It kind of sucks to be Johnny Depp right now. The 53-year-old actor spent most of the 2000s as the biggest movie star in the world, thanks to the immense success of the “Pirates Of The Caribbean” franchise, but since the last installment in 2011, Depp’s had almost nothing but flops: his most successful film of the last five years was a ten-minute cameo as a wolf in “Into The Woods.” And worse, this year saw very convincing allegations that he’d physically abused his now-ex-wife Amber Heard.
With Hollywood being traditionally bad at punishing men who are awful to women, and a fifth ‘Pirates’ movie due to hit next summer, it doesn’t necessarily mean that Depp is done as a leading man, and Screen Daily has details of a new project that the star will be headlining, and it’s a… surprising one. According to the trade, Depp has signed on to “Labyrinth,” an independent film about the detective that investigated the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.
Hailing from Good Films, who backed this summer’s “The Infiltrator,” the project will see Depp play Russell Poole, an LAPD detective who was a rising star in the department until he accused a fellow officer of involvement in the death of Biggie Smalls. Stonewalling from the department saw him quit the force and become a private detective, when he also looked into the killing of Biggie’s rival Tupac.
Poole’s work was detailed in the 2002 non-fiction book “Labyrinth” by Randall Sullivan, and actor/writer Christian Contreras has adapted the project for Good, with “The Infiltrator” helmer Brad Furman set to direct. It’s certainly an intriguing set-up, though we have mixed feelings on Depp’s involvement: on one hand, it would be good to see him play a human being and not a caricature in something more grounded, on the other, he’s allegedly a horrible, drunken, abusive person. Anyway, “Labyrinth” is being sold in TIFF, so expect more news on the project soon.