Javier Bardem & Penelope Cruz Mark 7th Collaboration in Pablo Escobar Biopic

Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz are reportedly collaborating on the big screen once again.

The real life couple is set to star as the leads of a biopic about Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, Fox News Latino reported. Announced by Luc Besson's EuropaCorp on Wednesday at the Cannes Film Festival, the project is based on Virginia Vallejo's 2008 best-selling memoir "Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar."

The film titled "Escobar" will center on the notorious drug lord's rise to power. Vallejo is a Colombian journalist and television anchor "whose career ended in the mid-1990s when it was revealed she had an affair with Escobar 10 years earlier," Fox News Latino added. Her memoir was published in 2007 and was forced to seek asylum in the United States three year later, according to her website bio.

In addition to her romantic affair with Escobar, Vallejo's book details "how the cocaine industry grew, the atrocities he was involved in, and the relationship that the Medellin and Cali cartels had with Caribbean dictators and Colombian presidents," Digital Trends reported.

Spaniard Fernando Leon de Aranoa is set to direct and write the screenplay of Escobar's biopic, The Hollywood Reporter wrote. Jere Hausfater, Dany Boon, and Todd Nichols serve as executive producers, with Bardem, Dean Nichols, and EuropaCorp CEO Christophe Lambert as producers. Bardem and León de Aranoa worked together on 2002's Spanish-language "Mondays In the Sun," Deadline noted.

"Escobar" will mark the seventh film collaboration of Bardem, 46, and Cruz, 41, Fox News Latino noted. The movie stars previously worked together in "Jamon Jamon" (1992), "Love Can Seriously Damage Your Health" (1996), "Trembling Flesh" (1997), "Don't Tempt Me" (2001), "Vicky Christina Barcelona" (2008), and "The Counselor" (2013).

The couple has been married since 2010 with two children, 18-month old Luna and 3-year-old Leo, Daily Mail reported. Cruz and Bardem first met on the set of Spanish film "Jamon Jamon" when the actress was just 18. Their friendship turned into romance 16 years later while working on Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona."

Both Academy Award winners, Cruz won the Oscars for the best actress in a supporting role category for her work in "Vicky Christina Barcelona," while Bardem also won the best actor in a supporting role award for "No Country for Old Men," Fox News Latino added.

Bardem also stars in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales," the fifth installment of the hit Disney franchise. Cruz previously starred in the fourth movie of the franchise, 2011's "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides." 

"Escobar" is expected to start shooting later this year, The Hollywood Reporter noted. International sales are launching at Cannes.