Johnny Depp has been in the news a lot recently, what with PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN on the way, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS revealing its first images and his casting in RICHARD SAYS GOODBYE. Now the busy beaver is adding another project to his upcoming slate, and this new one will take him into the heart of darkness…and sex and money and trees and bugs and lunacy.
News coming out of Cannes says the Hollywood mega star will be starring in the movie KING OF THE JUNGLE based on the Wired article “John McAfee’s Last Stand” by Joshua Davis about the crazy life of the inventor of the anti-virus software, McAfee. The film is being described as a dark comedy and is being directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE) with a script from Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (ED WOOD, THE PEOPLE VS. O.J. SIMPSON).
The plot synopsis is as follows, with Depp starring as McAfee, a man who took his fortune and ran off to live a life in the jungles of Belize:
…the film tells the wild true story of rogue tech magnate John McAfee, creator of the McAfee Antivirus software, who cashed-in his fortune, left civilization, and moved to the jungle in Belize. There, he set-up a Colonel Kurtz-like compound of guns, sex and madness. In the film, a Wired magazine investigator accepts what he thinks is a run-of-the-mill assignment to interview McAfee, but once he arrives in Belize, he finds himself pulled into McAfee’s escalating paranoia, slippery reality, and murder.
This is just one of many projects Depp is taking as he appears to be mixing his big-budget work (the FANTASTIC BEASTS movies), with even more character-driven pieces. JUNGLE will act as one, with him also starring as a man living life to its crazy fullest in GOODBYE, and LABYRINTH seeing him step into the uniform of an LAPD officer investigating the murders of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G.
Despite everything else being said in the news about the actor I’m just glad to hear the guy has tons of potentially great films on the horizon. LABYRINTH could be a terrific character piece for him, with JUNGLE and GOODBYE allowing him to embrace his unhinged, quirky sides. The man is awesome as Jack Sparrow, but as we’ve seen with ED WOOD, SWEENY TODD and BLACK MASS the man can do extraordinary things with all kinds of material. I'll throw anyone overboard who disagrees!
Catch Depp in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES on May 26.