Johnny Depp is a very busy man.
Not only is he knee-deep in promotion and post-production for Alice in Wonderland, Depp will once again be joining forces with Tim Burton in the vampire flick Dark Shadows, targeted for a 2011 release with filming beginning in 2010. Burton confirmed to the LA Times that Dark Shadows will be his next project as soon as he wraps up post-production on Wonderland.
Burton described the 1960s vampire soap opera as having “the weirdest vibe to it,” and it most certainly will again with Burton and Depp at the helm. The prolific Depp’s production company, Infinitum Nihil, has optioned the film, and Depp will be taking the lead role of the vampire Barnabus Collins, which he confessed was a “lifelong dream.”
According to IMDb, Depp’s company has over a dozen films in development right now, including 2011’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret, an adaptation of Brian Selznik’s Caldecott-winning novel.
Depp himself is immersed in a variety of acting roles. On the heels of Public Enemies comes Wonderland, The Rum Diary, The Lone Ranger, and Rango (Depp voices the title character). He’s also rumored to be taking part in The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, In the Hands of Dante, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, and Sin City 3.
And who can forget the incomparable Jack Sparrow? Depp is reprising his role in Pirates of the Caribbean 4, which is currently in the script-writing stage and which, according to Disney’s Head of Production Oren Aviv, will begin filming in 2010.
The movies have subsequently gotten bigger and bigger and very complicated and they were satisfying on so many levels obviously, but I want to kind of reboot the whole thing and bring it down to its core, its essence, just characters.
This “reboot” will apparently include backstory on Depp’s eccentric character and will possibly be the first in a new trilogy, rather than a sequel to the first. Either way, Pirates fans will be lining up to see it.
As if all this wasn’t enough, Depp is also rumored to be taking on a Frank Sinatra biopic produced and directed by Martin Scorsese. Of course, nothing is confirmed, and there is also a rumor that the role will be taken by Leonardo DiCaprio, so Depp might not end up being connected to the film at all. Then again, there are the other members of the Rat Pack to consider…
Whether Depp characterizes the crooner or not won’t diminish the impact his career has made on modern cinema. Johnny Depp is undisputably one of the best actors of his generation with more than two dozen awards under his belt. All he needs now is an Oscar; maybe one of his many upcoming ventures will get him there… if he doesn’t burn out in the attempt.
Source:
examiner.com
