From THR
Johnny Depp in Negotiations to Star in 'Transcendence' for Alcon
Showing posts with label Johnny Depp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Johnny Depp. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Johnny
It's been a while since I've been excited for any of Johnny's roles but this one looks very interesting. Johnny is a fine actor who for too long has been content with doing various iterations of Cap'n Jack and hiding behind fantastical make-up and costumes. We don't know how Pfister will fare as a director or Paglen as a screenwriter but they'll be ably supported by a host of experienced filmmakers. And it looks like they are assembling a strong cast.
From THR
From THR
Monday, May 14, 2012
Dark Shadows & Johnny's draw
I've always believed that the success of Alice in Wonderland owed more to the popularity of the title and its having fortuitously opened after Avatar than affection for Johnny's Mad Hatter or the film itself. The success of Pirates however is love for Cap'n Jack as well as love for a swashbuckling family adventure film with a stirring Hans Zimmer score. But as a result of both films' billion dollar grosses, Johnny was quickly dubbed the biggest box office star in the world. He is a big draw, but not as big as they made him out to be. I believe Angelina was the bigger draw in The Tourist because Johnny looked puffy and bloated and it wasn't the image his fans wanted to see.
Some critics have certainly soured on Johnny for just churning out variations of his Cap'n Jack schtick over the last few years, and that may be true for some movie fans as well. But hard core fans tend to be very forgiving of repeat material -- just look at Adam Sandler's filmography.
The Rum Diary's gross is probably a better measure of what Johnny can pull on his own in a non-fantasy role. And this past weekend's opening numbers for Dark Shadows is a fairer measure of what Johnny and Tim Burton can pull in together without the added boost from a popular title.
So it isn't so much that America has fallen out of love with Johnny as their love was previously overstated. Now that they have a bigger sample, they're better able to calibrate Johnny's true box office drawing power in mainstream big-budget films.
But entertainment writers are not known for their analytical abilities. Hence Zeltchik's erroneous statement below that there has been a steady erosion in the love for Johnny. That clearly isn't true since POTC 4 was just released last year and when POTC 5 & 6 are released, his box office numbers would surely go up again. But what they do show is that his popularity is tied closely to a specific title. His POTC fans largely don't follow him over to other titles. In that sense he has more in common with stars of other successful franchises like Matt Damon and Bourne or Tobey McGuire and Spiderman.
Steven Zeitchik @ZeitchikLAT
Vampire movies are fading. Tim Burton has taken an odd left turn. “The Avengers” was going to be an unstoppable force no matter what opened against it.
There are no shortage of reasons why “Dark Shadows” sputtered at the box office this past weekend, grossing just $28.8 million. (To put it in context, it was Burton’s lowest total ever for a wide opener — even “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” took in nearly double that amount. Or as my colleague Amy Kaufman put it, chalking up the movie's failure at least partly to things Marvel, “‘Avengers’ sucked the life out of ‘Dark Shadows’ … [leaving] the vampire comedy looking pallid.”)
Certainly it was hard to ignore the halo effect of the Downey-fest on any weekend comer. But equally conspicuous was the sight of Johnny Depp in yet another domestic disappointment. Since overperforming in “Alice in Wonderland” more than two years ago, Depp has been involved in seemingly one misstep after another.
He signed on to an art-house actioner in “The Tourist,” which flopped at the U.S. box office and became known mostly for its cringe-worthy Golden Globe nomination for best musical or comedy. He followed that up with what appeared to be a reliable breadwinner in a fourth ”Pirates of the Caribbean” movie last summer — only to see it become the lowest-grossing domestic performer of the franchise.
A new Hunter S. Thompson stab, “The Rum Diary,” was a flop even by the author’s modest standards, tacking in just $13 million at home.
And now there’s "Dark Shadows," a dismal movie for reviewers — its 42% rating on Rotten Tomatoes was 15 percentage points below “Transformers,” to give you an idea — and an equally bad performer by commercial standards. Even “Public Enemies” nearly matched its opening-weekend total.
But Depp isn’t completely faltering. International audiences seem to love him more than ever. Though it flopped here, the most recent “Pirates” was the second-highest-grossing film of the franchise internationally. “The Tourist” was a downright smash overseas, tallying $210 million, three times as much as it grossed at home.
“Dark Shadows” didn't blow international audiences away when it opened in more than three dozen markets this weekend. But with about $37 million, the remake of the campy American soap has tallied more abroad than it has here.
It may be premature to say that Depp is turning into a kind of Oscar-friendly Steven Seagal, a man more popular overseas than at home. But America certainly seems to have gotten over its obsession with Depp (who now of course spends a lot of time in Paris), an obsession that during his "Edward Scissorhands" / "Gilbert Grape" heyday made him either a box-office force or a teen pinup, or both. At 48, he's clearly making choices that international audiences are responding to a lot more than American ones.
Next up for Depp is “The Lone Ranger,” which hits theaters in May 2013. it will be the ultimate test of Depp's appeal. Few stories get more American than that. And Depp has never seemed like less of a U.S. favorite.
Johnny Depp's career has been set on cruise control for years, and it's
worked splendidly. He's Hollywood's highest-paid actor along with Will
Smith, received not one but two Golden Globe nominations in 2011 (for
two of his worst films) and is happy getting paid stupid amounts of money even though he agrees it's ridiculous and does not find it stimulating.
He's got plenty of upcoming projects, including Rob Marshall's remake
of "The Thin Man," a fifth "Pirates" film and "The Lone Ranger" with
"Pirates" and "Rango" director Gore Verbinski. But Depp's "Dark
Shadows," his eighth film with Tim Burton, opened soft
to mixed reviews (although Manohla Dargis and Anthony Lane were kind).
It serves as a reminder that -- as the LAT's 24 Frames suggests -- America may be falling out of love with Depp. For many, the Johnny Depp we love has long been relegated to DVD and VHS.
What went wrong?
SIGNATURE QUOTE: "No, no, I got thrown out of school for that." - to Joon, as Sam, after his Buster-Keaton-in-the-park scene in "Benny & Joon."
THE START: The horror classic "Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984) and the original TV series "21 Jump Street" (1987-1990) preceded Depp dropping out of high school to become a rock musician. His first wife, the sister of one of his bandmates, introduced him to Nicolas Cage, who encouraged Depp to pursue an acting career.
BIGGEST ASSET: One of a kind and globally beloved.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: The early-nineties foursome of "Edward Scissorhands" (1990), "Benny & Joon" (1993), "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" (1993) and "Ed Wood"
(1994) are still Depp's most creative works, where his originality and
charm was still being discovered and explored. Of "Benny & Joon," NYT's Janet Maslin
gushed that "Mr. Depp may look nothing like Buster Keaton, but there
are times when he genuinely seems to become the Great Stone Face,
bringing Keaton's mannerisms sweetly and magically to life." Todd
McCarthy stated in his "Gilbert Grape" review: "Depp manages to command center screen with a greatly affable, appealing characterization."
Some critics have certainly soured on Johnny for just churning out variations of his Cap'n Jack schtick over the last few years, and that may be true for some movie fans as well. But hard core fans tend to be very forgiving of repeat material -- just look at Adam Sandler's filmography.
The Rum Diary's gross is probably a better measure of what Johnny can pull on his own in a non-fantasy role. And this past weekend's opening numbers for Dark Shadows is a fairer measure of what Johnny and Tim Burton can pull in together without the added boost from a popular title.
So it isn't so much that America has fallen out of love with Johnny as their love was previously overstated. Now that they have a bigger sample, they're better able to calibrate Johnny's true box office drawing power in mainstream big-budget films.
But entertainment writers are not known for their analytical abilities. Hence Zeltchik's erroneous statement below that there has been a steady erosion in the love for Johnny. That clearly isn't true since POTC 4 was just released last year and when POTC 5 & 6 are released, his box office numbers would surely go up again. But what they do show is that his popularity is tied closely to a specific title. His POTC fans largely don't follow him over to other titles. In that sense he has more in common with stars of other successful franchises like Matt Damon and Bourne or Tobey McGuire and Spiderman.
Steven Zeitchik
With each successive movie, Americans love Johnny Depp a little less. http://lat.ms/JObWhd
‘Dark Shadows’: Has America fallen out of love with Johnny Depp?
May 14, 2012 | 7:45
am
Vampire movies are fading. Tim Burton has taken an odd left turn. “The Avengers” was going to be an unstoppable force no matter what opened against it.
There are no shortage of reasons why “Dark Shadows” sputtered at the box office this past weekend, grossing just $28.8 million. (To put it in context, it was Burton’s lowest total ever for a wide opener — even “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” took in nearly double that amount. Or as my colleague Amy Kaufman put it, chalking up the movie's failure at least partly to things Marvel, “‘Avengers’ sucked the life out of ‘Dark Shadows’ … [leaving] the vampire comedy looking pallid.”)
Certainly it was hard to ignore the halo effect of the Downey-fest on any weekend comer. But equally conspicuous was the sight of Johnny Depp in yet another domestic disappointment. Since overperforming in “Alice in Wonderland” more than two years ago, Depp has been involved in seemingly one misstep after another.
He signed on to an art-house actioner in “The Tourist,” which flopped at the U.S. box office and became known mostly for its cringe-worthy Golden Globe nomination for best musical or comedy. He followed that up with what appeared to be a reliable breadwinner in a fourth ”Pirates of the Caribbean” movie last summer — only to see it become the lowest-grossing domestic performer of the franchise.
A new Hunter S. Thompson stab, “The Rum Diary,” was a flop even by the author’s modest standards, tacking in just $13 million at home.
And now there’s "Dark Shadows," a dismal movie for reviewers — its 42% rating on Rotten Tomatoes was 15 percentage points below “Transformers,” to give you an idea — and an equally bad performer by commercial standards. Even “Public Enemies” nearly matched its opening-weekend total.
But Depp isn’t completely faltering. International audiences seem to love him more than ever. Though it flopped here, the most recent “Pirates” was the second-highest-grossing film of the franchise internationally. “The Tourist” was a downright smash overseas, tallying $210 million, three times as much as it grossed at home.
“Dark Shadows” didn't blow international audiences away when it opened in more than three dozen markets this weekend. But with about $37 million, the remake of the campy American soap has tallied more abroad than it has here.
It may be premature to say that Depp is turning into a kind of Oscar-friendly Steven Seagal, a man more popular overseas than at home. But America certainly seems to have gotten over its obsession with Depp (who now of course spends a lot of time in Paris), an obsession that during his "Edward Scissorhands" / "Gilbert Grape" heyday made him either a box-office force or a teen pinup, or both. At 48, he's clearly making choices that international audiences are responding to a lot more than American ones.
Next up for Depp is “The Lone Ranger,” which hits theaters in May 2013. it will be the ultimate test of Depp's appeal. Few stories get more American than that. And Depp has never seemed like less of a U.S. favorite.
Career Watch: The Commodification of Johnny Depp
What went wrong?
SIGNATURE QUOTE: "No, no, I got thrown out of school for that." - to Joon, as Sam, after his Buster-Keaton-in-the-park scene in "Benny & Joon."
THE START: The horror classic "Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984) and the original TV series "21 Jump Street" (1987-1990) preceded Depp dropping out of high school to become a rock musician. His first wife, the sister of one of his bandmates, introduced him to Nicolas Cage, who encouraged Depp to pursue an acting career.
BIGGEST ASSET: One of a kind and globally beloved.
Depp with Al Pacino in "Donnie Brasco"
Once his stardom was established, he kept things interesting in "Don
Juan DeMarco" (1994), "Donnie Brasco" (1997), "Fear and Loathing in Las
Vegas" (1998), "Chocolat" (2000), "Blow" (2001) and "Finding Neverland"
(2004). The 2000s continued with the advent of the "Pirates" franchise,
Michael Mann's "Public Enemies" (2009), which showed a different side of
Depp as John Dillinger, but it was far from revelatory, and the
increasing commercialism of Burton's films - "Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory" (2005).
"Edward" kicked off his breakout career with Tim Burton; Emanuel Levy's review of the film reminisces that the "lovely fairytale began the long, fruitful collaboration with the endlessly versatile Johnny Depp." Their collaborations have earned approximately $813 million and $1.8 billion at the domestic and worldwide box offices, respectively (not including "Dark Shadows"). The four "Pirates of the Caribbean" films have earned $1.3 billion domestic and $3.7 billion worldwide [BoxOfficeMojo].
Depp was in the 2012 Guinness Book of World Records as the highest-paid actor between June 2009 - June 2010 with $75 million. In 2003 and 2009 he was named People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive. Depp has garnered three Oscar nominations, for "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," "Finding Neverland" and "Sweeney Todd." He has been nominated for ten Golden Globes, winning once for "Sweeney Todd." He was nominated twice in 2011 for "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Tourist."
MISFIRES: 2010's "The Tourist" serves as a great example of Depp chasing a huge paycheck for increasingly lacklustre work. With the help of powerhouse Angelina Jolie, "The Tourist" went on to make $278 million worldwide, despite terrible reviews.
Stephen Sondheim's gothic musical "Sweeney Todd" (2007) wasn't a hit, earning only $152 million worldwide, but at least Depp and Burton weren't going through the motions like zombies - the film had life and edge, and Depp had to learn to sing.
"Alice in Wonderland" (2010) - while it made over a billion dollars thanks to premium 3-D prices - was a slap in the face to the novel's purists and a fine example of commerce over content. Depp's March Hare was a VFX stunt. He's starting to rely on over-made-up over-the-top cartoonish performances. As this "Dark Shadows" review states, "[the film's] only meaningful relationship is between Depp and his audience. He's a persona now, no longer an actor" (the same could be said of Jack Sparrow in "Pirates," which got old after #1). Depp's collaborations with Burton have grown uninspired; lifeless and dull instead of dark and delightful. "Dark Shadows" is a career low for everyone involved. As the New York Observer said after "Alice in Wonderland"; "It might be time for Johnny Depp and Tim Burton to start thinking about seeing other people."
Small passion projects aren't the solution: As Paul Kemp in "The Rum Diary" (2011), based on Depp's beloved Hunter S. Thompson novel, Depp hardly charmed anyone; reviews declared the film "limp," "plodding," "muted" and "disappointing."
Animation works. As an animated chameleon-cowboy in "Rango" (2011) the creative spark was lit and it earned $245 million worldwide. Gore Verbinski, the director behind the first three "Pirates" films and "Rango" is also directing the live-action "The Lone Ranger,"
with Depp as Tonto (across from Armie Hammer). It would be wishful
thinking to presume that "Ranger," with its bloated budget, is intending
to be anything other than a mainstream franchise cash cow.
BIGGEST PROBLEM: He sold out.
CAREER ADVICE: Johnny, if you're going to take the stupid money, at least pretend you're enjoying it.
"Edward" kicked off his breakout career with Tim Burton; Emanuel Levy's review of the film reminisces that the "lovely fairytale began the long, fruitful collaboration with the endlessly versatile Johnny Depp." Their collaborations have earned approximately $813 million and $1.8 billion at the domestic and worldwide box offices, respectively (not including "Dark Shadows"). The four "Pirates of the Caribbean" films have earned $1.3 billion domestic and $3.7 billion worldwide [BoxOfficeMojo].
Depp was in the 2012 Guinness Book of World Records as the highest-paid actor between June 2009 - June 2010 with $75 million. In 2003 and 2009 he was named People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive. Depp has garnered three Oscar nominations, for "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," "Finding Neverland" and "Sweeney Todd." He has been nominated for ten Golden Globes, winning once for "Sweeney Todd." He was nominated twice in 2011 for "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Tourist."
MISFIRES: 2010's "The Tourist" serves as a great example of Depp chasing a huge paycheck for increasingly lacklustre work. With the help of powerhouse Angelina Jolie, "The Tourist" went on to make $278 million worldwide, despite terrible reviews.
Stephen Sondheim's gothic musical "Sweeney Todd" (2007) wasn't a hit, earning only $152 million worldwide, but at least Depp and Burton weren't going through the motions like zombies - the film had life and edge, and Depp had to learn to sing.
"Alice in Wonderland" (2010) - while it made over a billion dollars thanks to premium 3-D prices - was a slap in the face to the novel's purists and a fine example of commerce over content. Depp's March Hare was a VFX stunt. He's starting to rely on over-made-up over-the-top cartoonish performances. As this "Dark Shadows" review states, "[the film's] only meaningful relationship is between Depp and his audience. He's a persona now, no longer an actor" (the same could be said of Jack Sparrow in "Pirates," which got old after #1). Depp's collaborations with Burton have grown uninspired; lifeless and dull instead of dark and delightful. "Dark Shadows" is a career low for everyone involved. As the New York Observer said after "Alice in Wonderland"; "It might be time for Johnny Depp and Tim Burton to start thinking about seeing other people."
Small passion projects aren't the solution: As Paul Kemp in "The Rum Diary" (2011), based on Depp's beloved Hunter S. Thompson novel, Depp hardly charmed anyone; reviews declared the film "limp," "plodding," "muted" and "disappointing."
Depp in "Dark Shadows"
BIGGEST PROBLEM: He sold out.
CAREER ADVICE: Johnny, if you're going to take the stupid money, at least pretend you're enjoying it.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
John Carter pre-post-mortem + Johnny + Will
What does the looming write-off from John Carter portend for the films in Disney's pipeline?
Disney will be very nervously watching the production of yet another $200M+ western -- Johnny Depp's The Lone Ranger. The difference of course is that Depp is a huge box office star whereas none of those in Carter are. But even with Johnny, audiences who were unimpressed with back to back Western-set duds (see also Cowboys and Aliens and Jonah Hex) are unlikely to give The Lone Ranger the same reception they gave Pirates.
When Pirates I came out it seemed fresh and fun and was Johnny's first blockbuster after years of making his mark in smaller, quirky productions. But the last three pirates films were awful (including two by Gore Verbinsky who is also helming Lone Ranger) and there may also be a bit of Johnny fatigue settling in since he has hardly left blockbuster territory and seems content to play variations of Cap'n Jack. His Dark Shadows is coming out in two months and the absence of a trailer has had movie writers buzzing.
On the other hand, Journey 2, the sequel to Warner's mid-budget Journey to the Center of the Earth which abandoned Jules Verne's serious dramatic tone and turned it into a children's comic adventure fantasy has been a huge hit. I would imagine that the folks at Disney would look at those results, look at the potential budget battles in making Verne's 20,000 Leagues with David Fincher who has never made a PG-13 film before, and may opt to follow Warner's lead into a more kid-centric movie.
All this circles back to the observation I made earlier that pre-production in 20,000 Leagues seems to have been halted and what that may mean for Cleopatra. If Disney has second thoughts about doing 20,000 Leagues using Fincher's vision (just as Netflix seems to be having with House of Cards), he will be free to do Cleopatra as soon as Roth finishes the script. That would make a late 2012 start a strong possibility.
Netflix and MRC Hit Fincher Reality with 'House of Cards'
Surprise.
In a much ballyhooed deal that was too good to be true, Netflix and MRC (Media Rights Capital) outbid HBO to stream and finance, respectively, the $100-million production "House of Cards," an American remake of the 1990 hit Brit TV series about a politician's rise to the top. Now on the verge of production, reality intervenes.
Kevin Spacey, who is one of six executive producers along with his Trigger Street partner Dana Brunetti, stars with Robin Wright Penn in the "Richard III"-inspired story, which "Ides of March" Oscar nominated co-writer Beau Willimon describes as "bad people doing bad things in the world of Washington." (Video below.) Willimon has been working with the project's uber-boss, executive producer David Fincher, for months; the start date has been pushed from March to April.
Yes, Netflix and MRC managed to get hold of prime content that HBO wanted. (HBO refuses to license its high quality exclusive content to Netflix, which recently lost its Starz deal.) But are these distributor/financeers equipped to supervise production with such high-level talent? (This isn't Netflix-backed "Puffy Chair.")
Of course, THR reports, Fincher wants more money. Why wouldn't he? Although he showed his ability to shoot frugally on $40-million "The Social Network," which was a high-profile but not overtly commercial project, Fincher tends to spend heavily on such studio projects as "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," which was exquisitely executed and won the editing Oscar, but too expensive at $90 million. Most directors are more invested in making their films and series come out as well as possible than the bottom line.
Whether or not "House of Cards" keeps Fincher, many in Hollywood are skeptical about how you commit to spend $100 million on 13 much less 26 episodes in advance, before you've seen them, and before they have proven that they will draw an audience. A-list talent like Fincher require careful handling from supervisors with power, such as producer Scott Rudin or Sony's Amy Pascal. MRC, which tends to be hands-off with productions like "The Adjustment Bureau," is on the hook for the money; Netflix is the distributor. Will MRC chiefs Asif Satchu and Modi Wiczyk get tough? That is the question.
'John Carter' Premiere: Fascinating Disaster
Disney optioned the rights to "A Princess of Mars" for director John McTiernan ("The Hunt for Red October"); then producer James Jacks gave it a whirl at Paramount with Guillermo del Toro and digital techno-whizes Robert Rodriguez ("Spy Kids"), Kerry Conran ("Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow") and finally, Jon Favreau. When Paramount let go of the rights, Favreau went on to direct "Iron Man."
Watching like a hawk the entire time was Pixar writer-director Andrew Stanton, now 45, who grew up on the Marvel Comics Martian novels, and waited 36 years to grab the rights. Disney's then-chairman Dick Cook scooped them up and green-lit a $250 million feature to be adapted and directed by Stanton. (He eventually brought in writers Michael Chabon and Mark Andrews.)
“When you’re 10 or 11 years old, and you’ve discovered girls, but they haven’t discovered you yet," Stanton said at a recent Q & A, "and you’re reading about this ordinary guy that’s suddenly extraordinary on another planet, he’s got the coolest best friend, the coolest pet, and he’s winning the heart of the most beautiful girl in the universe, that’s like a checklist of everything you’ve ever wanted."
But as great a writer/director/animator as Stanton has been at Team Pixar, he's unproven in live action and he's no Spielberg, whose brand name pulls audiences to a movie. And "X-Men: Wolverine" co-stars Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins, with underused "Rome" supporting players Ciaran Hinds and James Purefoy, aren't marquee movie stars who put butts in seats like Johnny Depp or Angelina Jolie.
Giving Stanton, despite the credit he's due for his crucial participation in Pixar's unprecedented run of 12 blockbusters--Oscar-winning "Finding Nemo" and "Wall-E" earned $1.3 billion worldwide-- a live-action movie of this magnitude to supervise was a huge gamble. At Pixar he was a vital part of a team who were reliant on rewrites and animatics and constant changing of the story until each film played perfectly. Animation is the last part of the Pixar process.
Live action is a whole other universe. When I saw "John Carter" at its LA Live premiere, I could see so many things that might have been fixed by an experienced studio production team. For the most part, Disney let Stanton do his thing until he showed them a rough cut. The frustration is that the main story elements--gravity-enhanced jaded ex-soldier Carter (Kitsch), who can leap across the barren Barsoom landscape (Utah), his romance with spoiled Martian princess Dejah Thoris (Collins), alliance with honorable Thark chief Tars Tarkas (voiced by Willem Dafoe) and various battles with Martian creatures and armies--work well. The best thing in the movie is his toothy pet Woola--animated, natch (see clip below). But so much also goes wrong.
For starters, the film (which gains nothing from retrofitted 3-D) opens badly in the middle of a Martian air battle, and takes far too long to bring Civil War vet Carter to red planet Barsoom. The crucial design of the green nine-foot-tall, tusked and four-armed green Tharks is misguided (too close to Jar Jar Binks), many of the large-scale air battles are murky and over-pixelated, and Collins as the Princess of Mars boasts a clearly fake Brit accent. These are fixable mistakes among many, many more.
At the after-party, Stanton explained his deep passion for the material, and said that the film couldn't have been done any sooner with pre-existing technology, or any cheaper either. He also says he relied on pre-planned reshoots (no way Disney had eighteen days in mind). He pays no heed to news reports or critics, he just tunes into his own drummer. So much so that he has already written the second installment of his planned trilogy. Only if the first film delivers a near-impossible $700 million will that happen.
Jacks argues that Conran could have done the film for half as much. Check Conran's pitch video below, which captures just the right feel for Barsoom. While cinephiles may know that George Lucas and James Cameron raided these novels as inspiration for "Star Wars" and "Avatar," the fact remains that audiences are clueless about this world. (Here's Stanton's profile in The New Yorker and more recent interviews with the LAT's Geoff Boucher and Harry Knowles; video of his recent TED Talk, "My Life in Story, Backwards" is below. )
In October 2009, incoming Disney chairman Rich Ross faced a project that was well under way, with millions already spent. And under boss Robert Iger's directives, Ross let go of many of Disney's experienced production, distribution and marketing professionals. When the studio tested the movie's "materials" --characters, title, designs--they did not play well with audiences. Burroughs' Martian novels are not as well-known as his "Tarzan" series, which fueled countless film iterations over the decades.
An inexperienced chairman like Ross--relying on a new marketing team run by industry outsider MT Carney-- didn't know how to place the movie inside the proper genre context, the male sci-fi fantasy universe. Instead the studio, with so much investment on the line, took the mass-audience "appeal-to-everyone" approach. Disastrously, in an effort to draw women, they got rid of the most commercial element of the project. By trimming "John Carter of Mars" to "John Carter," they lost Mars. (More details at Thedailybeast.)
Whatever the pluses and minues of outgoing studio chief Dick Cook, he was an ace marketer who would never have so mishandled this campaign. "John Carter" was generic: its standalone JC logo meant nothing. And as terrific as Canadian hunk Kitsch ("Friday Night Lights") is in this movie--and he's going to be a star from here, with tentpole actioner "Battleship" and Oliver Stone's drug cartel thriller "Savages" coming up--he's hardly a marquee draw at this point.
Disney then made another crucial error, opting not to promote the movie to its prime demo at Comic-Con in July, but keeping it with the Disney line-up at D 23, where the presentation bombed. You could sense the chill in the room. It just didn't feel like your cookie-cutter Disney movie.
Hollywood insider Ricky Strauss, Disney's more experienced new marketing head, came into a tough situation and started to right the ship by admitting that yes, the core target audience was male--young males, the ones who tune into the fanboy demo, who should have been targeted at Comic-Con last summer. That was a start, and sure enough, Knowles, who had been a producer on the Jacks "John Carter of Mars" at Paramount, gave the film a rave.
But the damage had been done. Iger may have wanted to break his studio away from its hidebound traditions and practices. But he did so at a cost. The write-off on this movie will be one of the biggest in Hollywood history.
A sampling of reviews, clips and trailers below:
THR:
"This Disney extravaganza is a rather charming pastiche, if perhaps not
one with sufficient excitement and razzle-dazzle to justify the
reported $250 million production budget. Neither classic nor fiasco, the
film will likely delight sci-fi geeks most of all, but there's enough
here for general Disney audiences as well to generate solid box office
worldwide,..If 'Avatar' had never existed, it's possible that 'John
Carter' would have seemed like more of a genre breakthrough,..Although
the result is quite a mishmash, dramatic coherence prevails over visual
flair; the colors, skin tones, image sharpness and cohesion of diverse
pictorial elements are less than stellar, although the 3D is effective,
with comparatively little brightness sacrificed by donning glasses."
Empire:
"Stanton has built a fantastic world, but the action is unmemorable.
Still, just about every sci-fi/fantasy/superhero adventure you ever
loved is in here somewhere."
CinemaBlend:
"What shocks me most is Stanton’s apparent lack of command over a story
that sprawls in various directions without saying much. This is a Pixar
veteran whose credits include the 'Toy Story' franchise, 'Finding Nemo'
and the flawless 'WALL-E.' Could he not see that he lacked a firm grip
on his film’s narrative?"
TotalFilm:
"If history has taught filmmakers one lesson, it’s that if you’re going
to make a movie about Mars, it had better star Arnold Schwarzenegger
and a lady with three boobies. Otherwise? Forget it. So, maybe the
smartest thing 'WALL.E' director Andrew Stanton has ever done was
chopping the words 'Of Mars' off the title of his first live action
movie,..The problem for Andrew Stanton’s blockbuster adap is that, a
century later, we do have 'Star Wars,' 'Star Trek' and 'Avatar.' Sadly,
John Carter has come a little too late to his own party and all the
other boys and girls have eaten his cake and popped his balloons,..A
handsome new sci-fi adventure that feels rather familiar. Enjoyable
enough while it lasts, 'John Carter' is big on ambition and
disappointingly short on action."
HitFix:
"I think they've fumbled the sales pitch completely, but if you're
willing to look past that and go the theater, 'John Carter' is
transporting in exactly the way I want my escapism to be. Richly
imagined, robustly performed, and directed with the evident enthusiasm
of someone who's been dreaming about Barsoom his whole life, 'John
Carter' is a gem."
8 Ways Johnny Depp Tattered His Own Legacy Before The 21 Jump Street Remake Even Had A Chance
By Agent Bedhead | Posted Under Seriously Random Lists |
I don’t expect this to be a popular post for many reasons but not
least of all because (almost) everyone loves Johnny Depp. Several of his
(earlier) movies are on my must-see list, and he’s an undoubtedly
talented actor. By all accounts, Depp is also great to his fans when he
meets them in person. However, the man is seriously losing his cool
factor, and I doubt that the upcoming 21 Jump Street remake will
make us forget Depp’s legacy any more than his own actions over the past
decade. So let’s run down the reasons how Johnny Depp has willingly
chipped away at his own reputation: For Doing That Fourth Pirates of the Caribbean Movie: Because we don’t necessarily blame him for selling out, but keeping it going past a trilogy seems rather extreme. He’ll be back for a fifth movie too, so he can collect more of that stupid money.
For Referring To Photoshoots As “Rape”: Because sure, getting dressed up all nice and having your picture taken to promote your own career is just like being sexually violated.
For Dissing America. And France Too: First, he described the U.S. as a dumb puppy, but then he complained about how France was greedy, so he can’t live there either. Make up your mind, Johnny.
For Owning His Own Private Island: Sure, it’s Johnny’s money, but owning a damn island just seems so douchey. So much for Mr. Rebel.
For Mucking Up A Hunter S. Thompson Movie: Remember how great Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was as a movie? Then he went and starred in (and produced) a meek voice of celluloid and muted rage. Not cool.
For Blaming The Rum Diary’s Failure On Middle America: “Outside the big cities in the US, they don’t want intelligent films.” - Johnny Depp, The Guardian
For Falling Over Drunk & Stumbling On The Street: Get drunk all you want, Johnny, but keep it dignified and keep it indoors. At least he didn’t wet himself, right?
For Appearing In Every Damn Tim Burton Movie: Because there can always be too much of a good thing.
Agent Bedhead lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She and her little black heart can be found at Celebitchy.
Will Smith: former Fresh Prince whose career threatens to turn stale
He's teamed up with Tommy Lee Jones for Men in Black III, but Will Smith is too talented to be wasting his time on blockbusters
It's almost hard to remember at this point, but the former Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is a two-time Academy Award nominee, once for Ali in 2001, then again for The Pursuit of Happyness in 2006. The reason this fact is so easy to lose sight of is that Smith has spent most of his time padding his resume with brainless blockbusters like I, Robot and Hancock, roles that seem to only require of him that he be able to memorize lines and behave like Will Smith.
That's not entirely his fault. Like most actors who come from other disciplines, Smith was offered lots of roles that enable him to advance the Will Smith brand without expanding it. The Fresh Prince is a prime example; NBC approached Smith about starring in the sitcom, which was built around his goofy, affable, edgy-yet-family-friendly persona. Smith could have made his entire career out of cracking wise in run-and-gun summer action flicks, but in 1995 he took on the role of Paul, a gay con artist in Six Degrees of Separation. He didn't garner any nominations for his elegant, restrained performance, but he did win critical acclaim, and by choosing such an off-brand role, Smith made clear that his goal was to be an actor's actor, not coast by playing endless iterations of himself.
Then the strategy changed. After Independence Day and the original Men in Black, a pair of massively successful blockbusters that bowed exactly one year apart and grossed over a billion dollars combined, Smith put his focus on movies with big budgets and big paychecks. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, or with Smith deciding he wants to be the world's biggest movie star rather than an actor with a string of well-regarded but soon-forgotten prestige films to his credit. But between Six Degrees and both of his Oscar-nominated performances, Smith has demonstrated an incredible capacity for and dedication to the craft of acting. To prepare for his turn as Muhammad Ali, Smith endured six-hour workouts for five days a week to prepare his physique, and spent hours watching footage of Ali in order to replicate the boxer's unique accent and speech patterns. Compared to that, donning a black suit and battling green-screen aliens is practically a vacation.
It's understandable why Smith with do a film like Men in Black III: it's a high-profile, relatively low-commitment gig for which he'll take home a rumored $20m. That kind of dream job would be hard for anyone to turn down. But it's a shame that an actor and performer as prodigious as Smith wouldn't have greater ambition as an actor, rather than as a movie star. It isn't just MIB3. Smith's upcoming projects include After Earth, a sci-fi thriller set for release next summer, co-starring his son Jaden and directed by the increasingly disreputable M Night Shyamalan. On the sequels front, there's a third installment of the buddy-cop Bad Boys franchise in pre-production, and follow-ups to Hancock, Independence Day and I, Robot have been lurching through the development process, not to mention a second I Am Legend film – which would be a prequel, as Smith's character died at the end of the original film.
It's a professional agenda that seems likely to earn a lot of people a lot of money, especially Smith. What it doesn't seem likely to do is garner Smith any further prestige nominations, or force him to stretch beyond his thespian comfort zone. It's a real shame, considering Smith has the talent to rank among his generation's finest actors, not just its most bankable stars. But perhaps MIB3 is just the remedy for Smith's slide into professional complacency. In spite of the buzz surrounding the franchise's return, the film is hardly money in the bank. The second Men in Black, which came out five years after the original, earned 30% less worldwide than the original, and that's at a point when the franchise was still considered fresh. A decade later, when both summer blockbusters and movies about aliens look so much different than they did then (back when Smith could still credibly rap over the closing credits) it's not a sure bet that Men in Black will translate for a younger audience. Here's hoping it doesn't, if only so that Smith, who is working far below his potential, will be inspired to stop looking backwards and start challenging himself.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Johnny, The Guardian interview
Johnny Depp: 'I'm not ready to give up my American citizenship'
The Rum Diary star on his love of Europe, flying by private jet and why he can't stop smoking
Johnny Depp, dubbed by GQ as 'the world's coolest actor. Photograph: Chris Pizzello/AP
In the weeks leading up to this interview, I began to think there must be some law that makes it illegal not to love Johnny Depp.
Everyone melts into a puddle at the mention of his name. Men go even
loopier than women – and the higher men rank on the cool-ometer of fame,
the more in love with Depp they seem to be. Keith Richards, Brad Pitt,
Marilyn Manson, the Gallagher brothers – the dudes all adore Johnny –
while this month's GQ anoints him "the world's coolest actor". The
director of Withnail & I was only talked out of retirement to make
Depp's latest movie "because it was for Johnny", and recently Ricky Gervais was swooning in this paper: "His emails are like poetry. He's made of bohemia."
What can Depp do to inspire all of this? I wasn't sure that the
chance to try to find out would ever actually happen. The mythology
surrounding Depp casts him as a sort of Scarlet Pimpernel of Hollywood,
so notoriously elusive that one director who flew to London and spent
days searching for him observed that the secret to signing Depp "is
finding him". He loathes the media, once threatened the paparazzi with a
plank, and at one memorable Cannes film festival cancelled all his
interviews and refused to get out of bed. But after a long and involved
game of on-off, on-off, on-again ping pong, last Friday the door to a
discreet London hotel suite swings open, and there he is, hanging out of
the window smoking.
Depp looks like he should be in Bon Jovi, or behind a stall selling Zippos in Camden market. The shirt is extravagantly ripped, the jewellery is heavily goth, the glasses are tinted and the tattoos wrap around him like climbing ivy. His voice loiters somewhere between a drawl and a growl – a deep Kentucky slurry of mumbles – but punctuated by surprise bursts of Queen's English, with the odd anglicism ("take a gander at this") thrown in, making him sound like Tom Waits auditioning for My Fair Lady.
At 48, Depp's face remains, if no longer quite ethereal, then still breathtakingly beautiful – creamy smooth, freakishly symmetrical, with a thick chop of chocolate hair untroubled by any trace of grey. The actor has spent most of his career trying to abdicate from the position of Hollywood sex symbol, but there appears to be nothing he can do about the tenacity of his beauty. And yet, the very first thing out of his mouth – once he's stubbed the fag out – gives a pretty good idea of how he would he prefer to be seen, and how he sees himself.
"In Los Angeles, the hoity toities, the beautiful people, will sit on Sunset Strip and have their meal at these kind of fancy restaurants where no one can smoke – but you can inhale car fumes all you like." He shakes his head. "I mean, that to me says it all."
Smoking is a useful metaphor for Depp's self-image – renegade, European, rough around the edges. He did manage to give it up for two and a half years, and despite having to smoke in almost every scene of his new film, The Rum Diary – "just fake things, I think they're made of cured leather or something, they're really hideous, you light it and it smells like a tyre burning" – it was only on the journey home that nicotine reclaimed him.
"One bang on [the director] Bruce Robinson's horrible little Café Crème cigar. One bang – yeah, one hit and it was over." Robinson, for his part, fell off the wagon while making The Rum Diary and began drinking again. "Yeah," Depp grins, "it was the gift we gave each other.
"I just said: 'Come on, give me a bang.' Bruce and I were in the plane, and I just said: 'Oh come on.' You know, we'd had a bit to drink – and …" He mimes taking a drag. On the plane? "On the plane, mmmm." I look puzzled. He looks momentarily bashful. "Well, it was a private plane. On a private plane you can smoke. It makes it an incredibly expensive habit, of course," he shrugs, "cos you can only smoke on a private plane."
Actually, he says, smoking's not the only reason he only ever flies private. "The commercial flight thing, it just gets a little weird when you're standing in line and suddenly you're not just a guy standing in line any more, you become sort of novelty boy."
Ever since Depp became a teen idol in the 80s TV series 21 Jump Street, the star has been at war with his own fame. An accidental actor, he came to LA in his teens hoping for a record deal for his rock band, but ended up doing telesales until he fell into acting, and before he knew it he was an international pin-up. Depp spent most of the 80s and 90s getting very drunk, going out with Kate Moss and Winona Ryder, brawling with photographers and generating more of the very publicity he found so oppressive. No amount of dark or quirky leftfield roles – Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Don Juan DeMarco – could get him out of the gossip columns.
"I mean, all those films didn't do well at the box office. But I still had paparazzi chasing my tail, so it was the weirdest thing in the world. Everywhere you went you were on display. It was always some kind of strange attack on the senses; I was never able to embrace it. So self-medication," meaning drink and drugs, "was just to be able to deal with it."
That strategy lasted until the birth of his daughter, Lily-Rose, in 1999, to the French actor and singer Vanessa Paradis, which he credits with changing – even saving – his life. The couple retreated behind the walls of homes in Paris, the Bahamas and the south of France, had a son, Jack, now nine, and devoted themselves to a private family life, growing vegetables and tending vineyards, with Depp resurfacing only to make critically acclaimed, if commercially unspectacular, films. It sounds like an idyll of wholesome simplicity and artistic integrity. The only snag is "I just don't go out. I just don't go anywhere. Just don't leave home."
It's a strange profession where the prize for success is house arrest, isn't it? "It's a very privileged opportunity I've been given, obviously. You know, the benefits are certainly very good," he smiles. "But there is a trade-off, as with anything. Somebody's always going to bring you the bill. The invoice comes." And the bill is his liberty.
Depp might have been allowed to recover some of his freedom by now, were it not for one choice he made 10 years ago. It didn't just win him his first Oscar nomination; it has made him the highest-paid movie star of all time, earning $75m between June 2009 and June 2010 alone. Award-winning performances in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Finding Neverland and Sweeney Todd have secured his metamorphosis into box office gold – and all because of that one performance, as Captain Jack Sparrow in the first Pirates of the Caribbean film.
Did he anticipate what the part would do to his career? "Not really, no. Pirates was a film I did just like any other one, I made that choice the same way I made every other choice."
Knowing what he knows now, I wonder if he'd have thought twice before making it. "I wouldn't change anything, no. Because I think I went into it innocently, and it became what it became. And now they want to tear me down. Instantly, as soon as I did Pirates II, they say: 'Oh, he's selling out.' What the fuck does that mean, selling out? What if I did Ed Wood II, is that selling out? I mean, it's not like I was ever looking to become franchise boy, I was never looking to become anything like that. I just latched on to a character I loved."
Johnny Depp as young reporter Paul Kemp in The Rum Diary, based on a
Hunter S Thompson novel. Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Featu
Becoming "franchise boy" has in fact done nothing to diminish Depp's
credibility. But I'm not sure any of his films really account for his
status as the world's coolest actor, or make much of a difference either
way. It can't be down to his beauty alone either, or men wouldn't lose
their heads around him. I think we get closer to an explanation when
Depp talks about The Rum Diary, and his friendship with Hunter S Thompson.
The film is based on an unpublished novel Depp found in Thompson's basement in the 90s. Heavily autobiographical, it tells the story of a hard-drinking young reporter called Paul Kemp who goes to work for a paper in Puerto Rico in 1960, and becomes outraged by the corruption and devastation wreaked by American capitalism's arrival on the island. It turns into a tale of heroic journalistic integrity – but not, in truth, a good film.
The older, LSD-addled version of Thompson Depp played in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was anarchic and funny and clever – whereas the younger incarnation as Kemp is naive, dreadfully earnest and takes himself and his notion of Being A Writer so seriously that only the most impressionable student journalist could watch without cringing. Yet to Depp, Kemp is the ultimate romantic hero – uncompromised, irony-free – and his idolisation of the writer becomes almost breathless.
"You know Hunter typed The Great Gatsby? He'd look at each page Fitzgerald wrote, and he copied it. The entire book. And more than once. Because he wanted to know what it felt like to write a masterpiece. He was so hungry, yeah. Innocent, and yearning." After Thompson saw Fear and Loathing, Depp was a bundle of nerves, and called him up to ask if he hated it. "God, no man," Thompson told him. "It was like an eerie trumpet call over a lost battlefield." Depp looks awestruck. "Those words just came out, and I thought, fucking hell, what a beautiful sentence." He repeats it slowly, lovingly: "An eerie trumpet call over a lost battlefield."
I think it's Depp's own innocence – expressed as indiscriminate adoration for those he admires – that might be what men respond to. It's an odd thing, but a star with a weakness for public hero worship seems to inspire deliriously wide-eyed hero worship in his fans. Depp is a famous enthusiast, with great taste – he loves Withnail & I, The Fast Show, Jack Kerouac, gonzo journalism, hard liquor, good wine and rock guitar. But then, so do a lot of the men in my local bar in Hackney. Only in today's Hollywood, where most heartthrobs are traditionally either too insecure or undiscerning to share these tastes with boyishly humble enthusiasm, do they confer the status of Jean-Paul Sartre crossed with James Dean.
Depp comes across as thoughtful, friendly and good fun. It would be very hard not to like him. But – and I realise this is tantamount to heresy – he is probably not the best actor in the world, for while no one can match him for kooky freakery, a straight and understated role like Kemp exposes his limitations. But he embodies a collective ideal of cool that touches men.
Early US box office returns suggest The Rum Diary may not break even – but he says he couldn't care less about the money. "No, God no, no. It's always a crap shoot, and really if you have that in your head while you're making a movie the process would become something very different. No, I couldn't give a rat's arse really, not really."
The publicity blitz in the past week might make cynics suggest otherwise. But the film is Depp's homage to Thompson, who died in 2005, and also the first release by Depp's own production company, which would account for his uncharacteristically energetic media campaign. "I believe that this film, regardless of what it makes in, you know, Wichita, Kansas, this week – which is probably about $13 – it doesn't make any difference. I believe that this film will have a shelf life. I think it will stick around and people will watch it and enjoy it." Does he suspect it will go down better in Europe than the US?
"Most definitely. It's something that will be more appreciated over here, I think. Cos it's – well, I think it's an intelligent film." He leaves a meaningful pause. "And a lot of times, outside the big cities in the States, they don't want that."
Depp's well-documented love affair with all things European has always had a hint of hero worship about it too. I ask if there's anything he doesn't like about Europe, and he thinks hard for a while. "No. Not that I can think of, no. It's a very old and beautiful culture, people know how to live. You know, here you have Sunday roast or the pub lunch, that kind of thing. It's comforting. We don't have that in our culture in the States. Sunday is football day, so it's chicken wings and pizza."
He got into hot water in 2003 for describing the US as "dumb", having told another interviewer in 2000: "I want to be in the country where life is simple, and we don't have to worry about being mugged or approached by some guy selling crack on the street." Depp has been despairing of America's trashy culture and violence for as long as I can remember, and France is so central to his identity as a discerning sophisticate that I assumed he would never return to the US. So when I ask if he could ever imagine living there again, his reply comes as quite a surprise.
"Well, I kind of do. I'm between wherever I end up on location, and then the States."
What? Hang on a minute; why did he leave France? He makes a sour noise, part grunt, part hurrumph. "Cos France wanted a piece of me. They wanted me to become a permanent resident. Permanent residency status – which changes everything. They just want," and he mimes peeling off notes in his palm. "Dough. Money."
If Depp spends more than 183 days in France, he explains indignantly, he'd have to start paying income tax. "I'm certainly not ready to give up my American citizenship. You don't have to give up your American citizenship," he adds sarcastically, but then he'd have to pay tax in both countries, "so you essentially work for free."
And all of a sudden, he sounds exactly like your average corporate Middle America multimillionaire – anti-government, anti-tax and apparently oblivious to the part these twin monstrous affronts might play in creating a country where he doesn't have to worry about being mugged by crack dealers on every street.
Maybe nobody – not even Depp himself – could ever live up to the heroic legend of Johnny Depp. So deep is our attachment to the mythology, though, I doubt anything he says or does will ever puncture it. Before I go, I ask if the celebrated story of him and Kate Moss ordering a bath filled with champagne in a hip Notting Hill hotel ever actually happened.
"I'd don't think we were even in that hotel," he smiles apologetically. "No, it's not true. I wish we had done it. But you know, I'm not the most extrovert person in the world. I'm not particularly … I'm not … I'm not …" and he searches in vain for the word. "You know, at my very core I'm pretty shy. I just happen to have a weird job."
Depp looks like he should be in Bon Jovi, or behind a stall selling Zippos in Camden market. The shirt is extravagantly ripped, the jewellery is heavily goth, the glasses are tinted and the tattoos wrap around him like climbing ivy. His voice loiters somewhere between a drawl and a growl – a deep Kentucky slurry of mumbles – but punctuated by surprise bursts of Queen's English, with the odd anglicism ("take a gander at this") thrown in, making him sound like Tom Waits auditioning for My Fair Lady.
At 48, Depp's face remains, if no longer quite ethereal, then still breathtakingly beautiful – creamy smooth, freakishly symmetrical, with a thick chop of chocolate hair untroubled by any trace of grey. The actor has spent most of his career trying to abdicate from the position of Hollywood sex symbol, but there appears to be nothing he can do about the tenacity of his beauty. And yet, the very first thing out of his mouth – once he's stubbed the fag out – gives a pretty good idea of how he would he prefer to be seen, and how he sees himself.
"In Los Angeles, the hoity toities, the beautiful people, will sit on Sunset Strip and have their meal at these kind of fancy restaurants where no one can smoke – but you can inhale car fumes all you like." He shakes his head. "I mean, that to me says it all."
Smoking is a useful metaphor for Depp's self-image – renegade, European, rough around the edges. He did manage to give it up for two and a half years, and despite having to smoke in almost every scene of his new film, The Rum Diary – "just fake things, I think they're made of cured leather or something, they're really hideous, you light it and it smells like a tyre burning" – it was only on the journey home that nicotine reclaimed him.
"One bang on [the director] Bruce Robinson's horrible little Café Crème cigar. One bang – yeah, one hit and it was over." Robinson, for his part, fell off the wagon while making The Rum Diary and began drinking again. "Yeah," Depp grins, "it was the gift we gave each other.
"I just said: 'Come on, give me a bang.' Bruce and I were in the plane, and I just said: 'Oh come on.' You know, we'd had a bit to drink – and …" He mimes taking a drag. On the plane? "On the plane, mmmm." I look puzzled. He looks momentarily bashful. "Well, it was a private plane. On a private plane you can smoke. It makes it an incredibly expensive habit, of course," he shrugs, "cos you can only smoke on a private plane."
Actually, he says, smoking's not the only reason he only ever flies private. "The commercial flight thing, it just gets a little weird when you're standing in line and suddenly you're not just a guy standing in line any more, you become sort of novelty boy."
Ever since Depp became a teen idol in the 80s TV series 21 Jump Street, the star has been at war with his own fame. An accidental actor, he came to LA in his teens hoping for a record deal for his rock band, but ended up doing telesales until he fell into acting, and before he knew it he was an international pin-up. Depp spent most of the 80s and 90s getting very drunk, going out with Kate Moss and Winona Ryder, brawling with photographers and generating more of the very publicity he found so oppressive. No amount of dark or quirky leftfield roles – Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Don Juan DeMarco – could get him out of the gossip columns.
"I mean, all those films didn't do well at the box office. But I still had paparazzi chasing my tail, so it was the weirdest thing in the world. Everywhere you went you were on display. It was always some kind of strange attack on the senses; I was never able to embrace it. So self-medication," meaning drink and drugs, "was just to be able to deal with it."
That strategy lasted until the birth of his daughter, Lily-Rose, in 1999, to the French actor and singer Vanessa Paradis, which he credits with changing – even saving – his life. The couple retreated behind the walls of homes in Paris, the Bahamas and the south of France, had a son, Jack, now nine, and devoted themselves to a private family life, growing vegetables and tending vineyards, with Depp resurfacing only to make critically acclaimed, if commercially unspectacular, films. It sounds like an idyll of wholesome simplicity and artistic integrity. The only snag is "I just don't go out. I just don't go anywhere. Just don't leave home."
It's a strange profession where the prize for success is house arrest, isn't it? "It's a very privileged opportunity I've been given, obviously. You know, the benefits are certainly very good," he smiles. "But there is a trade-off, as with anything. Somebody's always going to bring you the bill. The invoice comes." And the bill is his liberty.
Depp might have been allowed to recover some of his freedom by now, were it not for one choice he made 10 years ago. It didn't just win him his first Oscar nomination; it has made him the highest-paid movie star of all time, earning $75m between June 2009 and June 2010 alone. Award-winning performances in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Finding Neverland and Sweeney Todd have secured his metamorphosis into box office gold – and all because of that one performance, as Captain Jack Sparrow in the first Pirates of the Caribbean film.
Did he anticipate what the part would do to his career? "Not really, no. Pirates was a film I did just like any other one, I made that choice the same way I made every other choice."
Knowing what he knows now, I wonder if he'd have thought twice before making it. "I wouldn't change anything, no. Because I think I went into it innocently, and it became what it became. And now they want to tear me down. Instantly, as soon as I did Pirates II, they say: 'Oh, he's selling out.' What the fuck does that mean, selling out? What if I did Ed Wood II, is that selling out? I mean, it's not like I was ever looking to become franchise boy, I was never looking to become anything like that. I just latched on to a character I loved."
Johnny Depp as young reporter Paul Kemp in The Rum Diary, based on a
Hunter S Thompson novel. Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Featu
Becoming "franchise boy" has in fact done nothing to diminish Depp's
credibility. But I'm not sure any of his films really account for his
status as the world's coolest actor, or make much of a difference either
way. It can't be down to his beauty alone either, or men wouldn't lose
their heads around him. I think we get closer to an explanation when
Depp talks about The Rum Diary, and his friendship with Hunter S Thompson.The film is based on an unpublished novel Depp found in Thompson's basement in the 90s. Heavily autobiographical, it tells the story of a hard-drinking young reporter called Paul Kemp who goes to work for a paper in Puerto Rico in 1960, and becomes outraged by the corruption and devastation wreaked by American capitalism's arrival on the island. It turns into a tale of heroic journalistic integrity – but not, in truth, a good film.
The older, LSD-addled version of Thompson Depp played in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was anarchic and funny and clever – whereas the younger incarnation as Kemp is naive, dreadfully earnest and takes himself and his notion of Being A Writer so seriously that only the most impressionable student journalist could watch without cringing. Yet to Depp, Kemp is the ultimate romantic hero – uncompromised, irony-free – and his idolisation of the writer becomes almost breathless.
"You know Hunter typed The Great Gatsby? He'd look at each page Fitzgerald wrote, and he copied it. The entire book. And more than once. Because he wanted to know what it felt like to write a masterpiece. He was so hungry, yeah. Innocent, and yearning." After Thompson saw Fear and Loathing, Depp was a bundle of nerves, and called him up to ask if he hated it. "God, no man," Thompson told him. "It was like an eerie trumpet call over a lost battlefield." Depp looks awestruck. "Those words just came out, and I thought, fucking hell, what a beautiful sentence." He repeats it slowly, lovingly: "An eerie trumpet call over a lost battlefield."
I think it's Depp's own innocence – expressed as indiscriminate adoration for those he admires – that might be what men respond to. It's an odd thing, but a star with a weakness for public hero worship seems to inspire deliriously wide-eyed hero worship in his fans. Depp is a famous enthusiast, with great taste – he loves Withnail & I, The Fast Show, Jack Kerouac, gonzo journalism, hard liquor, good wine and rock guitar. But then, so do a lot of the men in my local bar in Hackney. Only in today's Hollywood, where most heartthrobs are traditionally either too insecure or undiscerning to share these tastes with boyishly humble enthusiasm, do they confer the status of Jean-Paul Sartre crossed with James Dean.
Depp comes across as thoughtful, friendly and good fun. It would be very hard not to like him. But – and I realise this is tantamount to heresy – he is probably not the best actor in the world, for while no one can match him for kooky freakery, a straight and understated role like Kemp exposes his limitations. But he embodies a collective ideal of cool that touches men.
Early US box office returns suggest The Rum Diary may not break even – but he says he couldn't care less about the money. "No, God no, no. It's always a crap shoot, and really if you have that in your head while you're making a movie the process would become something very different. No, I couldn't give a rat's arse really, not really."
The publicity blitz in the past week might make cynics suggest otherwise. But the film is Depp's homage to Thompson, who died in 2005, and also the first release by Depp's own production company, which would account for his uncharacteristically energetic media campaign. "I believe that this film, regardless of what it makes in, you know, Wichita, Kansas, this week – which is probably about $13 – it doesn't make any difference. I believe that this film will have a shelf life. I think it will stick around and people will watch it and enjoy it." Does he suspect it will go down better in Europe than the US?
"Most definitely. It's something that will be more appreciated over here, I think. Cos it's – well, I think it's an intelligent film." He leaves a meaningful pause. "And a lot of times, outside the big cities in the States, they don't want that."
Depp's well-documented love affair with all things European has always had a hint of hero worship about it too. I ask if there's anything he doesn't like about Europe, and he thinks hard for a while. "No. Not that I can think of, no. It's a very old and beautiful culture, people know how to live. You know, here you have Sunday roast or the pub lunch, that kind of thing. It's comforting. We don't have that in our culture in the States. Sunday is football day, so it's chicken wings and pizza."
He got into hot water in 2003 for describing the US as "dumb", having told another interviewer in 2000: "I want to be in the country where life is simple, and we don't have to worry about being mugged or approached by some guy selling crack on the street." Depp has been despairing of America's trashy culture and violence for as long as I can remember, and France is so central to his identity as a discerning sophisticate that I assumed he would never return to the US. So when I ask if he could ever imagine living there again, his reply comes as quite a surprise.
"Well, I kind of do. I'm between wherever I end up on location, and then the States."
What? Hang on a minute; why did he leave France? He makes a sour noise, part grunt, part hurrumph. "Cos France wanted a piece of me. They wanted me to become a permanent resident. Permanent residency status – which changes everything. They just want," and he mimes peeling off notes in his palm. "Dough. Money."
If Depp spends more than 183 days in France, he explains indignantly, he'd have to start paying income tax. "I'm certainly not ready to give up my American citizenship. You don't have to give up your American citizenship," he adds sarcastically, but then he'd have to pay tax in both countries, "so you essentially work for free."
And all of a sudden, he sounds exactly like your average corporate Middle America multimillionaire – anti-government, anti-tax and apparently oblivious to the part these twin monstrous affronts might play in creating a country where he doesn't have to worry about being mugged by crack dealers on every street.
Maybe nobody – not even Depp himself – could ever live up to the heroic legend of Johnny Depp. So deep is our attachment to the mythology, though, I doubt anything he says or does will ever puncture it. Before I go, I ask if the celebrated story of him and Kate Moss ordering a bath filled with champagne in a hip Notting Hill hotel ever actually happened.
"I'd don't think we were even in that hotel," he smiles apologetically. "No, it's not true. I wish we had done it. But you know, I'm not the most extrovert person in the world. I'm not particularly … I'm not … I'm not …" and he searches in vain for the word. "You know, at my very core I'm pretty shy. I just happen to have a weird job."
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Johnny's choices
Movies
Is Johnny Depp the next Nicolas Cage?
Certain career choices and a reliance on eccentricity could lead to trouble ahead.
Posted 10/25/2011 3:00 PM by Ron Mwangaguhunga
Photo: Johnny Depp in "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," courtesy Disney
It may be too late for Cage to break out of this negative turn, but it is not too late for Johnny Depp. Cage and Depp have had not dissimilar careers, though Depp's is, at the moment, far hotter. No one begrudges Johnny Depp for taking "the stupid money" -- rumored to be over $300 million for playing Jack Sparrow -- if that is what is being put on the table. He has kids -- we get that; private school tuition -- we get that.
But no one is forcing Depp to take the stupid roles that he has agreed to of late along with those piles of stupid money. That's the problem.
Johnny Depp's quirky characters charmed us in the beginning. But quirky lines, particularly when delivered in a faux British accent, eventually becomes cloying after a while. And it has been a while since Depp has really challenged himself and his audience on a role that didn't rest on its quirky laurels.
Johnny Depp is an immensely talented, good looking actor, one of the few top box office earners in a decidedly post A-list digitally more democratic age. He doesn't need to be doing quirky for the sake of quirky. That gets old and, further, even quirky roles lose their indie cred if repeated ad nauseum. Depp needs to bring his earning power and his audience along with him to more challenging work. We want Johnny to take our relationship with his work to the next level. Johnny Depp is so damn talented he could probably convince an audience to suspend their disbelief as he convincingly portrays a Rwandan woman. You know he could do it; you just know he could.
What has Depp to lose? Johnny may fail spectacularly in moving away from his signature eccentric niche, his comfort zone, that which has won him and the suits a fortune. That's a risky proposition in a risk-averse town, turning 180-degrees. But Depp has earned the right to veer radically left. Johnny Depp needs to spend some of that well-earned Hollywood capital, and do it soon because his career, IMHO, is smelling kind of Nic Cage-y.
Risk is what makes the world turn. Risk -- think off-Broadway, nightly -- is what makes acting exciting. Taking risks is what we have come to expect of true independent spirits, of working without a net. And it is pretty damn difficult to use the term "independent spirit" in the company of a vehicle as soulless as "Pirates of the Carribean, 4." Just saying.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Reimagined Lone Ranger
I thought The Lone Ranger with Depp playing Tonto could have the potential for another Pirates-type franchise. But a fantasy with werewolves with Depp playing it straight instead of a goofy colorful character would not be what the audience expects and may limit its appeal.
Dances With Werewolves
By Jeff Wells
The reason The Lone Ranger's budget was so astronomically high that Disney execs decided to shut it down was because it's an effects-heavy CG thing due to being a kind of an Indian-spirituality werewolf movie -- a.k.a., The Lone Ranger Meets the Wolfman. Yes, I'm serious. A 3.29.09 draft of Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's script makes it clear it was going to be at least partly about some kind of Native American wolfbeast tearing victims apart and leaving a bloody mess.
Don't take my word for it -- look at the below photo capture of page 61 of Elliott and Rossio's draft.
"It was always going to be a big Bruckheimer CG movie with traditional Bruckheimer elements with an eye toward being a tentpole, totally Pirates-style," says a gadfly screenwriter who always hears stuff and has been following the project through postings on writersactionbss.com -- a private writers' website that Elliott has posted on.
"It was never going to be a semi-traditional western...it was never going to be Zorro," he says.
"It was going to be a Tonto show mainly. Tonto as the top dog and more dominant than the Lone Ranger. Tonto and the Indian spirits like Obi Wan Kenobi and the force. The driving engine was going to be Native American occult aspects worked in with werewolves and special effects. But flavored with doses of Native American spirituality in a serious way.
"But then Cowboys & Aliens came along and tanked and Disney got cold tenderfeet, spooked by the idea of a pricey mashup. If Cowboys & Aliens had made $200 million, this wouldn't be happening. A Bruckheimer-style western in the wake of Cowboys & Aliens is nothing anyone is feeling secure about at this stage. Trust me, the writers of tentpole garbage are all scared now."
The success of Rise of the Planets of the Apes with its relatively low cost (at least compared to The Lone Ranger) and no big stars has also colored the mentality out there, I'm hearing. Who needs big payday players? Studios do, obviously, but they'd love to get rid of them. Because they want bigger profit margins. Simple.
The most interesting angle for me is the story about Depp taking the Native American spiritual stuff seriously, and how he didn't want to camp it up like Captain Jack. He wants his role to honor Native American culture and its spiritual foundations.
"Depp's interest in playing Tonto is about fulfilling his Marlon Brando legacy," the director-writer believes. "Deep is partly Native American himself and he was partly mentored by Brando, who was a big Indians' rights advocate. So he didn't want to do any kind of jaunty performance that plays it light and spoofy with the Native American thing. No Captain Jack crap this time around."
Justin Haythe was the latest Lone Ranger screenwriter. His Revolutonary Road work suggests be was brought in to class things up a bit and perhaps raise the solemnity levels.
But the film was always going to have a theme that could be summed up as "Tonto knows best."
Almost three years ago on writeractionbbs.com, Ted Elliott was asked who will be playing the Lone Ranger, and without posting his entire quote he said that while the Lone Ranger character is the lead, "any actor would be worried about Tonto's character overshadowing the Ranger's, given the casting."
Which is why the up-and-coming but new-to-the-game Armie Hammer was a perfect fit as The Lone Ranger.
It wouldn't be out of character for nervous-nelly Disney executives, prior to the shutdown, to be concerned about Quentin Tarantino's forthcoming Django Unchained, a totally flip, revisionist and goofy-ass downmarket western with Kevin Costner as a villain, and on the other hand you have Depp as Tonto playing it more or less straight....how would that shake out as they opened more or less in the same time period?
Monday, March 21, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Missing Tourist
http://sonypictures.channel.yahoo.co.jp/index.php?itemid=179
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/stream/m_entertainment/110303_tourist.htm?from=tw
Reuters
3 March 2011
Over 300 hundred journalists packed the Academy Hills conference room on Wednesday (March 3) to get a glimpse of U.S. movie star Johnny Depp as he promoted the movie "The Tourist" in Tokyo, Japan.
Depp joked with journalists about his image of tourists.
"I was thinking of sort of, you know, Americans in bermuda shorts arriving in Paris, and demanding Coca Cola and french fries, you know, things like that, that's sort of my, yeah, demanding, yeah. I must have a coke, I want it now. That's been sort of my, always my kind of image of tourists," he told the crowds.
Johnny Depp often plays flamboyant roles such as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean, or the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. This time around, however, he played an ordinary American tourist, Frank Tupelo, visiting Venice.
Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck said Depp was always a surprise to work with.
"I knew that Johnny was someone who likes to improvise, I was not prepared for the level of obscenity of those improvised sections. So I think that was one thing that kept us continuously surprised, I mean we could have cut a version of this film that would have not been, you know, admissible even to people of 18 and probably would have been 21 plus," he said.
The film gathered interest in Japan and overseas as it was the first time Johnny Depp starred along with Angelina Jolie.
Asked about Jolie, Depp praised her calm and composure.
"Shockingly kind of great mother you know. With all these kiddies running around everywhere and she and Brad and the life they live, she remains this kind of solid, fantastic mother through all these weirdness like the paparazzi following them and she maintains this kind of calm, this cool, that's quit incredible. Cause I would probably be, I don't know, I'd probably be in jail," he said.
He had a hard time, however, explaining how he felt about the love scenes with Jolie in the movie.
"I deny the film, I deny the love scene, I deny any knowledge of, what's her name? Angelina something? Yeah. No, I remember nothing!," he joked.
"The Tourist," an action romance thriller, is the first foray into Hollywood for Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who came to prominence four years ago scooping an Oscar for best foreign film with "The Lives of Others."
The movie which is a remake of the 2005 French film Anthony Zimmer, opens in Japan on March 5th.
Over 300 hundred journalists packed the Academy Hills conference room on Wednesday (March 3) to get a glimpse of U.S. movie star Johnny Depp as he promoted the movie "The Tourist" in Tokyo, Japan.
Depp joked with journalists about his image of tourists.
"I was thinking of sort of, you know, Americans in bermuda shorts arriving in Paris, and demanding Coca Cola and french fries, you know, things like that, that's sort of my, yeah, demanding, yeah. I must have a coke, I want it now. That's been sort of my, always my kind of image of tourists," he told the crowds.
Johnny Depp often plays flamboyant roles such as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean, or the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. This time around, however, he played an ordinary American tourist, Frank Tupelo, visiting Venice.
Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck said Depp was always a surprise to work with.
"I knew that Johnny was someone who likes to improvise, I was not prepared for the level of obscenity of those improvised sections. So I think that was one thing that kept us continuously surprised, I mean we could have cut a version of this film that would have not been, you know, admissible even to people of 18 and probably would have been 21 plus," he said.
The film gathered interest in Japan and overseas as it was the first time Johnny Depp starred along with Angelina Jolie.
Asked about Jolie, Depp praised her calm and composure.
"Shockingly kind of great mother you know. With all these kiddies running around everywhere and she and Brad and the life they live, she remains this kind of solid, fantastic mother through all these weirdness like the paparazzi following them and she maintains this kind of calm, this cool, that's quit incredible. Cause I would probably be, I don't know, I'd probably be in jail," he said.
He had a hard time, however, explaining how he felt about the love scenes with Jolie in the movie.
"I deny the film, I deny the love scene, I deny any knowledge of, what's her name? Angelina something? Yeah. No, I remember nothing!," he joked.
"The Tourist," an action romance thriller, is the first foray into Hollywood for Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who came to prominence four years ago scooping an Oscar for best foreign film with "The Lives of Others."
The movie which is a remake of the 2005 French film Anthony Zimmer, opens in Japan on March 5th.
Depp on Jolie: She's a 'shockingly great mother' who remains calm despite pressures of fame
TOKYO - Johnny Depp says working with Angelina Jolie on his latest film taught him to think of her in a different way — as a great mother.
Depp says he does not know how Jolie and husband Brad Pitt handle parenthood while juggling the distractions of being famous. He says Jolie is "a shockingly great mother" and remains calm despite all the paparazzi and pressures of fame.
Depp says he'd "probably be in prison" if he had to deal with as many kids.
Jolie and Pitt have six children. Depp has two with French actress Vanessa Paradis.
Depp was speaking at a Tokyo news conference Thursday to promote he and Jolie's film "The Tourist."
© 
Johnny On Angelina’s Skills
by Kavy on Mar.03, 2011, under Entertainment
Johnny Depp has praised Angelina Jolie’s “shockingly great” parenting skills
The ‘Tourist’ actor admits his co-star – who raises six children, Maddox, nine, Pax, six, Zahara, five, Shiloh, four, and two-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne, with her partner Brad Pitt – does a fantastic job of juggling her mothering duties with her career, and thinks he would “probably be in prison” if he had so much to deal with.
He said: “She is such a versatile, wonderful person who can portray anything. She is a down to earth, clever, funny, woman and shockingly great mother.
“She is very calm even if she’s surrounded by paparazzi. I don’t know what I would do. I could’ve been in prison by now!”
The 47-year-old star – who has been in a relationship with French actress-and-singer Vanessa Paradis since 1998 – also joked that he “can’t remember” the intimate scenes he shot with Angelina in ‘The Tourist’.
When asked how he felt performing such raunchy scenes with the actress at a press conference in Tokyo, Japan, he said: “I didn’t tell my family that I was shooting the film. I can’t remember, I wasn’t in it, I didn’t take the role and this film doesn’t exist. Angelina who? I can’t remember her name, so I’m clean.”
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Friday, Feb. 25, 2011
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| On-screen chemistry: Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie motor their way through Venice, Italy, in the mistaken-identity thriller "The Tourist." |
ENTERTAINMENT SPOTLIGHT
Jolie acts out a teenage crush in 'The Tourist'
By GEORGE-HADLEY GARCIA
Special to The Japan Times
"Of course I always wanted to work with Johnny Depp!" laughs Angelina Jolie. "What actress hasn't? I've thought he was the coolest thing for years. I practically grew up with him and had such a crush on him in 'Edward Scissorhands'!"
Jolie has got her wish and stars with Depp in the thriller "The Tourist," a pairing that had gossip columnists salivating before filming had even started.
In "The Tourist," Jolie portrays Elise Clifton-Ward, who deliberately crosses the path of U.S. tourist Frank Tupelo (Depp) on a train from Paris to Venice, Italy. Elise chooses Frank as a decoy, pretending he's her lover, Alexander Pierce, a man wanted by the police. The pair then have to escape both the law and the mobster whose money Alexander had stolen.
"If you want romance and art and beauty, how could you do better than Venice and Paris?" Jolie tells The Japan Times. "The whole thing is a fabulous package."
With the romantic settings and a costar she has long idolized, one might be excused for wondering if the project put Jolie in a romantic frame of mind during the shoot. Both actors have been voted sexiest people in the world by one publication or another and news of a steamy shower scene (which was later cut) generated a lot of Internet chatter.
Jolie is partnered with actor Brad Pitt and the two have six children together, but the star has been quoted before as saying that the offbeat Depp was very much her "type." This led to comparisons with her off-screen role as the "other woman" when she starred opposite Pitt (who was then married to Jennifer Aniston) in "Mr. and Mrs. Smith."
Jolie says she and Depp got along famously during the filming — like brother and sister.
"Romantic thoughts are inevitable, aren't they? But when you're on a tough schedule, making a very expensive movie and getting caught up in the action and being on location, which is far less controlled than a studio setting . . . you pretty much have to act out the romance."
Depp is in a relationship (noncontractual like Jolie and Pitt) of 12 years with French singer/actress Vanessa Paradis and the couple have two children together.
The German-born director and cowriter of "The Tourist" is Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, of which Angelina notes: "When I first heard his name, I was . . . surprised and a bit intimidated. Could I call him Flo for short? And yet his full birth name is much longer than the four parts.
"I really admired his movie 'The Lives of Others.' It was so well done and so . . . European. I mean it's all about relationships, about getting interested in people and how they interact. It's not all about special effects or chases." That film, from 2006, is about people spying on one another in Berlin in 1984, and it earned von Donnersmarck an Oscar.
"The ('Tourist') script was very literate, very intriguing," Jolie says. "I think that's a key to the movie itself. You want to know what's going to happen next. It's such an intriguing premise."
On the face of it, Depp's role seems to be the passive one, with Jolie's scheming Elise overwhelming him. But in most of his pictures, Depp is often more memorable than his leading ladies, who are often young (as in "Alice in Wonderland").
"I'm getting older by the minute," Depp jokes. "I know a lot about facials now!"
Depp admits that he is usually the elder partner in any on-screen pairings with actresses nowadays, but hearing that Jolie had a teenage crush on him turns out to be the last straw.
"Oh God, I'm not that old! . . . I don't think," he laughs. "No, I knew we'd work together someday and this story was very interesting, sort of a departure for me. I don't often get to do roles that end up sexy, and with such . . . such a womanly actress as Angie. But being a 'tourist' was a great ride — and I mean that in a chaste and friendly way."
Depp also heaps praise on director von Donnersmack, saying he is a true artist.
"Florian is a wonderful director, he says. "Everyone liked working with him, and I think he lifted this project far away from being any kind of a genre-studio picture. I am proud of it."
The writer-director is almost 206 cm tall, was educated partly in Munich and has a degree in philosophy from Oxford. "He has several facets to him," Jolie says. "I mean, he impresses you just when you meet him." Jolie also found it intriguing that "The Tourist" script begins "with a woman exploiting a man, which is the reverse of the majority of screenplays. So the man has to be psychologically strong to keep up with her and what she gets him involved with, and Johnny has this wonderful very quiet, very deep strength.
"It isn't a movie about reverse exploitation . . . it's more complicated than that. But the fact that the woman, Elise, is an instigator, naturally that appeals to me."
Jolie is known for playing strong women, heroines and role models, in her films. She hesitates to explain how she chooses scripts to go with, however, due to demand for her in Hollywood.
"If I said what I look for in a script, I'd probably wind up swamped with scripts made to order. The thing is, they can't be by-the-numbers or formulaic. It's about good writing, just as much as it's about a good premise."
As for being a role model, she again resists being pigeon-holed.
"What is a role model to one person or to one culture may not be to another," she says. "The more I travel, the more world-cultured I become, the more I realize there are many ways of living, of looking or believing. There is no one way, and anyone who claims there is only one way is likely a zealot or fanatic."
Jolie is known as much for her activism and humanitarian work as her acting. She has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Indeed, these missions are how she found three of her adopted children. The role has had a great impact on her way of thinking.
"There are different roads and paths, whether in being an inspiration or a help to people or in improving your own life," she says. "I think moderation is the key. It's like Buddhists say, the middle path is the best way to travel through life, avoiding excesses and extremes or the temptation to be either too severe or too self-indulgent.
"That's philosophy, isn't it? When I found out Florian had a degree in philosophy, I was fascinated! I mean, how many Hollywood directors would have that? Not that you need that to be a good moviemaker, but I think the more facets anyone has, the more interesting they are as an individual."
In Hollywood, many speculated that "The Tourist" might have done better at the box office if it weren't set in Europe, despite the beautiful locations. A prevailing feeling is that most U.S. moviegoers prefer a story (excepting the James Bond series) set in familiar surroundings. However, von Donnersmarck points out that the U.S. market is a shrinking part of the global market, as its population shrinks in proportion to the rest of the world, and overseas audiences are more likely to embrace exotic locales.
While Depp occasionally works on smaller films — sometimes quirky ones that do relatively little business in the United States — Jolie mainly sticks to big-studio motion pictures. Reporters are not usually supposed to ask her about this, but you can't help but wonder if she worries about her career being cut short due to her gender.
"I don't always feel I have to be the center of attraction." Jolie says. For instance, she played the mother of Colin Farrell's Alexander the Great in the 2004 film "Alexander." "I work quite a lot, but not all the time — I'm not driven — because I know that by a certain age actresses do get relegated to smaller roles, as in comparison to someone like Clint Eastwood, who can keep starring into his 70s." (Now in his 80s, Eastwood primarily directs.)
Indeed, Jolie knows firsthand how the business can treat a woman. Her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, was an actress who fell in love with actor Jon Voight, who later left her for a younger woman. It basically ended her acting career.
"In the business," Depp adds, "we (Jolie and him) are each so lucky to be in the position we are in. Angie knows how tough it is, even more so for actresses, and yet she really goes for it and enjoys it and she makes it enjoyable for everyone. She's a pro, and a fantastic costar and person."
"The Tourist" opens in theaters on March 5.
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