The Infiltrator
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Presents THE INFILTRATOR A film by Brad Furman (127 min., USA, 2016) Language: English Distribution Publicity Bonne Smith Star PR 1352 Dundas St. West Tel: 416-488-4436 Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M6J 1Y2 Fax: 416-488-8438 Tel: 416-516-9775 Fax: 416-516-0651 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] www.mongrelmedia.com @MongrelMedia MongrelMedia The Infiltrator SHORT SYNOPSIS Based on a true story, federal agent ROBERT “BOB” MAZUR (Bryan Cranston) goes deep undercover to infiltrate Pablo Escobar’s drug trafficking scene plaguing the nation in 1986 by posing as slick, money-laundering businessman Bob Musella. Teamed with impulsive and streetwise fellow agent EMIR ABREU (John Leguizamo) and KATHY ERTZ (Diane Kruger), a rookie undercover agent posing as his fiancé, Mazur befriends Escobar’s top lieutenant ROBERTO ALCAINO (Benjamin Bratt). Navigating a vicious criminal network in which the slightest slip-up could cost him his life, Mazur risks it all building a case that leads to indictments of more than 100 drug lords and the corrupt bankers who cleaned their dirty money, along with the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, one of the largest money-laundering banks in the world. LONG SYNOPSIS Confronted with the violent drug trafficking scene plaguing the nation in 1986, federal undercover agent ROBERT “BOB” MAZUR (Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Bryan Cranston) realizes the Medellín Cartel faces an enormous problem of its own: ruthless Colombian kingpin Pablo Escobar and his vicious underlings are making so much money, they literally don’t know what to do with all the cash. Family man by night, nerves-of-steel charmer by day, Mazur convinces his boss BONNI TISCHLER (Oscar nominee Amy Ryan) to follow the money instead of the drugs. Teamed with impulsive, streetwise undercover agent EMIR ABREU (Emmy winner John Leguizamo) and later with KATHY ERTZ (Diane Kruger), a fast-thinking, beautiful rookie undercover agent who poses as his fiancé, Mazur constructs a high-risk David-and-Goliath sting named "Operation C-Chase.” To drive the investigation, Mazur poses as slick money-laundering businessman Bob Musella. Mazur, a mild-mannered former IRS accountant, creates his flashy alter ego and recruits street-tough mob enforcer DOMINIC (Joseph Gilgun), who has enough street cred to make Musella look legitimate. Abreu, going undercover with his shifty informant, 2 sets up Mazur’s first Cartel meet by convincing lower-echelon money laundering criminals GONZALO MORA JR. (Rubén Ochandiano) and his father GONZALO MORA SR. (Simón Andreu) to grow their operation by doing business with his “boss.” Secretly taping conversations with a covert recording device contained in his briefcase, Musella wins over the father-son team, then moves up another rung when he gains access to the Cartel’s elite. They include Pablo Escobar’s urbane lieutenant ROBERTO ALCAINO (Benjamin Bratt) along with his glamorous wife GLORIA (Elena Anaya). As he ascends the black money market power pyramid, Mazur walks a nerve- wracking tightrope, knowing that the smallest slip-up in his cover story could endanger him and his family. By the time Mazur/Musella penetrates the Cartel’s inner circle, his ability to compartmentalize private and professional identities begins to unravel. Immersed in the luxurious trappings of the Cartel underworld, Mazur/Musella becomes a trusted confidant of the world’s most dangerous and wanted men. Deep undercover in one of the world’s most vicious criminal organizations, Mazur faces a life-or-death question: can he remain faithful to himself when his charismatic creation Bob Musella threatens to takes over every last facet of his being? The Infiltrator is directed by Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer, The Take). The movie stars Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Bryan Cranston (Trumbo, “Breaking Bad”), Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds), Emmy winner John Leguizamo (Chef), Benjamin Bratt (Traffic, “Law & Order”), Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis (Moonstruck), Elena Anaya, Jason Isaacs and Oscar nominee Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone). The screenplay is written by Ellen Brown Furman and based on the memoir by Robert Mazur. Director of Photography is Joshua Reis (The Lincoln Lawyer). Production designer is Crispian Sallis (Welcome to the Punch, Trauma). Costume designer is Dinah Collin (The Bourne Supremacy, Bloody Sunday). Music is composed by Chris Hajian (The Take, Crown for Christmas). Produced by Miriam Segal, Don Sikorski, Paul M. Brennan and Brad Furman. Executive Producers are Kate Fasulo, Peter Hampden, Scott LaStaiti, Robert Mazur, Norman Merry and Martin Rushton-Turner. 3 ABOUT THE PRODUCTION The Infiltrator began to take shape as a movie when director Brad Furman read Robert Mazur’s 2009 memoir The Infiltrator: My Secret Life Inside the Dirty Banks Behind Pablo Escobar's Medellín Cartel. The book, recommended to Furman by his longtime producing partner Don Sikorski, details how Mazur risked his life to expose corrupt banking executives and drug traffickers with minimal resources. As former Senator Bob Kerry said in a Congressional hearing, “Bob Mazur did not have a lot of fancy technology. He had a tape recorder.” Operating largely outside of bureaucratic oversight, Mazur’s low-budget sting led to more than 100 criminal indictments and the collapse of the world’s seventh largest private bank in 1991, when the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) forfeited $550 million in U.S. assets after pleading guilty to fraud, larceny and money-laundering. Coming off his critically-acclaimed 2011 thriller The Lincoln Lawyer, Furman was already intrigued with Pablo Escobar when he sparked to The Infiltrator’s potential as a fresh entry point into Narcos subculture. “I was fascinated with Bob’s genius idea to suffocate the cartels by following their money,” Furman says. “I was drawn to his story because it has all these layers of complexity that you might find in movies like Traffic or The Insider.” Furman also admired Mazur’s low-budget approach to undercover, designed to minimize bureaucratic meddling. “Bob shaped this really intimate, personal operation, sort of like an independent film, which allowed him to do things his way. He pulled the strings and blew open a hole into all the corruption at BCCI and the cartels. That's why it became such a fascinating story to me and everybody else.” Furman's agent passed the book to British producer Miriam Segal, who recognized the story's potential. Her Good Films company acquired the rights and compiled a list of potential writers. Furman's mother, short story writer Ellen Brown Furman, got added to the mix, put together a pitch and got the assignment. Director Furman recalls, “In the end, Miriam came to me and said ’I’m hiring your mother because she's the best writer of the bunch.’” 4 Cranston Signs On A few years into Bryan Cranston’s Emmy-winning run in “Breaking Bad,” he made an indelible impression on Furman when he appeared in the director’s second film The Lincoln Lawyer. “That was a tough movie to shoot,” Furman recalls. “The thing that stuck with me afterwards is Bryan’s moral core and just who he is as a man. Bryan’s humble, very much like Bob Mazur, and we built a friendship out of that.” During a casual lunch in New York, where Cranston had portrayed Lyndon Johnson in the Broadway production of “All the Way,” Furman brought up The Infiltrator project. “On a complete whim, I told Bryan he’d be perfect for this movie,” Furman recalls. “He said, ‘Let me look at the script.’ Within a week, Bryan said ‘I'm in.’ I was excited beyond belief.” Cranston explains, “The thing that really got to me and made me want to do The Infiltrator is that Bob’s job is to befriend these criminals to the point where they completely trust him. He knows their children, he knows a lot about Roberto and Gloria; it’s true, deeply rooted friendship. And then Bob arrests them. So to me The Infiltrator is a story of friendship and betrayal.” Cranston, who cites The Conversation, The French Connection and All The President’s Men as personal reference points for The Infiltrator, also warmed to the challenge of playing a man who leads two lives. “As his normal self, Bob Mazur is this calm, committed family man to his two children and his wife,” he says. “And then there’s the character of this flamboyant businessman that Bob takes on for work. He flies private jets, goes to strip clubs and the best restaurants, drinks the best wines, plays the big shot, and then he puts all that aside and goes home to his middle-class life. I liked the challenge of blending those two things because it’s hard enough when you have a regular job to balance home and neighborhood and relatives. In that sense I think Bob's very relatable, but then he has the added pressure from the dangerous work he does.” Before production began, Cranston spent several days with Mazur observing his role model up close and personal. “Spending time with Bob, I really got a sense of what it takes to live this dichotomy of two different lifestyles,” Cranston says. “He has this very specific, methodical way about him, I would say that Bob’s actually OCD. He can’t stand 5 things that are out of place, like even when he rolls up his sleeves, Bob wants them to have a nice even roll. I thought it was essential to show this in the movie.” Ultimately, Cranston points out, “My job was not to do an impersonation of Bob Mazur. My job was to capture his sensibility and point of view, then fill in the blanks with imagination and research.” On set, Cranston “filled in the blanks” with uncommon intensity, according to producer Segal.