Johnny Depphas signed on to joinMark Rylanceand Robert Pattinson in the indie movieWaiting for the Barbarians. That’s the next project fromCiro Guerra, the Colombian filmmaker behind the black-and-white gemEmbrace of the Serpent.
The film is based on the allegorical novel byJ.M. Coetzeeand follows a British magistrate (Rylance) in a small colonial town who begins to question his loyalty to the Empire as he attempts to ignore an inevitable war with the so-called “barbarians.” No word on who Depp (or Pattinson) is playing, but this is an intriguing project for the actor, who has shied away from this kind of serious drama of late, sticking to commercial fare likeFantastic Beasts,Murder on the Orient Expressand a pair of Disney franchises (Pirates of the Caribbean,Alice in Wonderland) instead.
The project will be the first under Depp’s new partnership withAndrea Iervolino, who will produceBarbariansvia his new blockchain platform TaTaTu.Iervolino andMonika Bacardi’s AMBI Media Group will also produce alongsideMichael FitzgeraldandOlga Segura. Production will begin later this month in Morocco.
In typical press release fashion, Depp and Iervolino exchanged beauty quotes complimenting one another for being such deep original thinkers, but here’s the thing… Iervolino has yet to produce a breakout hit (he’s the producer developing an ill-advised remake ofMemento), while Depp’s Infinitum Nihil shingle has acquired lots of interesting material, but ever sinceThe Rum Diaryflopped, it has struggled to get those intriguing projects off the ground. I’m rooting for Iervolino, but I’m not sure this partnership will work out as well as he hopes, though I certainly understand teaming up with Depp while he has the opportunity and the actor is at a low point in his career.
It’s hard to knock Depp for putting his faith in Iervolino though, since Guerra is exactly the kind of filmmaker Depp should be working with. Whereas once upon a time Pattinson was taking his cues from Depp, it now seems as if Depp is taking a page from Pattinson’s playbook, which has seen him working with a series of international auteurs, fromClaire DenisandWerner HerzogtoDavid MichôdandAnton Corbijn. If Depp keeps working with thoughtful directors like that quartet, he may be able to resuscitate his reputation, and a certainHarry Potterspinoff can’t hurt either.
Depp next stars in the title character inFantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, which is set to cast a spell on the box office starting Nov. 16. Depp also stars inRichard Says Goodbye, which didn’t earn great reviews out of the Zurich Film Festival, while his LA-set crime dramaCity of Lieshas also been indefinitely delayed. He’s represented by CAA.
