Cold Mountain, Strike ready 'Tri-Border'

RIO P JANEIRO -- Jose Padilha's Cold Mountain Ing. and Mark Abraham and Eric Newman's Strike Ing. are near ready to bring "Tri-Border" towards the market. "Elite Squad" helmer Padilha, who's installed on direct "Tri-Border," created the L.A.-based Cold Mountain this season to produce his U.S. projects. Cold Mountain and Strike are coming up with. Film author Nick Shenk ("Gran Torino") has completed a shooting script, Padilha told Variety within the Rio Film Festival. Padilha and Strike are talking with talent. Once it's talent together with a financial budget, it'll consult with potential entrepreneurs, Padilha mentioned. Co-created by Padilha and Shenk, "Tri-Border" is occur the lawless gets to the perimeters of South usa, Argentina and Paraguay. It triggers a DEA agent who's sent there, getting fallen into disgrace for busting the boy from the senator on drug charges. There he's soon involved with conflicting police and myriad criminal orgs. The Tri-Border, Padilha mentioned, is similar to the Wild West with worldwide gangsters: "The Tri-Border gets the Chinese mob, Hasballah, Brazilian drug smugglers, Italian mobsters, the Russian mafia, Mossad, the CIA." Padilha is striving to draw top stars of multiple nationalities. Meanwhile, Shenk and Padilha may also be beautifying another control over MGM's "Robocop" reboot, that's composed by Josh Zetumer ("The Infiltrator," "Dune"). Padilha broke through with Berlinale Golden Bear-champion "Elite Squad," they co-written and directed. Beyond the second part inside the saga, "Elite Squad: The Enemy Within," Padilha has helmed the b/w Portuguese-language docu "Garapa," research of starvation seen at Berlin this past year, and British-language "Methods from the Tribe," another docu-feature. A Sundance 2010 hit, it absolutely was created for BBC and Arte and agreed to Cinemax. Padilha is repped by CAA's David Kopple. Contact Variety Staff at news@variety.com