Johnny Depp Teams With Brett Ratner For The Libertine
A movie inspired by the Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal.
It seems that Johnny Depp is determined to make a movie called The Libertine work.
Depp first appeared in a film by that name back in 2004, which told the story of John Wilmot, aka the Earl of Rochester. The film was given a limited release, received mixed reviews, and, well, not many people have seen it.
Now, as reported by The Wrap, the actor is teaming up with director Brett Ratner to work on a rather different story by the same name. This one will be loosely inspired by the Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal of 2011, when the former head of the International Monetary Fund was accused of sexually assaulting a maid in a New York hotel room.
Apparently the film will offer a "comedic take" on that, with Depp playing a former French politician, though quite how you turn the story into a comedy I'm not really sure (Deadline reports it's been described as "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? meets The Wolf of Wall Steet," which, erm, yeah, sure?).
It's been a while since Depp was truly at his best (the comeback narrative for Black Mass was nice, but while he was good, the film was fairly average), while Ratner's last film as director was Hercules, so it'll be interesting to watch just how this one turns out.