Benicio Del Toro is in talks to play some cartel muscle in Oliver Stone’s Savages. Deadline also reports that Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson appear to be locked in to play the lead roles of two pot growers who get in over their head (the actors were said to be in talks for Savages last week, but now appear to be firmly attached to the film).
Johnson and Kitsch will play Ben and Chon, two Laguna Beach pot growers who live an idyllic life with their shared girlfriend, O. Del Toro will be Lado, the enforcer of a Mexican drug cartel who kidnaps O when Ben and Chon refuse to work for them. Instead of doing what the drug heavies want, Ben and Chon hatch a plan to steal from the cartel, even with Lado breathing down their necks.
Jennifer Lawrence had been attached to play O, but she recently dropped out after landing the role of Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games. Salma Hayek is also in the mix to play the head of the drug cartel, although a deal hasn’t been signed yet.