Johnny Depp has wanted to adapt Hunter S. Thompson’s novel The Rum Diary for some time now, and he’s just about ready to step into the role of a drunk, washed-up journalist living the low life down in Puerto Rico. The production has been gearing up to go for the past few weeks, scouting locations down in P.R. (Thanks to the reader who sent in a couple bits of info about that which we never ran.) Bruce Robinson (Withnail & I, How To Get Ahead In Advertising and, yeah, Jennifer 8) is writing and directing.
Now he’s likely to cast the person who might be the It Girl of 2009, Amber Heard. I’ve been waiting for Heard to break out since All The Boys Love Mandy Lane, but it’s her extended nudity in the otherwise hated The Informers (featuring a death by fast-acting AIDS — spoiler!) that probably helped get the negotiations started. It’s a role I’d imagine a lot of women wanted — it’s all about seducing Johnny Depp, and even drunk Depp is probably better than almost anyone else — and knocking this one out of the park could earn a lot of dramatic cred.
Earning cred is another story…I’ll be shocked if The Rum Diary makes six nickels. At least one of them, however, will be mine.