Benicio Del Toro To Star in Cuban Mafia Thriller THE CORPORATION

Along with Sicario 2, Star Wars: Episode VIII, and presumably another appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at some point, Benicio Del Toro has landed another major role. The Wrap reports that Paramount Pictures won a bidding war last night for the rights to T.J. English's upcoming nonfiction book The Corporation — beating out Warner Bros., Universal, Sony, MGM, and Skydance — and Del Toro will play the lead role in a story about the Cuban mafia.

The book centers on the Corporation’s founder, Jose Miguel Battle Sr., who died in 2007. Known as ‘El Padrino’ and ‘the Godfather,’ he was Fulgencio Batista’s bag man, bringing the Cuban dictator his cut from the gambling casinos when the Mafia ran Cuba. Battle escaped to the States, where he and other Cubans were trained by the CIA to invade the country in the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion.

Having saved the lives of 28 of his men, the Godfather came out of that debacle as a certified hero to many Cuban-Americans. The core of the gang was trained as a unit and together formed the Corporation. They started out running the popular numbers racket, known as “bolita,” but soon moved on to money laundering and murder.

As often happens in true stories like these, a die-hard detective incessantly tracked the group for fifteen years and eventually brought them down. Sounds like the basis for a cool movie. Leonardo DiCaprio and his Appian Way production company will produce, while David Matthew (Vinyl) will write the screenplay. No director or start date have been announced yet, but we'll keep you posted.