Jake Gyllenhaal reteaming with Antoine Fuqua for drug drama

Actor Jake Gyllenhaal is going gangster to star in a new movie based on the life of the only American drug smuggler to rise through the ranks of Colombia's deadly Medellin Cartel during the 1980s.

The Man Who Made It Snow will reunite the Brokeback Mountain star with filmmaker Antoine Fuqua, after working together on upcoming boxing drama Southpaw.

Gyllenhaal will portray Max Mermelstein, a Jewish hotel engineer who became part of Pablo Escobar's inner circle after helping to turn his small cocaine smuggling operation into a billion dollar enterprise, according to Deadline.com.

Mermelstein was arrested in 1985 and eventually became a key informant for the government.

He published his memoir, also titled The Man Who Made It Snow, in 1990 and died in 2008.