Escobar: Paradise Lost

Of the storyline, Di Stefano claimed "the idea came from three sentences [I] heard from a police officer about a real-life young Italian fellow who went to Colombia to meet his brother, somehow became close to the Escobar family, and then got in trouble."[10]

Hutcherson served as an executive producer for the film, alongside Andrea Di Stefano, assisting with casting and blocking shots.[11]

On December 17, 2012, it was rumoured that Josh Hutcherson was in talks to be cast in the leading role.[12] An announcement was made the following day that he had been cast as Nick Brady, the lead role.[13] On March 25, 2013, Brady Corbet was cast as the lead character's brother, Dylan Brady.[14]

Principal photography was expected to begin in Panama in March 2013.[12][13] Filming was initially expected to last a month and a half,[15] finishing on May 30, 2013. However, it was rumored filming was also conducted during June and July 2013.

On July 14, 2014, a teaser trailer was released.[18] In August 2014, four new stills were released.[19][20] Official trailers were released on September 3, 2014[16] and November 13, 2014.[21]

Escobar: Paradise Lost was released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 19, 2015 in France[22][23] and April 15, 2015 in Australia and New Zealand.[24] Further DVD and Blu-ray releases include in the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands on September 21, 2015.[25][26]

During its opening in France, the film debuted with a weekend total of $601,554. Its opening weekend in Spain brought in $620,845 and $79,637 in the United Arab Emirates.[3] As of September 7, 2015, the film had grossed $3,562,536 in the six foreign markets the film has been released in.[27]

In the United States, the film earned $195,792 during its first two weeks from its limited theatrical release in June and July 2015.[28]

As of June 2020, the film holds a 55% approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 56 reviews with an average rating of 5.62 out of 10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Its focus drifts frustratingly away from the titular druglord, but Escobar: Paradise Lost remains a mildly diverting drama, thanks largely to Benicio del Toro's glowering performance."[29] Metacritic gives the film a score of 56 out of 100, based on reviews from 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[30]

At the Telluride Film Festival, Escobar: Paradise Lost received a generally positive critical response. Writing for The Hollywood Reporter, Todd McCarthy called the film "an absorbing and suspenseful drug trade drama" along with citing that "del Toro’s presence, like Brando’s in The Godfather, looms over everything that happens here". McCarthy also stated that "Di Stefano shows some real directorial chops in the film’s central and impressively extended action-suspense sequence". However, "the romantic interplay between Nick and Maria gets a bit tiresome and redundant due to the fact that they’re both so extremely nice and agreeable; Nick’s naivete and goody two-shoes Canadianism (he stresses that he’s not a Yank) also prove wearisome".[31]

Writing for Indiewire, Eric Kohn gave the film a B and praised the performances of del Toro and Hutcherson writing that del Toro "turns Escobar into a subdued terror whose ability to order murders with ease provides the movie with its chief source of dread", while Hutcherson "imbues the character with a believability that transcends the script's limitations". However, Kohn also criticised the film as it "fails to develop the rest of its characters as well as it does for its two central men. The screenplay is similarly marred by formula, lagging whenever it hits certain high melodramatic notes, and reminding us of the stakes in play with mopey, dime-store gravitas".[32]