Padilha and writer Nick Schenk (Gran Torino) are collaborating on a film called Tri-Border, about the dangerous, crime-ridden border area between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. The two of them are doing research there now. Hopefully they’ve got a RoboGuard or something with them. The script follows a Boston-born DEA agent who’s forced to go to Tri-Borderville, in order to track down a top drug dealer.

Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal were prepping a thriller for a year called Triple Frontier, about the same location. However, they also had a project in storage about some guy named Osama bin Laden, which for some mysterious reason has taken precedence for them now. (Hollywood Reporter)

Now Columbia Pictures has grabbed the US distribution rights for the film, to be written by The Hurt Locker‘s Mark Boal. It’s a regular Hurt Lockereunion. Sony Pictures Co-Chair Amy Pascal said the following about the sale:

“With the death of Osama bin Laden, this film could not be more relevant.”

Wait a minute… Osama bin Laden is dead? You don’t say. I guess that probably explains other competing Osama-killing movies in the works from George Clooney and Oliver Stone. (TheWrap)

The first is a movie based on a recent New York Times Magazine article entitled “The Boy Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest” (timely!) which screenwriter Mark Boal is involved in. It isn’t known whether Boal will actually be writing the movie – this seems somewhat unlikely since he’s got those two movies with Kathryn Bigelow already, but if Assange can have 18 movies about him, why can’t Boal write 3 or 4 in a year?

The second is a movie based on the recent  book Inside Wikileaks, which was written by the Assange’s former second-in-command. It may or may not feature scenes of Julian Assange drunkenly beating his underlings with a wire coat hanger.

And finally, there is some interest in a movie based on Assange’s memoirs, which reportedly Paul Greengrass is interested in directing. I can’t wait to see the shaky footage of Assange updating his OKCupid profile. (via SlashFilm)

Kathryn Bigelow will have to wait longer than planned to tactfully ask Triple Frontier‘s make-up stylist to apply extra powder to Tom Hanks‘s giant forehead. That project has encountered complications and will be pushed back to Fall 2011. Well, she ain’t just going to sit on her hands. This is Kathryn Bigelow we’re talking about here. If she wants to film an international thriller, she’s going to film a damn international thriller. So, in the meantime, up next for Bigelow is a smaller “international thriller.”

The project name hasn’t been released yet but the story is reported to be based on a true story centering around black ops. Not to be confused with Bad Boys, which centered around black cops. (Variety)

Hollywood’s nicest man is heading for a part of the world that is anything but. Tom Hanks has been cast in Triple Frontier, which takes place in one of South America’s most dangerous regions. And that really means something, considering South America has more than its fair share of dangerous regions.

The film, the follow-up from The Hurt Locker director and writer Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal, is an ensemble picture set in the notorious border zone between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil where the Igazu and Parana rivers converge — making “la triple frontera” difficult to monitor and a haven for organized crime.

So far, Hanks is the only confirmed cast member, and I’m assuming he will play a law enforcement official. Also, there are rumors that the title will be changed to Sleeping Dogs. If these rumors prove true, could we be looking at the long-awaited followup to Turner and Hooch? We’ve got a possible cop, and the word “dogs” in the title, so all signs point to yes. (Coming Soon)