What does this mean for Joe Carnahan’s Killing Pablo?

Christian Bale is in final negotiations to join Johnny Depp in Michael Mann’s Public Enemies.

Bale would play FBI agent Melvin Purvis, the agent that led the government efforts to capture John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) as well as other notorious gangsters such as Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd.

PE is adapted from Brian Burrough’s book, Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34, and would start filming in March. Bale would then start production on Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins .

Now Christian Bale is also supposed to be starring in Joe Carnahan’s Killing Pablo. Taking on PE pretty much fills his schedule for 2008. This means that Bale is either out of KP or that it is being pushed back to 2009. Bale was slated to play the Army Commander in charge of capturing Escobar.

This would not be the first time Carnahan has lost an actor. George Clooney and Chris Pine each opted out of White Jazz; Clooney because Leatherheads post-production ran long and Pine because of scheduling conflicts between White Jazz and Star Trek. Pine is playing a young James T. Kirk.