Watch THE RUM DIARY Trailer - Johnny Depp As Hunter S. Thompson Again!
The knives have well and truly been out for this for the past year or so with most believing that FilmDistrict were embarrassed by the motion picture and the trailer does project what could be the worst aspects of the film.
It's really hard to know just what to expect with The Rum Diary. One of the films we had expected to play at last year's Cannes Film Festival, the Bruce Robinson directed movie that was shot ages ago instead stayed dormant on a shelf (or in desperate post-production tinkering) before finally FilmDistrict thought it might be a good idea to release the thing, and an October release date was set. But curiously for a film that at one time was expected to challenge so fiercely on the Awards circuit, The Rum Diary has instead by-passed the Venice, Toronto and New York film festivals and by the time it is announced for the BFI London Film Festival, it will only be a few weeks before release anyway so it won't really matter. FilmDistrict long ago decided that Drive was the movie they had better chance financially and on the Awards season circuit to promote and so it comes today the trailer is finally released without much of a whimper.The knives have well and truly been out for this for the past year or so with most believing that FilmDistrict were embarrassed by the motion picture and the trailer does project what could be the worst aspects of the film. The movie is of course Johnny Depp's passion project to re-capture the success of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas for a Puerto Rico set crusading journalist/love triangle tale as Depp plays the crazy journalists' alter-ego Paul Kemp as he drinks his weight in rum and collides with the collection of misfits and screw-ups that surround him at the newspaper he gets caught up in a strange and surreal love triangle. Aaron Eckhart plays a rival journalist. the ultra sexy Amber Heard, Hollywoods next big thing plays the third member of the love triangle, in a role turned down by Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johansson because of the frequent nudity, but the one who could make Heard as big as either of them. What didn't I like about the trailer? Well it just doesn't feel crazy or surreal enough. There's hints at what might happen but there's none of the imagination that Terry Gilliam captured in the 90's and Depp's failed attempt at this kind of kooky humour reminds us of his turn in the GK Films disaster The Tourist, who are also behind this movie. This is the first movie from Withnail & I director Robinson in two decades... and it shows.