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After sweeping the Oscars earlier this year, Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal are not surprisingly hot property in Hollywood, with early rumors about potential big name castings for their next collaboration, a “Traffic”-esque drug parable titled “Triple Frontier,” now proving to be partially true.

Details courtesy of a leaked Paramount email report that Bigelow has in fact been meeting with the likes of Christian Bale and Will Smith, in addition to the previously rumored Javier Bardem and Sean Penn (though no mention of Denzel Washington) for the project with an ensemble cast being put together for what could be a December/January start.

Set in the notorious, titular border zone between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil called ‘la triple frontera,’ where the Igazu and Parana rivers converge, the film will reportedly take inspiration from the existing crime haven that exists due to monitoring difficulty. It was also revealed that the film would be utilizing the same “raw and visceral visual style” of “The Hurt Locker” and be somewhat of a “a Spanish-language variation” of that film due to its location.

Last we heard, Boal had been talking with actors and plans to begin production sometime next year, however with a draft of the script which, according to the email, “came in great” and a December or January start being eyed, things are being moved along a bit more quickly than we expected.

However, it should be noted that a Paramount rep has said the email has “some correct information and some inaccurrate information” and trying to speculate further on the details and what-ifs is probably a wasted effort. Additionally, actors generally take lots of meetings for projects they never sign on to, so don’t be surprised if only one (or none) of the names here ends up officially signing on.

Either way, all interesting developments for a project we didn’t figure had a chance of getting started by the end of the year. Details could possibly come together very soon especially if the December start is truly on the cards, and undoubtedly Paramount would be keen to have it for their Oscar race next fall. We know we definitely can’t wait to hear more.