After Katherine Bigelow won the Best Director Oscar for her work on The Hurt Locker, everyone began wondering what her next move would be. It was then announced that she would be making a film called Triple Frontier, named for the tri-border area in South America between Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil which is considered one of the most dangerous areas in the world. The project was slow to get going but made a huge coup when it was announced that Tom Hanks would be starring in the film. Then Osama Bin Laden was shot, Bigelow got distracted and the future of the project is up in the air. That doesn't mean that other filmmakers aren't going to see the story potential in the region, however.

THR has learned that Jose Padilha (who is on the shortlist of directors for The Wolverine) has teamed up with Gran Torino writer Nick Schenk for Tri-Border. The story will focus on a Boston DEA agent who is sent to the region after arresting a senator's son during a drug raid. Trying to figure out how to get back home, he tries to learn how the system operates and realizes that the key is to take down a reigning drug dealer. Said Padilha about the project, "The idea is to have a political film hidden inside an action film; a film that can entertain and teach people about the tri-border and the international crime in general."

Federal agents? Drug cartels? Foreign environments? A man-on-a-mission storyline? How is it possible that it has taken this long for people to start thinking about making movies set in the triple frontier?