13 Castings For New Movies That Prove Hollywood Has Gone Insane
5. Johnny Depp As Sherlock Gnomes
Film: Gnomeo & Juliet 2
Quite why the world needs a Gnomeo & Juliet sequel remains to be seen. It wasn't a bad film, but it was an affectionate stand-alone remake of Romeo & Juliet that worked because of its simple premise. Now, it's being extended seemingly only because Holmes rhymes with Gnomes (and because the first one made money), making the whole Shakespearean link weird and jarring.
Anyway, you'd expect this sort of sequel to cast down on the first film for new characters (like Madagascar, The Nut Job and Open Season did), but Sherlock Gnomes has one Johnny Depp coming in as the titular legendary hero. That seems not only like an expensive hire, but also a silly one.
Surely you hire Depp because of what he looks like on screen? It might be fading, but he's still got old fashioned star quality and the idea of casting him to be unrecognisable in a hammy vocal performance is just weird.
Will It Work?
Depp has been dangerously flirting with becoming no more than a walking funny voice ever since he stumbled on the solid gold formula for performing Jack Sparrow, so it's not surprising. Unfortunately, his work on Mortdecai suggests poor precedent with him doing silly English accents.