JOHNNY-DEPP.org

AUTHOR: Terri

Filmfodder.com – Director Peter Weir has exited “Shantaram,” the Warner Brothers adaptation of the Gregory David Roberts novel starring and produced by Johnny Depp, according to Variety – by Shannon Nolley.

Several sources speculated that Weir and Depp were unable to reach agreement about the direction of the film.

However, a spokesman for Warner said that the conflict was not limited to Depp. “Peter moved on from this film because his interpretation of it differed greatly than that of the studio and producers,” the spokesman said.

Depp remains entrenched in the project. In addition to his role as the story’s lead character Lindsay, Depp’s company Infinitum Nihil is producing. It was apparently Depp who convinced the studio to strike the $2 million deal for the book’s film rights.

While Warner has just begun its search for a new director, the studio remains optimistic that production will start by Spring 2007.

read full article

PR Inside – The world’s foremost pirate expert has warned JOHNNY DEPP not to start digging up his Bahamas island retreat looking for HENRY MORGAN’s buried treasure because he won’t find a doubloon.

DAVID CORDINGLEY, the author of UNDER THE BLACK FLAG: THE
ROMANCE & REALITY OF LIFE AMONG THE PIRATES, has exploded the myth that islands like Depp’s Little Halls Pond Cay are where Caribbean pirates like Morgan hid the gold and silver they plundered.

“My research tells me pirates didn’t bury their treasure. I mean, what’s the point? “Your average pirate captured a ship or raided a port and then went ashore and blew all his money on wine, women and gambling.

“The whole treasure island thing is really all down to ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON and his book TREASURE ISLAND. The influence of that book is quite fantastic.

“I don’t think Johnny Depp will find buried treasure on his island.” The actor’s retreat, for which he paid a reported $3.5 million (

read full article

The Star – The film, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl inspired by a popular Walt Disney theme park ride; may have been an average affair if it weren’t for Johnny Depp’s performance as a likeable pirate. It is practically legendary now that Depp has loosely based Sparrow’s look and personality on rock n roller Keith Richards. Apparently, the excessive makeup on Depp’s face came to be when the crew put it on for filming in the cave so the character doesn’t look washed out on film.

Then the crew realised how cool the makeup looked on Depp, they continued to use it on him for the rest of the movie. And those gold teeth are real… Depp had his dentist implant them into his mouth for the production. The then Disney executive Michael Eisner thought there were too many and asked him to remove all but a few…

This is an article excerpt. To view the article in full, please visit The Star online.

read full article

BODY:
WENN – JOHNNY DEPP has agreed for his former lover KATE MOSS to star alongside him in an upcoming MICHAEL HUTCHENCE biopic.

Depp, who will play the late INXS frontman, split up with the supermodel in 1997 after a stormy three-year romance. But he is happy for Moss to get close again, and play Hutchence’s girlfriend PAULA YATES in the rock movie.

An insider tells British newspaper the Daily Express, “Johnny was asked if it would be a deal breaker for him if Kate was cast. “He said, ‘Not as far as I’m concerned.’ He figures there’s been enough water under that bridge.

Hutchence was found dead in a Sydney, Australia, hotel room in 1997.

read full article

The Evening Standard – 23 May 2006 – Author James Meek’s first novel, The People’s Act of Love, won the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize for the book ‘that best evokes the spirit of a place’, and guests were told that it had just been optioned by Johnny Depp to make into a film.

*****************

New York, NY: Canongate (2006)
The People’s Act of Love
by James Meek

Johnny Depp says:

“As with any great work, James Meeks’ The People’s Act of Love is bound to raise comparisons – and as in almost all cases, being wrangled into that snare is a trap that should be avoided at all costs. This incredible book should and will rest on its own laurels as a treatise on the complicated nature of love and humanity. The author has himself earned every brilliant word, sentence and chapter of this divine masterpiece.”

*Our thanks to Johnnydepp-zone and Johnny Depp Reads for this information.

read full article

The Bosh – Johnny Depp may be smooching his ex-fiancee Kate Moss again – albeit on the silver screen. Johnny is in talks to star in a movie about Michael Hutchence – the lead singer of INXS who committed suicide in 1997. And model Kate, who dated Depp from 1994-1997 is on the short list to play his wife.

read full article

Robert Edwards [writer/director] is currently adapting the book THE BOMB IN MY GARDEN for Warner Brothers, Initial Entertainment Group, and Johnny Depp’s production company Infinitum Nihil. “The Bomb in My Garden,” co-written with journalist Kurt Pitzer, is the memoir of Dr. Mahdi Obeidi, who until his escape from Iraq in 2003 had been the architect of Saddam Hussein’s covert program to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon.

Pitzer has published additional writing on Obeidi entitled In the Garden of Armageddon on the MotherJones.com website…

read full article

Newsweek – May 8, 2006 issue: Blockbusters are like candy: you can enjoy a few, but pretty soon you need some real nourishment. Here, in order, are the summer films that we’re most excited about -big or small, right or wrong.

#1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Three years ago, almost everyone predicted that “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” would be a cheesy also-ran in the big summer box-office race. Pirate movies had tanked for years. Johnny Depp had never had a real hit. Worst of all, it was based on a Disney theme-park ride. It just had to sink, right? Yeah. Like “Titanic.”

It not only raked in a massive $654 million worldwide but was a rollicking pleasure cruise that had the whole country yo-ho-ho-ing. We’d rather walk the plank than miss this sequel. (Or the third one, which will be released next summer.) Johnny Depp returns as the louche Capt. Jack Sparrow, who owes his soul to undersea captain Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), with his octopus beard, crab-claw arm and half-human/half-crustacean crew.

On the eve of their wedding, Will (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) get yanked back into the shenanigans, and pretty soon they’re seeking the spiritual guidance of a red-eyed, dreadlocked Gypsy queen (Naomie Harris), and Captain Jack is being served-a la carte,

read full article

Author Gregory David Roberts talks on the film adaptation, wanting to cast Charlize Theron opposite Johnny Depp – by Preeti Raghunath.

Gregory David Roberts stepped out of the leaves of Shantaram for a book signing session at JW Marriott last week.

Heading to the Bahamas in June to meet with Johnny Depp and director Peter Weir for the movie based on his book, he says, “We start shooting on November 1, but I’ve been busy travelling around the world giving speeches.”

The casting team are auditioning for Indian actors from South Africa, UK, Canada and Australia. “I think Charlize Theron is the best actor on this planet and would suit the role of Karla just right! There’s also Monica Bellucci, Naomi Watts, Jennifer Connelly and Kate Beckinsale who could play the part,” he adds.

From being a criminal to now being wined and dined by high-society, the transition for Roberts has been fairly easy.

“When I was a gunda, I never hurt anyone. I was helping people and am able to continue now,” he says.

Having personally gone to penitentiary hell and back, ask him if he has any pearls of wisdom for Salman Khan, and he says, “I have the same wish for every artiste – that they’re free and continue to create beautiful art.”

read full article

Dogmatika – Jerry Stahl is part of the script writing team [with Terry Zwigoff] who wrote the book I, Fatty that Infinitum Nihil optioned for a future film. Another future project in collaboration with Johnny Depp is Happy Days with the same script writing team.

Terry Zwigoff:: I’m working on trying to cast a film that I have a script to that’s a really great script that I don’t really want to tell you what it is in case I can’t get it cast to please the studio. Cause if that – if I don’t – I mean, the trouble in making films in Hollywood at a decent budget, where we can have good production design and time for nice cinematography, is that you really have to get bankable movie stars in the film. And oftentimes, those are not the right people to do justice to the script. So it’s always a struggle.

“What is this person worth?”
“Well, but they’re no good for the part.”
“Can I get this one?”
“No, they’re not worth anything and overseas.”

So that’s what I’m struggling with that. And I’m writing -adapting a book for Johnny Depp called Happy Days, getting paid to turn this into a script and maybe direct it down the road.

It’s a French book by this guy Laurent Graff.

read full article