Johnny (ice cold) Depp

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Johnny Depp: From Pirate to Vampire

The Man in Black, Will Smith, and The Man in Pirate's Garb, Johnny Depp, look set to team up for the first time in their respectively illustrious careers.

Blackfilm.com says Depp is in talks to join the cast of "I am Legend", Smith's next film, about a war-savaged Los Angeles and the one man (Smith) who survives the biological attack – now forced to battle nocturnal mutants to stay alive.

This will be the third time that Richard Matheson's novel of the same name has been turned into a film – it was previously made as "The Last Man on Earth", and later, "The Omega Man". This second remake has been on the cards for years, at one stage set-up as a starring vehicle for Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"Constantine" director Francis Lawrence will call the shots when the film gets underway in NYC in September.

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King of the world of adaptation
Source: Los Angeles Times

Indiana Jones, meet Jack Sparrow. Jim Uhls, who successfully adapted the "unadaptable" Chuck Palahniuk novel "Fight Club," has been hired to turn "Rex Mundi," a series of graphic novels by Arvid Nelson and Eric Johnson, into a feature for Johnny Depp to star in and produce through his Infinitum Nihil (Infinite Nothing) production company.

"Rex Mundi" (King of the World) posits an alternate present of 1933 in which the Reformation never happened, the Inquisition is still in full swing, Europe remains dominated by the Catholic Church and the rest of the world consists of colonies. Depp, who became the biggest movie star in the world this summer by reprising his Keith Richards-inspired swashbuckler, would play a pathologist investigating the mysterious death of the priest who found him as an orphan.

"It's a noir-ish 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' " Uhls says. "There are murders and a mystery, and the lead character discovers a massive conspiracy, biblical in its origin." Though it may sound an awful lot like a "Da Vinci Code" rip-off, Depp will surely sport less offensive hair than Tom Hanks, even if he decides to base this new character on John Lydon (Johnny Rotten).

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Depp lights up 'Dark Shadows'
Graham King to produce Warner feature
Source: Variety

Johnny Depp is getting in touch with his inner vampire.

Warner Bros. is teaming with Depp's Infinitum-Nihil and Graham King's GK Films to develop a feature based on the '60s daytime supernatural sudser "Dark Shadows."

Depp has said in interviews that he has always been obsessed with "Dark Shadows" and had, as a child, wanted to be Barnabas Collins, the vampire patriarch of the series. The role was originated by Jonathan Frid.

A rights deal just closed with the estate of Dan Curtis, the producer/director who created the soap that aired weekdays on ABC, from 1966 to 1971. Depp and King will produce with David Kennedy, who ran Dan Curtis Prods. until Curtis died last year of a brain tumor. Infinitum-Nihil's Christi Dembrowski served as the point person on the deal.

Over 1,225 episodes, "Dark Shadows" was a highly atmospheric, spooky soap that featured gothic horror staples like vampires, monsters, witches, werewolves, ghosts and zombies. The show has a continuing rabid fan base that populates Dark Shadows Festival conventions. Numerous TV revivals of the series and pic adaptations have been attempted over the years but none with as high-wattage a star as Depp.

Depp, who is coming off "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" and who just wrapped the Tim Burton-directed "Sweeney Todd," is next expected to star in "Shantaram," a Mira Nair-directed adaptation of the Gregory David Roberts novel that Depp, King and Plan B are producing for Warner Bros. Depp, King and WB are also mobilizing to make a film about the life of Alexander Litvinenko, with Depp poised to play the former KGB agent, who was fatally poisoned.

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Johnny Depp's 'Dark Shadows' Adaptation 'Very Active'...With Tim Burton Directing?
Source: MTV

Supernatural gothic sagas are crazy hot right now: HBO's "True Blood," those "Twilight" flicks everyone keeps talking about, plus a host of upcoming films like Benicio Del Toro's "The Wolfman" and Nicolas Cage's "Season of the Witch." Even "Spider-Man 4"'s rumored villain is a vampire. Another of these Zeitgeist-y projects is the Johnny Depp-starring adaptation of the 1960s soap opera, "Dark Shadows," which had been in development even before this obsession with monsters, ghosts and witches took hold.

But since word of the planned film surfaced two years ago, reliable "Dark Shadows" news has been hard to come by. Now an executive in Depp's production company, Infinitum-Nihil, which is developing the movie, confirmed some details for MTV News, left others up in the air, and hinted that we might be seeing the makings of a new supernatural franchise.

Most importantly, we wanted to know if Johnny Depp is still attached to star. "Indeed he is," confirmed Sam Sarkar, Infinitum's director of development.

When it came to those Internet rumors about Tim Burton signing on to direct, though, Sarkar was somewhat more circumspect. "I can neither confirm nor deny that," he said. "But I know it's out there in the ether."

Sounds like a deal is not yet in place but that Burton, who's currently busy with another Depp-staring movie, "Alice in Wonderland," tops Infinitum's list of prospective directors. Of course, Depp and Burton have a long creative history together, from "Edward Scissorhands" to "Ed Wood" to "Sweeney Todd."

While all the pieces are not yet in place, "Dark Shadows" is still very much a go at Warner Bros. "All I can say is that one is very active," Sarkar said. "The studio will be making some announcements regarding it pretty soon. Very soon, probably."

"Dark Shadows" premiered on ABC in 1966. Gothic romance, ghost stories, plots involving vampires, zombies and time-travel—the daytime soap had it all, and it became a runaway hit for the network over 1,225 episodes. The task facing producers is simply finding a way to shape a movie around such abundant, wide-ranging material.

"It was a soap opera—it was a daily show," said Sarkar. "That's something people forget. It's one thing to adapt a weekly television series into a movie—it's another thing to take a soap opera that's been serialized daily and try to boil it down to two hours."

As much as they'll be forced to change and excise, they're also committed to honoring an adored show. "I think it will be very true to the spirit of 'Dark Shadows,'" Sarkar told us. "I think there's going to be an authenticity to it."

Any modifications will be made with the blessing of the mind behind the original series. Said Sarkar, "When Dan Curtis, the creator, was still alive, I met with [producer] David Kennedy, who originally brought the project to us and Curtis, and David has always been very adamant that there are certain things you should definitely take liberties with."

And if the "Dark Shadows" film turns out to be a success, there's a good chance it will spawn a franchise. "Obviously, it's a movie that can continue," said Sarkar, "because there were so many things going on in 'Dark Shadows.'"

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Mike Newell to Direct The Lone Ranger
Source: ComingSoon

Mike Newell is in talks to direct Walt Disney Pictures' The Lone Ranger, reports Production Weekly.

The Lone Ranger's origin story begins with a group of Texas Rangers chasing down a gang of outlaws led by Butch Cavendish. The gang ambushes the Rangers, seemingly killing them all. One survivor is found, however, by an American Indian named Tonto (Johnny Depp), who nurses him back to health. The Ranger, donning a mask and riding a white stallion named Silver, teams up with Tonto to bring the unscrupulous gang and others of that ilk to justice.

Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio wrote the script. Newell directed Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and is helming the upcoming Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

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Johnny Depp traveling to 'Tourist'
Actor in talks to replace Sam Worthington in film remake
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Every tourist has some war stories.

The thriller remake "The Tourist," from Graham King's GK Films, has run into another set of hiccoughs, with major players moving around like luggage on a conveyor. Male lead Sam Worthington has fallen off, and Johnny Depp is in negotiations to replace him.

Additionally, after flirting with the project, director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has moved on, and Alfonso Cuaron is in early talks to step in. Bharat Nalluri was once attached to direct, with Tom Cruise in the lead role.

Angelina Jolie -- herself a recent replacement for Charlize Theron, who was long attached to the project -- remains in the lead female role.

The revamp of the 2005 French spy thriller "Anthony Zimmer" involves a female Interpol agent who ropes an everyman American tourist visiting France into becoming bait in the hunt for a wanted criminal who's also her former lover.

King, who picked up the project from Spyglass, is financing and distributing through his new output deal with Sony.

The UTA-repped Depp has several films in the can -- "Alice in Wonderland," "The Rum Diary" -- but has been waiting to get his next project moving. The fourth "Pirates of the Caribbean" at Disney had been a strong possibility.

Cuaron, also repped by UTA, last directed "Children of Men" in 2006.

Production on "Tourist" is scheduled to begin early next year.

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The Rum Diary's in the can? Well, fuck yeah?

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Depp directing Keith Richards docu
Actor to begin work on the project next week
Source: Variety

Johnny Depp will direct a documentary on Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, who served as an inspiration for Depp's Jack Sparrow character in "Pirates of the Caribbean."

A rep for Depp confirmed a recent report in the Serbian magazine Politika, in which he said he would begin work on the project next week. Depp and Richards have been friends for more than a decade. The guitar player also played Depp's father in "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."

Depp last directed 1997's "The Brave," starring Marlon Brando. He'll be seen next in Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland."

Richards agreed in 2007 to pen an autobiography to be published by Little, Brown & Co. in the U.S. and Weidenfeld & Nicolson in Britain in the fall of this year.