Junior's Cineblog /

Noticia de un Secuestro or News of a Kidnapping, from the renowned author and credited Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez, will be embodied in a film version next year and reach cinemas in 2010.

This is not the first work of Garcia Marquez (or Gabo, as he is popularly known) to be brought to the cinema. Of Love and Other Demons and Love in the Time of Cholera also had their big-screen adaptations.

The film has a budget of 6 million dollars, put together in Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Spain. The director of Argos Productions, Epigmenio Ibarra, announced that principal photography of News of a Kidnapping is expected to begin on location in Colombia and Mexico in the third quarter of 2009, and is expected to be in theaters in the latter half of 2010.

The story behind News of a Kidnapping, written in 1996, recounts the case of a collective kidnapping of 10 people, including 8 journalists, masterminded by the 1980’s drug-lord Pablo Escobar, head of the then-powerful and now-defunct Medellín Cartel. This kidnapping was meant to put in check the stability of institutions financing Colombian guerrillas.

News of a Kidnapping is a co-production of Argos Films, Mexico; Caracol Television of Colombia and Costa Films from Argentina; the production will be headed by Pedro Pablo Ybarra, and the script will be headed by Aida Bortnik.

Nocicia de un Secuestro is the film directorial debut of Mexican television director Pedro Pablo Ybarra. The script is in its second re-write. It’s being written by Argentine scriptwriter Aida Botnik.

Rumor has it that the star of the film will be Mexican actress Salma Hayek!

Epigmenio Ibarra, director of Argos Films, said in a press release: "A few days ago we spoke with her [Salma] and [she] was very interested. She read a part of the script and got excited about the project!”

Well… I don’t know if she’s that excited!

Ibarra said that thanks to the Congress of Latin-American Culture, "we have preliminary agreements with Spanish producers (Plural Entertainment, the Prisa Group and Filmax) that will add their talent, experience and resources to this project.

It will be a Continental movie.”