The first season of Netflix’s Narcos was successful but production for the second season was held off for the longest time primarily due to a change of showrunners. The streaming service’s crime thriller drama portrays the life of the late Pablo Escobar, the former Colombian drug lord.
Now, Pablo Escobar’s brother Roberto is demanding the rights to review the show before the second season debuts, Fortune reports. Moreover, he wants Netflix to pay him not $1 million but $1 billion. Roberto Escobar, was the accountant for his brother’s drug gang, and he expects compensation for the rights to his family’s story. In addition to handling the money for his brother’s multibillion-dollar Medellin Cartel drug operation, Roberto Escobar was also in charge of its assassination squad.
Escobar even sent a letter to Netflix asking for the right to review the second season of Narcos and to be fairly compensated from any profits. Part of the letter states “In the first season of Narcos, there were mistakes, lies and discrepancies from the real story. To this date, I am one of the few survivors of the Medellin cartel, and I was Pablo’s closest ally, managing his accounting and he is my brother for life. I think nobody else in the world is alive to determine the validity of the materials, but me.”
Pablo Escobar, who was also known as “The King of Cocaine,” was shot and killed in 1993 by Colombian police. Roberto Escobar, was sent to prison for his role in the drug cartel, and wrote a book in 2009 titled The Accountant’s Story. Additionally, in the letter Escobar also indicated that he owns “successor-in-interest rights” to the Escobar family name. In the Netflix series, the cartel’s accountant is not Robert Escobar but a close friend of Pablo, which may have been another factor that bothered him. In the show, Roberto Escobar gets fired and is shown as a CIA informant. The character of Robert Escobar hasn’t actually appeared on Netflix’s Narcos.
Olof Gustafsson, the CEO Escobar Inc., a company formed by Roberto Escobar, said that he tried to contact Netflix (before the show was released) but never heard back. “I think it is important that they recognize Roberto Escobar’s wishes to review the show they are putting out, ensuring the family and viewers of an accurate portrayal of Pablo and Roberto,” Gustafsson said. Escobar added that “a billion is what we used to make in a good week in the 1980s and 1990s. Apparently money is now growing on trees in favor of Netflix after my show was released. They should pay me immediately. If they decline my offer we have attorneys ready to proceed with necessary actions. I don’t think there will be any more Narcos if they do not talk to me. They are playing me without paying. I am not a monkey in a circus, I don’t work for pennies.”
The second season of Netflix’s Narcos premieres September 2nd, 2016