Elite Squad director José Padilha is teaming up with Gran Torino screenwriter Nick Schenk for a drug-themed action movie entitled Tri-Border.

The story centers on a DEA agent who is sent to a drug-addled region of Paraguay, as punishment for busting the son of a U.S. Senator. The story will follow the various criminal enterprises in the region along the borders of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil, as the agent tries to capture a drug overlord so he can return back to the United States.

This Tri-Border project is similar in theme to Triple Frontier, which Kathryn Bigelow is directing from a script by Mark Boal. However, Triple Frontier has been put on the back-burner since the Untitled Kathryn Bigelow Project is moving forward, which is being rewritten by Mark Boal to include the death of Osama Bin Laden.

José Padilha is self-financing the development of Tri-Border, and both the director and writer Nick Schenk are currently on a research trip in the area. Here's what José Padilha had to say about the project, in comparison to his feature debut, Elite Squad.

"It's a different reality, in a totally different environment: the frontier of three countries, in which one finds many different players operating, ranging from Italian, Chinese and Serbian mafias, to Bolivian, Colombian and Brazilian drug dealers, including Lebanese smugglers suspected of helping Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as corrupted police and politicians from Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina."

It isn't clear when production will start on Tri-Border yet. José Padilha is also attached to direct the RoboCop reboot for MGM, although it isn't known when that project will start shooting either.