran Torino Funny Scene