Johnny Depp News

Johnny Depp Spokeswoman Denies Trojan Report

2008-04-11T20:28:00.002-07:00

A spokeswoman for Johnny Depp denied reports that the actor has been offered $10 million to become the “face” of Trojan condoms, as the U.K.'s Daily Star and other media reported.

"There is no truth to this," said the spokeswoman, Robin Baum, according to Portfolio.com. "He has not been approached."

A call to Baum was not immediately returned to FOXNews.com.

The "Pirates of the Caribbean" star, 44, is currently filming "Public Enemies," in which he plays gangster John Dillinger.

*fox*

Johnny wasn't there, but that didn't stop 100 of Depp's fans

2008-04-11T20:28:00.001-07:00

While crews set up shop at Aurora's Paramount Theatre Sunday to film a portion of the movie "Public Enemies" starring Johnny Depp, about 100 fans waited outside for a celebrity sighting.

No luck. Better luck today.

Kim Smoot, head of security at Paramount, said the shoot featuring Depp would take place Monday morning. But die-hard fans waited around anyway, just in case he showed up.

The major motion picture starring Johnny Depp will focus on American gangster John Dillinger and the birth of the FBI.

Kristen Conforti, 20, of Bartlett, got to the theater at 4 a.m. She's got a shrine dedicated to him in her house and she's seen every single one of Depp's movies on opening night.

She remained hopeful.

"Nobody else wanted to come out here with me and wake up at 3:30 a.m.," she said. "I'm determined."

Megan Schaefer, 19, of Crystal Lake found out about Depp's filming from a Johnny Depp blog. She dragged a couple of Depp-lovers with her to Aurora anxious to meet her favorite star.

"No matter what they say, we're waiting anyway," she said.

They had even bigger plans for today.

"We're gonna come earlier," Schaefer said. "If he's really gonna be here, we're getting up early."

Cecilia Smith, 33, drove all the way from Hobart, Ind. -- about 90 minutes -- in hopes of seeing the world's most famous living pirate.

She has two Johnny Depp images tattooed on her right arm. The last time she met Depp, he autographed her arm, so she got his signature tattooed near the images as well.

Smith also brought a photo album filled with Depp pictures, some of which she shot herself.

"I wanted some more pictures, and I'm still hoping to get some pictures with him," she said. "I'm excited and I'm very happy for the nice weather."

*daily herald*

Meet and greet with Johnny Depp

2008-04-11T19:47:00.000-07:00

Johnny Depp's fans got to see him up close and personal early Tuesday morning in Aurora.

He's in town filming his new movie "Public Enemies."

Depp was expected to greet fans outside the Paramount Theater at 7 p.m. Monday, but the actor didn't show up until midnight. Despite the late hour, fans waited for him.

"Just to be here. Just to be part of this is amazing. I've never done this before. I'm such a fan," said one person who got to meet Depp.

"This is just so exciting... I think I saw him pull up in his car, but now knowing he's about not that far. My stomach is flipping," said another.

Some of the fans drove hours for a glimpse of the actor, who has been seen in several locations around the Chicago area. Depp is starring with Christian Bale in teh movie. he plays John Dillinger. The interior of the Paramount is being used to replicate the interior of Chicago's Biograph Theater, where Dillinger was shot by federal agents in 1934 after seeing a movie.

*abc7*

Johnny Depp to do an item number in Shantaram

2008-04-11T19:46:00.000-07:00

Item numbers may just have risen a notch higher. After all, it's not everyday that we see Johnny Depp gyrating to one!

If things go as planned, Depp may perform an item number for Mira Nair's Shantaram.

When we asked the film's music director, Vishal Bhardwaj, about this, he exclaimed, "I pray and hope! Doing an item number for Johnny Depp will be a pleasure!"

Even though the film is not yet on the floors, its music has been decided.

"We will have two Sufi songs and one item number in Shantaram," Bhardwaj informs us.

Shantaram, which also stars Amitabh Bachchan, is based on Gregory David Roberts' bestseller on his life on Mumbai's streets.

*rediff news*

Johnny Depp: A Great Big Bloody Hero

2008-04-11T19:45:00.000-07:00

History says that Johnny Depp is good at only two things: dressing like a blind man in a rag factory and running around in a funny way dressed up like a pirate.

But now it looks like we can add a third thing to the list of things Johnny Depp excels at - actually saving people's lives from certain death. It's been reported that Johnny Depp saved the lives of six extras on the set of his new movie recently by diving at them, pushing them clear of an out-of-control stunt car heading in their direction.

Which, if true, is actually quite nice. Brave even. Which is hardly very helpful for those of us who have to be rude about famous people for a living. Johnny Depp, eh? What a titting bastard.

Right now Johnny Depp is filming Public Enemies, a movie about 1930s American gangsters and the birth of the FBI. And - in news which will come as a shock to Johnny Depp's many Pirates Of The Caribbean fans - it looks as if there won't be any furious mugging on his part to make up for the fact that it's three hours long, contains no story whatsoever and co-stars a young British man who's about as charismatic as soggy dust.

But what Public Enemies will contain is six extras, all with fully-working limbs and sets of ribs that haven't been shattered into splinters by speeding period cars. And we've got Johnny Depp to thank for that.

According to reports from the set of Public Enemies, Johnny Depp saved the lives of the aforementioned extras by flinging himself at them as a runaway car sped towards them. You know, like a superhero would. eFluxMedia reports:

The 44-year-old actor was shooting a scene as bank robber John Dillinger when a stunt-driver in a 1933 Ford car sped onto a patch of ice and lost control of the vehicle. The car skidded towards the group of extras, who were standing with their backs turned and were oblivious to the imminent danger. Depp noticed the accident that was about to happen and acted. An eyewitness told News of the World: “Johnny slammed into the group with arms outspread, shoving them all back.”

That's one for the DVD extras, then. If this report is true - and not a hopelessly-inflated publicist-informed exaggeration designed to draw attention to the movie, then Johnny Depp should truly be congratulated. He's good at writing his own name and risking his life to save the innocent? People can usually either only do one or the other.

But, as honestly heartwarming as all of this is, it still leaves us in the pickle of trying to work some pithiness into affairs. The only option really left to us is to make up a lie, either about Johnny Depp slowing the stunt car down by throwing a baby under the wheels or to make a crack about how he looks. Wait, we'll flip a coin…

God, Johnny Depp sometimes grows a really stupid-looking beard.

Yeah, that'll do.

*heckler spray*

Johnny Depp Greets Fans In Aurora

2008-04-11T19:44:00.000-07:00

Hollywood star Johnny Depp greeted some of his Chicago area fans on Monday night.

Depp took some time out from filming in Aurora to greet fans who had been waiting all day to get a glimpse of the star. Some showed up as early as 4 a.m. on Monday.

He is filming his new movie "Public Enemies," in which Depp plays Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger.

*nbc5.com*

Mischa's Depp fear

2008-04-11T19:43:00.000-07:00

Mischa Barton wants to work with Johnny Depp, but would be too scared to shoot a love scene with him.

The former O.C. actress has locked lips with a number of hunky actors on-screen and was even involved in a lesbian storyline on the hit US TV show – but admits the thought of getting intimate with heartthrob Johnny fills her with dread.

Mischa said, “If I had to do a love scene with Johnny , it would be really intimidating!” Mischa – who can next be seen in Assassination of a High School President – has previously revealed she has a massive crush on the Pirates of the Caribbean star.

She said, “I really like Johnny, even though I know that everyone says they like him. But I honestly can’t think of anyone hotter. I loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I was so excited to see it!”

*the times of india*

Johnny Depp saves extras

2008-04-11T19:42:00.000-07:00

Johnny Depp turned into a real-life action hero on the set of his latest crime drama, “Public Enemies,” and saved a group of extras from being struck down by an out-of-control car, British tabloid News of the World reports. Depp, 44, was reportedly shooting a scene as bank robber John Dillinger when a stunt driver in a 1933 Ford sped onto a patch of ice and skidded towards six extras, who were standing with their backs turned, oblivious to the danger. But according to an eyewitness, the “Sweeney Todd” star stepped into action and “slammed into the group with arms outspread, shoving them all back,” just in the nick of the time! According to the News, no one was hurt.

*insidetrack*

Johnny Depp declines reports of condom giant Trojan

2008-04-11T19:41:00.000-07:00

American actor Johnny Depp has denied reports that he was offered 10 million dollars to become the face of condom giant, Trojan. Recently, rumours were making rounds that Trojan bosses wanted the Pirates Of The Caribbean star to front an anti-AIDS campaign to send free condoms to less economically developed countries.

But Depp's representative has denied the claims. "There's no truth to this," Contactmusic quoted his rep, as saying. Meanwhile, Johnny Depp has proved that he is a real-life hero by saving a group of extras from being struck down by an out-of-control car on the sets of his new movie.

The 44-year-old actor was shooting a scene as bank robber John Dillinger in his latest crime flick 'Public Enemies', when a stunt driver in a 1933 Ford car sped onto a patch of ice and skidded towards six extras. Oblivious to the approaching danger, the extras were standing with their backs turned, and were finally rescued by the Pirates Of The Caribbean star.

*oneindia*

Wedding Bells Ringing for Johnny Depp

2008-04-11T19:39:00.000-07:00

Three-time Oscar Award-nominated star, Johnny Depp, is about to nail the role of ‘husband’ to none other than his girlfriend of 10 years, Vanessa Paradis.

Depp has previously been quoted saying, “For all intents and purposes, we are married. . .If she ever said, ‘Hey, let’s get hitched,’ I would do it in a second.”

Looks like the wedding is a green light, as a “family insider” revealed to Life & Style magazine, “Vanessa recently told Johnny that she would love to have a wedding,” and Depp’s response? “Johnny loves Vanessa very much, and he said that if that’s what would make her happy, then he’d marry her.”

*cmr*

The Nicest Stars In Hollywood

2008-03-31T19:34:00.000-07:00

AS if we needed another reason to love Johnny Depp, he’s now performing miracles!

When the sexy Sweeney Todd star heard seventeen-year-old fan Sophie Wilkinson was in a coma after a car accident, he had to help.

After a desperate plea from Sophie’s dad, Johnny sent the family a recorded voice message in the voice of Captain Jack Sparrow.

Lo and behold, Sophie started moving her right leg when she heard Depp’s voice.

She’d been in her coma for five months!

And the delectable Depp isn’t the only selfless star out there.

*the sun*

Depp makes good impression on Ind. set

2008-03-31T19:33:00.000-07:00

Actor Johnny Depp has been described as a "really nice" celebrity following his recent visit to Crown Point, Ind., to film an upcoming movie.

After filming scenes for "Public Enemies," Depp freely spent time with throngs of admirers who showed up and by most accounts the actor made quite an impression, The Gary (Ind.) Post-Tribune reported Saturday.

"He's really nice," 14-year-old Haley Bunde said of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star. "It's really nice for the young kids. He bent down and shook their hands, and he didn't skip a group. He went down the whole line."

Depp reportedly would shake hands and sign autographs for hundreds of fans following each day's shooting schedule and made extra time for his younger supporters, the newspaper said.

Clearly acting against his apparent personality, Depp is portraying notorious bank robber John Dillinger in "Enemies."

*united press international*

Win a JOHNNY DEPP Authentic Hand-Signed Photo

2008-03-31T19:31:00.000-07:00

Grand Prize: Award winning actor JOHNNY DEPP authentic hand-signed 8x10 photograph with certificate of authenticity from Strickler's Celebrity Autographs.

If you wish to enter, go to our Autograph Collectors Daily hobby blogsite, scroll down and forward your name, mailing address, contact email and telephone number on the email link provided. No other entries will be accepted. There is no purchase necessary to enter. No prizes will be substituted. All entries must be received by midnight, June 1, 2008. Winners will be notified immediately after entry deadline. One entry per person. Age 18+ only. Good luck!

Strickler's Celebrity Autographs http://www.stricklerautographs.com offers authentic hand-signed entertainment autographs and unique celebrity collectibles. BuySAFE bonded and insured merchant. International orders welcomed. All major credit cards and PayPal accepted. Hundreds of authentic hand-signed autographed celebrity, entertainment and sports memorabilia in stock! "Indiana Jones" cast, "Harry Potter" cast, "Star Wars" cast, popular and country music stars and many more top celebrities. We offer online appraisal service for autograph collections or single pieces at www.WhatsItWorthToYou.com . A link to the website is provided on our blog and retail links page. Make sure you signup on our mailing list for great specials and discounts year around. Please inquire for further information.

*news-antique*

Depp directs lover's latest music vid

2008-03-31T19:30:00.000-07:00

Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp has directed his French lover, Vanessa Paradis' new music video.

The actor - who has two children with Paradis - also seemingly makes a cameo appearance in the video for L'incendie, a French song which translates as The Fire in English.

The three-minute video shows Paradis dancing on the stage of an empty theatre wearing a flowing peach dress, while being observed by a male stranger wearing a hat - believed to be Depp, although his face is never shown.

Paradis' microphone stand then bursts into flames and the floor ignites with her every step.

At the end of the video, Paradis meets the stranger and, in a bright explosion of fire, the pair disappear.

L'incendie is taken from Paradis' album Divine Idylle, a record that has already topped the French and Belgian album charts.

The 35-year-old beauty was also crowned Best French Female Artist and won Best Pop Album at the recent Victories De La Musique awards.

*stuff.co.nz*

Trojan bosses want Depp to front condoms

2008-03-31T19:29:00.001-07:00

Hollywood star Johnny Depp has been offered a staggering $10m (€6.3m) to become the face for American condom giant Trojan.

According to reports, Trojan bosses believe the 'Donnie Brasco' actor - who is an advocate of safe sex - would considerably boost sales of their Magnum range, and help inspire an anti-AIDS campaign to send free condoms to less economically developed countries.

Although Depp has yet to make a formal decision about the offer, safe sex campaigners have already expressed their approval of Trojan's choice.

A spokeswoman for California's Safer Sex Awareness Campaign says: "We'd welcome seeing a major Hollywood star helping to promote the cause. And there's no one bigger than Johnny."

*irelandon-line*

Flicks Fridays - How Depp Is Your Love?

2008-03-25T22:37:00.000-07:00

Before you (potentially) see Johnny Depp filming "Public Enemies" in Crown Point Monday, make sure you see him on the small screen.

Presenting The Five's Three Favorite Johnny Depp Flicks Of All Time.

Disclaimer - If you're the type of Depp fan who prefers "Pirates" to his weirder works, find a different list.

1. "Ed Wood" - Perhaps Depp's finest, and most undervalued, performance, where he lends a unique happy-go-lucky spirit and muted melancholy to his role as one of cinema's worst directors. "Wood" is director Tim Burton's best flick too.

2. "Edward Scissorhands" - Ok, so you've probably seen this one before. But it's always worth another look. This bizarre macabre fairy tale still has plenty of laughs, heart, and beauty, and the performance by Depp is a complete 180 from Ed Wood. Too soon to say "Scissorhands" is a classic? I don't think so.

3. "Dead Man" - Probably Depp's strangest film, this dreamlike, black and white Western is certainly for an acquired taste. But it's unlike anything else you've ever seen. From the very unique indie auteur Jim Jarmusch.

If you're itching to get out to the theaters instead, there's not much to recommend this weekend. "Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns" and the horror flick "Shutter" weren't screened for critics - not the best sign.

Teen comedy "Drillbit Taylor," the week's biggest release, appears to be the first dud from red hot comedy producer Judd Apatow ("Knocked Up," "Superbad"), based on reviews.

"Diary of the Dead" seems to be the most promising of the bunch - a "Cloverfield" style zombie flick from the master zombie moviemaker George A. Romero (the original "Night of the Living Dead").

But I've seen this thing and I gotta admit - it's one of the worst films so far this year, a pretentious bore stuffed with slipshod political allegory and not a single scare. And the production values are straight to DVD quality, despite the very slick trailer. Its playing in Portage.

This week's "Film of the Future" is "Pineapple Express," opening in August, yet another comedy from Judd Apatow. So "Drillbit" is a dud. This stoner comedy looks to be one of his funniest yet.

Have a great weekend everyone!

*posttribune*

Johnny Depp: Clean Shaven!

2008-03-25T22:32:00.000-07:00

We haven’t seen him this clean cut since his days as “Ed Wood” way back in the day. And Johnny Depp seems to be embracing the cleaned-up look.

The “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor was spotted on the set of his new movie “Public Enemies” on Wednesday in full period costume. He graciously waved to fans in between takes, and looked to be enjoying himself.

Then, yesterday Depp took some time out of his busy shooting schedule in Columbus, Wisconsin to shake a few hands and pose for a few pictures. And we must say, he’s really committed to looking as close to American gangster John Dillinger as possible.

Johnny is starring alongside Christian Bale, Channing Tatum, and Marion Cotillard in a flick about the Feds trying to take down notorious American gangsters John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and Pretty Boy Floyd during a booming crime wave in the 1930s.

Enjoy the pictures of Johnny greeting fans (March 20), and on the set of “Public Enemies” (March 19).

*gossip girls*

Dear Johnny Depp ...

2008-03-25T22:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Wisconsin! We want you to feel at home. We're really not so different from Hollywood after all, and -- who knows? Maybe we can get you to stay.

Sure, Los Angeles and the West Coast offer a fair life. But, Johnny, you just need to get to know Wisconsin and our fabulous North Coast!

We're sure you'll be phoning a Realtor as soon as you learn how much we're just like you. We're already working on a big sign with 50-foot white letters spelling out "DEPPWOOD" overlooking the Madison Water Utility's poisoned well No. 3. Johnny, we have everything you're used to and so much more, all of it deep-fried and sprinkled with cheese:

"Lights! Camera! Action!" We speak your film lingo here, Johnny! For example, when we go to the movies we know that "butter" really means "butter-flavored topping." And we know how it is to have a big project "in the can." At least, Great Uncle Henry always did. That's why he would take so many magazines in there with him.

Did you know that Madison has its own Oscar? (Mayer)

Limos: You must be used to riding in those big, long cars, right? Well, how about a 6.5 ton, 31-foot, chauffeured Wisconsin Dells Duck? Ooh-la-la! Talk about exclusive!

Earthquakes: Sure, California's undulating scenery makes life interesting, but why settle for boring old earthquakes when you can have hip, exciting ice quakes? We had one Jan. 31. It was caused by a pressure ridge on frozen Lake Mendota, which brings us to ...

Smog: A true Los Angeleno would not feel at home without smog. It's true that we don't really have it here, but we know all about not being able to breathe. At least, our fish do. We keep our smog in the lakes. It's green. (Idea for sequel: "Pirate's Curse: Swimmer's Itch.")

Palm trees: It's a little-known fact that Wisconsin has many "palm" trees. We tap them for syrup. No? Well then, we already once renamed the holiday tree in our Capitol Rotunda. We 're just a single legislative act away from renaming all balsam firs as coconut palms -- with fresh pine scent!

Hand prints in concrete: We don't have a Grauman's Chinese Theater, but see all the Madison construction? Roll up your sleeves and feel free!

Celebrities, celebrities, celebrities: Wisconsin has been home to many stars -- who then moved away. Jerks. Anyway, you name the city, and we have a celebrity to match! Porn star Brittany Andrews is from Milwaukee. One of those dumpy guys from "The West Wing" is from Madison. TV 's "Mr. Wizard," Don Herbert, learned his science at UW-La Crosse. And of course, I heard that Kenosha is the birthplace of "Citizen Kane" filmmaker Orson Bean! Heck, why not move all of Hollywood here right now?

Traffic jams: Just so you feel at home, Johnny, we do have traffic jams, notably on that stretch of Highway 14 on the other side of Cross Plains when the farmer is towing his manure spreader. Speaking of which ...

Road rage: Oh, we got road rage! The other day I was so mad I shot a pothole. Which leads us to ...

Handguns: We've heard all about L.A.'s maniac drivers reaching for their pistols. It's true that we seldom carry guns in our cars. But thanks to our far-seeing state Legislature, it is a fact that in Wisconsin the legally blind are allowed to shoot deer with rifles from parked vehicles.

We got ghouls: Johnny, we know of your penchant for playing spooky bizarros. Well, howdy, good neighbor! Wisconsin has cannibal necrophiliac mass-murderers Ed Gein and Jeffrey Dahmer. We also have red-scare witch hunter Sen. Joseph McCarthy, and we're the home of the John Birch Society. And to make the deal sweeter, Green Bay was the location where horror star Lon Chaney shot his last silent film, "Thunder."

Walk of Fame: Sure, Hollywood Boulevard has its own famed walk, but fun-loving Wisconsin does, too! (It involves touching your nose and walking a straight line.)

Gangs: We have a little gang activity here, though nothing like Los Angeles' Bloods and Crips. Still, we host The Sons of Norway and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Look out! They are bad ass.

Paparazzi: Johnny, our photojournalists are chaste and respectful. However, we do have bratarazzi, who ambush cheap bratwurst all summer long, notably at Madison 's annual World 's Biggest Brat Fest. And it's purely my own editorial view, but we also have the Naderazzi, who insist on voting for Ralph Nader no matter what. If you stay, we'll let you punch some. Maybe even if you don't stay.

Winona Ryder. You used to date her, right? She's from, and named for, the Minnesota city just across our Mississippi River border! I only bring it up because, um, like, could you introduce me?

Hollywood and Vine: We know you'll miss that illustrious intersection, home to the Brown Derby, NBC's fabulous art deco Radio City West and the famous Hollywood Plaza Hotel. Unfortunately, they 've all been demolished. Weep not, Johnny! Here in Madison we keep their spirit alive, by demolishing our own historic buildings.

Finally, where could you live in Wisconsin? We don't want you to miss your Beverly -- Hills, that is. Swimmin' pools, movie stars. Our big celebrities tend to be University of Wisconsin coaches and faculty, so you might like their community in Shorewood -- Hills, that is. Football pools, learning stars.

Oh, wait. You live in France and not Los Angeles, don't you?

Mon Dieu, Monsieur Depp! Did you know that Wisconsin is home to many historic French communities, with Frenchy names such as Prairie du Chien, La Crosse, Beloit, Fond du Lac ...

(P.S. Do let me know about Winona!)

*wisconsin state journal*

Johnny Depp makes people cry in Wisconsin

2008-03-25T22:07:00.000-07:00

He shook this town up when he came, the youthful-looking fortysomething who, on a platform of change, drew throngs of admirers and roused weary young Wisconsinites out of their winter doldrums.

Okay, I made up the part about a platform of change. But I'm talking about, of course, Johnny Depp, whose arrival in the Badger State -- for the filming of Public Enemies, an old-time gangster movie -- set off a frenzy rivaling the one that greeted Barack Obama's socko appearance at the Kohl Center.

My mind was blown when I read Rod Melotte's account of the shoot earlier this week in Columbus. Melotte reports that hundreds -- hundreds -- of people had turned up at dawn on a cold Monday morning to take in the action. If I'm even awake at dawn on a cold Monday morning, I'm probably thinking about getting back to sleep.

Many of the onlookers had surely come for the sheer spectacle that is the Hollywood machine in action. It probably felt like the circus had come to town. But others, clearly, were there for Depp and Depp alone. Here's how Melotte describes one fan's reaction to a sighting of the star:

The first time he passes, a young woman says over and over, “OH MY GOD IT WAS JOHNNY DEPP!” She borrows my cell phone to call her mom and is sobbing while telling the story of just how close she was to the actor.

Sobbing!

Which is weird, and possibly an overreaction.

Understand, I think Depp is a fine actor. Thanks in no small part to his long-running collaboration with the idiosyncratic director Tim Burton, Depp is a rarity among American film performers, an actor whose thoughtful integrity remains largely uncompromised.

Fifteen and more years ago I was moved by him in quirky, small films like Ed Wood and What's Eating Gilbert Grape? And he is still smartly challenging viewers with films like the recent all-singing, all-throat-slashing Sweeney Todd, as well as 2004's The Libertine, about a seventeenth-century English poet who paid tribute in verse to dildos and crab lice.

Of course, Depp would not be a household name if not for the Pirates of the Caribbean films, and that series is probably how the weeping young woman in Columbus knows Depp best. (Unless she was a big fan of The Libertine.)

So to summarize: His serious work notwithstanding, Depp is mostly loved by silly young people for a series of silly pirate films, and only a silly young person would burst into tears at the sight of a celebrity. Right?

Except I'm not so sure. Something similar happened to me a few years ago, and I wasn't all that young. Neither was the celebrity in question. In fact, he was 72.

It was an overcast summer night in 2003 when I went to Wausau to hear country music legend George Jones sing. He performed at the Wisconsin Valley Fair, where I sat in bleachers hundreds of feet from the outdoor stage. There was a cheesy warm-up act. Jones looked old. He sang songs that were hits in the 1950s. At 32, I seemed for the most part to be the youngest person there by 20 years.

And from the moment he started singing, I couldn't stop crying. Seriously. I was badly dehydrated by the show's end -- which, for what it's worth, was punctuated by the most violent summer thunderstorm I've ever been caught in. Since my teens I have thought George Jones was pretty wonderful, and I wept at the sight and sound of him.

So I identify with the young weeping woman in Columbus. Our popular entertainers can exert an awesome emotional pull on us, whether they're moaning incomparably sad country songs, as George Jones does on his records, or looking incomparably beautiful on a 30-foot-high movie screen, as Johnny Depp does, in whatever role.

And when we are in the actual presence of these entertainers, that emotion can't help but come out -- sometimes, in tears. They're not tears of sorrow, obviously, but they're not quite tears of joy, either. They're a reaction that simply says: that is the person who moves me. That person standing freaking right there!

I understand it. So, perhaps, do those men who cried on sports radio call-in shows when Brett Favre retired. We get very invested in our celebrities.

Actually, if I'd been standing with the young weeping woman in Columbus, maybe I would have been weeping right along with her.

*the daily page*

Johnny Depp holds court in Darlington

2008-03-25T22:06:00.002-07:00

Famed actor films scenes for upcoming movie at Lafayette County Courthouse

Darlington's historic Lafayette County Courthouse transformed itself "Depp" into the past.

Famed actor Johnny Depp was in town as interior courtroom scenes were filmed for the movie "Public Enemies," in which Depp portrays 1930s bank robber John Dillinger. The movie is set for release next year.

At about 10:15 a.m., Depp arrived, chauffeured in a black Cadillac SUV. A hat pulled low over his face, he turned and half-waved, igniting cheers from the more than 200 people assembled in front of the Darlington Municipal Building. He quickly jogged up the courthouse stairs. But fans, hoping for an acknowledgement, however fleeting, got what they came for.

*thonline.com*

Here’s how Johnny looks 30 at 44

2008-03-25T22:06:00.001-07:00

The secret behind Johnny Depp's dashing and youthful look is out - a combo of proper exercise and low-sodium diet.

The 44-year-old actor, who still manages to outshine younger stars, exercises on a treadmill, dumbbells and has a stability ball in his room.

The actor also eats a variety of fruits, including blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, kiwi and soymilk, reports the Mirror.

The Pirates of Caribbean star occasionally has chicken breast, tuna in spring water with light mayo and six hard-boiled eggs

Depp’s staff has been ordered ensure that the actor’s diet is low-sodium, low-calorie and non greasy.

*the times of india*

Depp, 'Public Enemies' draw big crowds to Crown Point

2008-03-25T22:04:00.000-07:00

While most of the region still was sound asleep, about 75 area residents gathered under a bright moon in 20-degree temperatures early Monday in hopes of doing a little star gazing.

Movie star gazing, that is.

As the day grew, so did the number of fans waiting behind barricades in Crown Point in front of the Old Lake County Courthouse and jail.

Actor Johnny Depp is playing John Dillinger in "Public Enemies," which is filming this week at the site of the notorious bank robber's most legendary jailbreak.

The fans got their wish just before 11 a.m., when a black Ford Expedition pulled up in front of the old sheriff's house on Main Street and out popped Depp.

The crowd, numbering in the hundreds -- some of whom had been waiting for nearly 12 hours -- erupted into loud cheers as Depp dashed into the old sheriff's house.

Nicole Vega, 15, of Crown Point, and her sister Megan, 22, arrived downtown about 4 a.m.

"It's the most fascinating thing in Crown Point since Dillinger broke out of jail and (Rudolph) Valentino got married at the courthouse," Nicole Vega said. "I just hope I get to see Johnny Depp. Even if I don't, this is still the most exciting thing to happen on my spring break."

While word in and around the set was that filming would be taking place solely indoors, those who braved the chilly early morning temperatures weren't about to budge.

Katy Krekel, 20, traveled Sunday from Louisville, Ky., with her 13-year-old sister, Anna, to watch some of the filming. The sisters arrived in Crown Point at 7 p.m. and slept in their car.

"It's Johnny Depp," Krekel said. "I've been a fan since I was 5."

The pair traveled to Wisconsin last week to watch some of the filming there and got to see Depp shooting a chase scene.

"We saw him drive by in an old car, and then they were pulling the car on like a big flat-bed and they were filming that," she said.

Anissa Gray, of Crown Point, brought her 11-year-old daughter, Marissa Kozlowkski, downtown about 5:30 a.m.

"I have an 8-month-old, so I figured if I didn't get her up for this, the baby would get me up anyway," Gray said. "I've been in Chicago and New York when they were filming movies, and I wanted her to see what it is like."

Some fans were less interested in the acting or the filmmaking process, like the girls with signs adorned with glitter paint pressed against the snow fence reading, "Johnny, hug me please! You're beautiful!" and "I love Johnny."

Still, Crown Point police said there were no problems overnight into Monday morning. Several officers joked that they were thankful for the overtime pay they were getting working in and around the set, paid for by the movie production company.

"It's good for the city," Crown Point police Cpl. Larry Gonzalez said. "We had people starting to line up around 12:30, but they've all been fine."

Gonzalez said he got to take a tour of Dillinger's old jail cell in the sheriff's house.

"They've got it all remodeled and really looking nice," he said. "The time and effort they took in cleaning it up is going to benefit the city for years to come.

"We should be thankful for this project."

*the times*

Hoosiers cheer when Johnny Depp shows up for 'Public Enemies' movie about John Dillinger

2008-03-25T22:01:00.000-07:00

Heeeere’s Johnny!

Hundreds of fans, some of whom waited hours outside the Old Lake County Courthouse and jail hoping to catch a glimpse of movie star Johnny Depp despite word around the set that filming would be taking place solely indoors. They were rewarded late Monday morning when Depp showed up.

The crowd erupted into loud cheers as Depp dashed into the old sheriff’s house. Depp is playing bank robber John Dillinger in the movie ‘‘Public Enemies.’’

Depp smiled and waved at the crowd, put his hands together in a prayer-like gesture, offering a slight forward bow, then touched his right hand to his heart in appreciation.

‘‘He waved! Oh my God!’’ said 16-year-old Caressa Rospierski, a Portage High School student on spring break.

Her classmate Stacia Upton held up a poster saying, ‘‘We love you, Johnny.’’

‘‘It’s the most fascinating thing in Crown Point since Dillinger broke out of jail and (Rudolph) Valentino got married at the courthouse,’’ said 15-year-old Nicole Vega of Crown Point. ‘‘I just hope I get to see Johnny Depp. Even if I don’t, this is still the most exciting thing to happen on my spring break.’’

City police Cpl. Larry Gonzalez said the crowds were good for the city.

‘‘We had people starting to line up around 12:30, but they’ve all been fine,’’ he said.

Gonzalez said he got to take a tour of Dillinger’s old jail cell in the sheriff’s house.

‘‘They’ve got it all remodeled and really looking nice,’’ he said. ‘‘The time and effort they took in cleaning it up is going to benefit the city for years to come.’’

*chicago sun-times*

British Breakfast club: Johnny Depp and Kelly Brook

2008-03-11T21:29:00.000-07:00

Johnny Depp and Kelly Brook are the celebrities British people would most like to eat breakfast in bed with.

'The Pirates of the Caribbean' actor was the women's choice, while 'Smallville' star Kelly was the men's in a poll of 2,500 British people conducted by hotel chain Travelodge to find out why the tradition of eating breakfast in bed is dying out.

Leigh McCarron, the Sleep Director of Travelodge, said: "There are few things in life more luxurious than having a decadent breakfast in bed and this is one tradition as a nation we should preserve.

"I would urge people to have regular lie-ins and what better way to spend even more time in bed than to indulge in a hearty breakfast with a loved one."

Actress-and-TV presenter Denise Van Outen was men's second most popular choice, closely followed by 'Wow' singer Kylie Minogue.

The top five was rounded off by former 'Friends' actress Jennifer Aniston and 'Underworld' star Kate Beckinsale.

Soccer star David Beckham was the second choice for women, while 'Michael Clayton' actor George Clooney was in third position.

George's close friend and 'Ocean's Thirteen' co-star Brad Pitt and British TV presenter Dermot O'Leary came in fourth and fifth position respectively.

Travelodge's Top Ten Celebrities Who British People Would Most Like To Eat Breakfast In Bed With, Full List:

Men voted for:

1. Kelly Brook

2. Denise Van Outen

3. Kylie Minogue

4. Jennifer Aniston

5. Kate Beckinsale

6. Kate Winslet

7. Catherine Zeta Jones

8. Cameron Diaz

9. Holly Willoughby

10. Dawn French

Women voted for:

1. Johnny Depp

2. David Beckham

3. George Clooney

4. Brad Pitt

5. Dermot O'Leary

6. Colin Firth

7. Orlando Bloom

8. Antonio Banderas

9. Gordon Ramsay

10. Hugh Grant

*m&C*

Johnny Depp desperate to become painter

2008-03-11T21:28:00.000-07:00

American actor Johnny Depp is very eager to play the part of the eccentric artist Salvador Dali, provided the script is right. His interest in the role is such that he is even staging open auditions for screenwriters, open to anyone and everyone.

The Pirates Of The Caribbean star is all set to play the late surrealist icon in Dali, but wants to do it with a script that he really likes. Depp has, according to the Sydney Daily Telegraph newspaper in Australia, asked even budding screenwriters to apply for the job. "He's open to working with anyone from housewives to pensioners if the script is right," Contactmusic quoted a source as telling the tabloid.

*oneindia*

Depp helps to complete Ledger film

2008-03-11T21:27:00.000-07:00

Heath Ledger's last film will go ahead with Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law as the late actor's replacements, director Terry Gilliam has confirmed.

The Brokeback Mountain star was working on fantasy adventure The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus when he died of an accidental overdose in January.

Gilliam said in a statement: "I am grateful to Johnny, Colin and Jude for coming on board and to everyone else who has made it possible for us to finish the film. I am delighted that Heath's brilliant performance can be shared with the world. We are looking forward to finishing the movie and, through the film, with a modicum of humility, being able to touch people's hearts and souls as Heath was able to do."

It had been suggested that Ledger's role would be completed using CGI (computer generated imagery) special effects, as happened when Oliver Reed died during the making of Gladiator.

But the film's producers said: "Since the format of the story allows for the preservation of his entire performance, at no point will Heath's work be modified or altered through the use of digital technology. Each of the parts played by Johnny, Colin and Jude is representative of the many aspects of the character that Heath was playing."

The project is going ahead with the blessing and support of Ledger's family, the producers added.

Ledger was found dead in his New York apartment on January 22 after taking an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. Three days earlier he had filmed scenes for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus in London. He left a two-year-old daughter, Matilda, by former partner Michelle Williams.

It later emerged a family row has broken out over the contents of Ledger's will. The actor is reported to have left his estate to his parents and sister, as the will was drawn up before his relationship with Williams and the birth of their daughter Matilda. Ledger's father, Kim, released a statement reassuring Williams that the little girl would be provided for.

"Matilda is our absolute priority, and Michelle is an integral part of our family," he said. "They will be taken care of and that's how Heath would want it to be."

But Kim's estranged brothers, Mike and Haydn, have publicly questioned whether Matilda will get any of Ledger's estate. "I'm concerned for Matilda. I have concerns about the distribution of funds," Haydn told an Australian newspaper. Kim responded by saying: "It is sad at this extremely difficult time in our lives, while we are grieving the loss of our beloved son, that estranged family members publicly discuss matters they have not been privy to in the past or now. We hope for Matilda's sake they will remain dignified."

*the press association*

Depp's team looking over Gary locales

2008-03-06T20:08:00.000-08:00

Gary may get in on the filming for "Public Enemies," which will star Johnny Depp as John Dillinger.

A locations official for the movie recently contacted Ben Clement, who handles film office matters for the city.

"They're just doing an initial site search to see if there are any locations within the city that might be suitable for filming," said Clement, economic development and marketing administrator for the Gary, East Chicago, Hammond Empowerment Zone.

Clement confirmed that representatives of the Universal Pictures release have been in Gary to scout potential shooting sites.

"Nothing's been firmed up at all yet," Clement said Wednesday. He declined to divulge any Gary locations that are being considered.

Clement did say, though, that Gary was open to the idea of accommodating film crews for the drama about a Depression-era crime wave.

"The city of Gary is interested in any film project that might help us to attract more film projects and to help advance the city," Clement said. "So naturally, something of this magnitude would be beneficial for us."

Shooting on "Public Enemies" is scheduled to take place over the next several months in Chicago and surrounding areas, including Crown Point. Set for a 2009 release, "Public Enemies" is based on the acclaimed Bryan Burrough book of the same name.

*Post-Tribune*

Depp fans start trek to Columbus for March 17 film start

2008-03-06T20:07:00.000-08:00

Along with construction on the set of the movie "Public Enemies," false sightings of the movie's star, Johnny Depp, have begun, and fans are starting to visit Columbus in hopes of a chance of seeing the Oscar-nominated actor.

"Someone told me that they saw Johnny Depp near Westgate theater in Madison this week," said West James Gallery owner Kim Bates. "Last week someone thought they saw him in town here."

"Public Enemies" is a Michael Mann-directed film about the life of notorious bank robber John Dillinger. It will star Depp, Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard.

Robin Salzwedel, owner of Secret Garden Floral at 115 N. Ludington St., heard similar rumors of the stars popping up around the city.

"There has been a lot of curious people," Salzwedel said. "It's brought a lot of people in the shop. A lot of people want to know what we heard. Someone already told me that there was a sighting of Johnny Depp in town. We just laughed."

Appleton residents Tanya Vegetabile and Rebecca Schinke visited Columbus on Wednesday to scout the location.

"We're checking it out so we will know our way around when the movie is being filmed," Schinke said.

The two spent their time filming the crews working on the buildings.

Bates said she is glad about the attention that Columbus is getting from the filming of the movie, set to begin March 17.

"Hopefully, people will see how wonderful Columbus is and come back," Bates said. "I think it is great that they are using Columbus for the movie."

Many downtown buildings are receiving new awnings and window panels that will take them back in time to the 1930s, along with temporary interior set pieces that will cover the insides of the buildings during filming.

Sharrow's Pharmacy, which has been in business since 1889, will remain a pharmacy on the James Street side of the building and a clothing store on the Ludington Street side of the building. "It was going to be a bakery, but they decided to make it a drugstore," co-owner Nick Sharrow said.

Sharrow's will start to undergo its transformation today. Sharrow said that they will move some merchandise into the basement and move some of the over-the-counter merchandise so crews will have room to put up the false wall.

Salzwedel's sign has already been removed and a former inhabitant, "Nitche Market," is now seen in the front of the building. Salzwedel said the building was a tavern when it was built in the 1800s and was a meat market in the late 1920s.

"We've joked that we should start asking people if they want meat or flowers," she said.

Bates's gallery used to be First National Bank, built in 1916. The building will be called Green Castle Bank in the movie.

"My father told me that Dillinger used to hang out in Green Castle, Ind.," Bates said.

In the movie, Depp will be running out of Bates's store in a bank-robbing scene.

"I guess they picked us because we're centrally located," Bates said. "And the facade of the building was from a bank in the era that they needed one from."

Bates said she realizes there will be a lot more people in the city when the movie is to be filmed, but she thinks the city will be able to handle the extra guests. After all, Columbus does fill up with visitors every July 4 for the city's Independence Day celebration.

"Of course, we're not bringing porta-potties in for the people coming in for this," Bates said. "But I think we can handle everyone for one day."

Columbus resident Marsha Sparks agreed that the publicity is a good thing for the city.

"Who knew they would find Columbus from all the towns in Wisconsin?" she said. "The only think I hope is he puts a little Johnny Depp in Dillinger."

*Daily Register*

Johnny Depp's Dali auditions

2008-03-06T20:05:00.000-08:00

Johnny Depp is holding open auditions to find screenwriters for his latest movie.

The Pirates of the Caribbean star will play surrealist painter Salvador Dali in new film Dali and is keen to get the right script, regardless of who it comes from.

A source said: "He's open to working with anyone - from housewives to pensioners - if the script is right."

Depp is not the only Hollywood star set to portray the eccentric artist on the big screen.

Al Pacino and Peter O'Toole are being lined up to star in rival movies, Dali and I and Goodbye Dali respectively.

Asked why so many films were being made 18 years after the artist's death, Peter Rawley, producer of Dali, said: "Film-makers somehow pick up on the vibe. But three films is nothing, at one stage, we counted up to nine."

Dali - who died in 1989, aged 84 - was famed for his technical genius as well as his showmanship and once gave a lecture dressed in a diver's suit.

His most famous works include The Persistence of Memory, The Face of Mae West, The Metamorphosis of Narcissus and The Temptation of St. Anthony.

*The New Zealand Herald*

Johnny Depp wishes to meet Big B

2008-03-04T23:46:00.001-08:00

'Pirates of the Caribbean' star Johnny Depp is eagerly looking forward to meeting legend of Indian Cinema Amitabh Bachchan. He will be landing on Indian soil very soon for the shooting Mira Nair’s Shantaram. He is very excited to visit Indian and expressed his desire to meet Mr. Bachchan. Depp is a great fan of Big B.

Depp has seen some films of Amitabh and liked them very much. He feels that Amitabh is a very strong and important actor of Indian cinema. After making a mark in movies, Depp is working hard for his first musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street." It will be directed by director Tim Burton. The role of Sweeney is very challenging as for the first time he is playing a character which has some dark shades.

Shantaram is a novel of epic proportions written by Gregory David Roberts. It tells the story of his break from a Melbourne prison in Australia and escape to New Zealand followed by India where much of the novel is set. Actress Emily Watson is starring opposite Depp. The film is slated to release this year.

*bollywood mantra*

Northwest Indiana's Lake County Jail preps for Johnny Depp visit

2008-03-04T23:45:00.000-08:00

Johnny Depp will be in town this spring to recreate gangster John Dillinger's infamous 1934 escape from Lake County Jail for his upcoming film ‘‘Public Enemies.''

Depp will play Dillinger, and the scene will be shot at the Old Sheriff's House and Jail. No specific dates have been released, but filming will take place from March through June in Chicago, Indiana and Wisconsin.

Dillinger, an Indiana native, escaped the heavily guarded northwestern Indiana jail March 3, 1934, while he awaited trial on charges that he killed Officer William Patrick O'Malley during an East Chicago bank robbery.

He then drove away in Sheriff Lillian Holley's new Ford. A few months later, federal agents fatally shot him outside a Chicago theater.

Work crews started preparing the red-brick jail for its movie close-up last Monday.

‘‘I wish we could say (the restoration) will be complete, but it'll be mostly the entry and upstairs,'' location scout George Constas said.

The jail's neighbor, the Hall of Justice Bar and Ballroom, will host up to 200 actors, crew members and technicians.

‘‘Hollywood's coming to Crown Point,'' co-owner Philip Struebig said. ‘‘It's going to be a heck of a thing for Crown Point. It will put us back on the map.''

Depp is probably best known for starring roles in the ‘‘Pirates of the Caribbean'' series, ‘‘Finding Neverland'' and ‘‘Edward Scissorhands.''

His co-star in ‘‘Public Enemies'' will be this year's Oscar-winner for best actress, Marion Cotillard, who is playing Dillinger's moll.

*wabash plain dealer*

Actor Depp to Drive Dillinger's Car

2008-03-04T23:44:00.000-08:00

Actor Johnny Depp will be making a getaway to Wisconsin in a famous historic car from right here in the stateline. Depp will get behind the wheel of this vehicle, a 1932 Studebaker commander, later this year in the filming of a movie about gangster John Dillinger. The movie is called "Public Enemies." it is to be shot on location in the badger state and the car is part of the collection at the historic auto attractions....

"It will be used in the same context in the film as it was in real life which makes it really unique," said museum curator Eric Hoffman.

At that time it was the biggest bank heist ever....about $75 thousand was taken. Not long after that robbery dillinger was gunned down by police outside of the Biograph Theater in Chiacgo after being fingered by the infamous "lady in red."

*wifr.com*

Piece of History at Roscoe Museum Used in New Johnny Depp Movie

2008-03-04T23:43:00.001-08:00

A piece of history from a Roscoe museum comes back to life on the big screen.

The 1932 Studebaker John Dillinger used in the robbery of a Greencastle, Indiana bank will play a supporting role in the new movie "Public Enemies." Johnny Depp stars as John Dillinger and will drive it.

After a month of negotiating, the Historic Auto Attractions Museum in Roscoe made a deal, allowing producers to use the car. Museum Curator Eric Hoffman says, "Just A-list director, A-list cast and it's just amazing that we have a chance to be apart of it."

The car was shipped out Tuesday. It will return to the museum in about a month.

*13*

Johnny Depp's Gift To The Hoff

2008-03-04T23:41:00.000-08:00

NOW here's an unlikely friendship.

JOHNNY DEPP has given DAVID HASSELHOFF the barber's chair used in his movie Sweeney Todd.

The former Baywatch star was stunned by Johnny's kind gesture after the Pirates Of The Caribbean star learned of David's battle to get his antique barber's chair back from his ex PAMELA BACH's LA home.

The pair have been locked in a bitter dispute over their divorce settlement - with David trying to regain access to the former family home to take back his beloved chair.

But The Hoff is no longer bothered about the original - and is more than happy with Depp's movie prop.

His lawyer MELVIN S. GOLDSMAN said: "David is just so pleased to have the matter behind him."

*the sun*

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2008-03-01T00:29:00.000-08:00

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Johnny Depp as Dillinger

2008-02-29T00:49:00.000-08:00

Johnny Depp, aka John Dillinger in the Universal film "Public Enemies," is hitting Crown Point this spring reportedly to reprise the gangster's bold 1934 escape from Lake County Jail.

The scene will be shot on location at the Old Sheriff's House and Jail, 226 S. Main St., sources said. Universal declined to comment on specifics.

The front part of the Second Empire-style building housed the top cop in Dillinger's era. The back holds the cells from which the bank robber fled in broad daylight.

Dates for the Crown Point shoot are under wraps. But director Michael Mann has targeted the old Lake County Criminal Court, 220 S. Main St., as his headquarters during a three-day stay. Reborn the Hall of Justice Bar and Ballroom in the early 1990s, the jail's neighbor will host up to 200 actors, crew members and technicians.

"Hollywood's coming to Crown Point," said Philip Struebig, co-owner of the Hall of Justice. "It's going to be a heck of a thing for Crown Point. It will put us back on the map."

He is banking on hosting a reception for three-time Oscar nominee Depp, 44, during the shoot. "We're ready to rock 'n' roll," he said.

Work crews arrived Monday to prep the red-brick jail for its close-up. By Thursday, a dozen tradesmen were measuring timber on sawhorses for a new drop ceiling and walls. The chug of a portable generator and buzz of a circular saw all but drowned out jokes about tommy guns.

"I wish we could say (the restoration) will be complete, but it'll be mostly the entry and upstairs," Universal location scout George Constas said Thursday.

The Depression-era cells -- one which housed Dillinger -- are rating kid-glove treatment. The restoration team will make them "look pretty, but not too pretty" for the period drama. "It'll just look like a jail," said Constas, standing in the gutted foyer. "Concrete and bars."

Indiana native Dillinger escaped the heavily guarded jail March 3, 1934, by brandishing a gun. Some say it was real gun smuggled into him; some say it was hand-carved.

He then embarrassed local authorities by driving off in Sheriff Lillian Holley's new V-8 Ford. The nonprofit Sheriff's House Foundation oversees the registered landmark today.

Philip and Cynthia Jo Struebig, who purchased the courthouse in 1990, said they met with Mann before Christmas to discuss local Dillinger sites that might be incorporated into the film. The "Miami Vice" producer toured the old courthouse, admiring the "Victory of Law Through Justice" mural before which Dillinger was arraigned, then inspected the jail.

Mann also borrowed a book and vintage photos of Public Enemy No. 1 from the Struebigs' collection of gangster memorabilia that adorns the Speakeasy Restaurant and Great Escape lounge within the Hall of Justice Bar. When they bought the old courthouse, "it was deteriorated. It was raining in the ballroom. We restored it as a labor of love. Never did I expect something like this would happen," Philip Struebig said.

Based on the book by Bryan Burrough, the crime drama will bow in 2009. The cast includes Christian Bale as G-man Melvin Purvis, who ambushed Dillinger outside Chicago's Biograph Theatre a few months after he fled the "escape-proof" Lake County Jail. Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, who collected best actress honors for her role as Edith Piaf in "La Mome," has been tapped as Billie Frechette, the gangster's lover and companion. "Public Enemies" will be filmed from March through June in Chicago, Indiana and Wisconsin.

Extra, extra!
Casting agent Joan Philo has issued an all-points bulletin for male reporters and photographers to play paid extras in scenes slated for Hammond, Gary and Crown Point. Also, an open casting call for men, women and children will be Saturday at Lane Tech High School in Chicago. See the Chicago Scene column in the ontheGo section for details.

*The Times*

With Johnny Depp project in hand, legislators look to improve film law

2008-02-29T00:48:00.000-08:00

On the heels of an announcement that the latest Johnny Depp feature will be partially filmed in Wisconsin, state legislators are now looking to improve the state's film industry tax incentives law credited for attracting the Depp project.

Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton said Tuesday that State Sen. Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee) and State Rep. Pat Strachota (R-West Bend) circulated a bill to improve Wisconsin's Film Production Tax Credit Services Program for co-sponsorship. Lawton, a key supporter of the so-called Film Wisconsin legislation, is urging the Legislature to quickly pass the new bill.

"Today, Governor (Jim) Doyle announced that NBC Universal will bring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Michael Mann - not to mention $20 million - to Wisconsin," Lawton said. "I see this as the lead edge of the economic development and jobs coming in response to our film incentives."

The tax incentives offered by the state include a 25 percent credit for production expenses, including wages paid to Wisconsin residents for services and expenses for music, air travel and insurance from state-based providers. Incentives also include a 15 percent credit for equipment purchases primarily used for film production or for acquisition and improvement of real estate for state-based film companies.

The new bipartisan bill would allow film production companies to transfer unused, nonrefundable credits to other taxpayers, such as other film production companies. It would also phase in residency requirements for eligibility of film production employees for tax credits as the talent infrastructure needed for productions fully develops in Wisconsin.

Lawton said: "This bill will improve our potential to capture more film industry jobs for Wisconsin, and I urge the Legislature to move it forward to solidify Wisconsin's competitive position nationally."

*The Business Journal*

'Sweeney Todd' Hits DVD on April First! (No Foolin'.)

2008-02-21T18:28:00.000-08:00

Sweeney Todd deserved a better fate. Sure, sure, it's a very fine film -- and that's really all that matters when all is said and done, but I can't help but think its domestic box office tally (just over $50 million) and its Oscar nomination haul (lead actor, art direction and costume design) should have been a little ... well, bigger. But I suppose it's tough to sell a big-budget horror musical, even if it is based on a very popular stage play AND showcases movie star Johnny Depp in a really (ahem) unique light.

Fans of the flick will be pleased to learn that Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street will be available to own (via shiny disc) on the first of April. Choose between a single-disc release (which includes one "making-of" documentary) or a extras-laden double-disc edition that comes with a BUNCH of featurettes, photo galleries, trailers and a Moviefone Unscripted piece, which is cool because we love Moviefone! Neither DVD package will include an audio commentary, unfortunately for those who love audio commentaries. Like me. Oh, but the 2-discer will be making an appearance in my collection. Book that.

[ Thanks to DVDActive.com. Check out the cover art! ]

*cinematical*

Johnny Depp says 'bring it on' to Clooney and Lee Jones

2008-02-21T18:27:00.000-08:00

The war of words between this year's Oscar best actor nominees has escalated after Johnny Depp told George Clooney and Tommy Lee Jones that if they want to rumble, rumble they will.

A livid Depp said today outside his former nightclub the Viper Rooms on Sunset Boulevard "Los Putos (Man Whores), Jones and Clooney can kiss my chicano ass. Este es mi calle(this is my street). homes, I am the street here, ese, sabes (you know)?"

Wearing a red bandanna and a white vest Depp was in no mood for playing. "Say hello to my little friend" said Depp, as former Different Strokes actor Gary Coleman walked past the club. "Those beeatches need to be carrying ese, wus up to all my homies in califas, word up hombre, mis hermanos son mal (my brothers are bad asses), entiendo (understand) homes, this is my barrio (turf) ese."

I simply had no idea what Depp was talking about. I thanked him for my taco de harina, or to Americans, burrito and left. At this stage it is not 100% certain why Depp was dressed as a member of the La eMe street gang and speaking in an Mexican accent.

Vitto Mortensen and Daniel Day-Lewis, both threatened previously by Clooney and Lee Jones, who themseleves were speaking like London gangsters on Tuesday, are said to be in hiding. It is not certain at this stage if Day-Lewis will actually attend the Oscar ceremony.

More to come on this on going story I am sure.

*The Spoof*

Daniel Day Lewis warns Johnny Depp

2008-02-21T18:26:00.000-08:00

Daniel Day-Lewis has warned Johnny Depp "Not to try anything on" at next months Oscar ceremony. The warning comes after violent threats made by Johnny Depp, George Clooney and Tommy Lee Jones, to each other and to Day-Lewis.

The fine British actor, favourite to win the oscar said in an Italian American accent "A friend of ours told me that these three cafones have been saying that they will be coming heavy to the oscars. My Consigliere also says that these wise guys have been calling me a jamook. Are they talking to me? Am I clown? Here to amuse them?"

The normally placid Day-Lewis, dressed in a dinner jacket whilst he was gardening continued "I'm a made guy. These chiacchierone are looking to get a Moe Green special. Especially Depp, is he oobatz?"

I found it hard to totally decipher what Daniel was saying so I left him digging three holes. He insisted I kiss his ring though before I left.......

Meanwhile Viggo Mortensen has yet to issue any statement or make any response to the ongoing threats of impending violence.

I am sure though that he will.

*The Spoof!*

Oscars 2001: Johnny Out of his Depp in Chocolat

2008-02-21T18:25:00.000-08:00

Hollywood star Johnny Depp revealed he had to eat so much chocolate for his latest film that he'll never touch it again.

The drama - Chocolat - has been nominated for five Oscars, but Depp said: "If I had any love for chocolate, it was destroyed during the filming of that movie.

"It was kind of rich, dark and very bitter chocolate. "After about seven of them it tends to not have a nice effect." The 37-year-old said he had to keep eating the chocolate as director Lasse Hallstrom shot and re-shot many scenes.

Going into filming, Depp admitted he had a sweet tooth and was looking forward to feasting on the finest chocolates Miramax Films could buy. But things soon changed for Depp, who now lives in France with girlfriend Vanessa Paradis and daughter Lily-Rose Melody.

The film, which is up for Best Picture award at the Oscars on March 25, features Depp as a riverboat gypsy who falls for French chocolate chef Juliette Binoche.

*Mirror.co.uk*

Q&A with Johnny Depp and Tim Burton

2008-02-21T15:26:00.001-08:00

Q: What drew you to Sweeney Todd?

TIM BURTON: I was actually involved with this about 10 years ago, maybe even longer. I liked the story and the drama and emotion of it. But then it went away. I always think there’s a weird subconscious reason for everything. Recently, weirdly, I looked at a drawing I did and realised that it looked like Johnny. And I just thought, “Wow!” And then I don’t know how many years ago …

JOHNNY DEPP: Five, six years ago, I guess …

TB: I sent him the CD [of the musical]. And then Johnny was like,“Great, great, great.” And everybody was, “Yeah, great.” And then it was, “Um, can he sing?” Nobody knew. I didn’t know. That’s the joke of the whole thing and in a way, that’s the surreal nature of Hollywood. You have to love it for that because on paper it’s like the worst idea of all time (laughs).

Q: Johnny, there’s a whole mythology around the character, about whether he was based on someone real. Did you use any of that?

JD: I read all that stuff and there was part of me that wanted him to be a real guy. But it’s not the case. And, essentially, you read all of that stuff so you can throw it away, so you can be aware of it and toss it. Basically, the character came from conversations with Tim.

TB: He is the old horror-movie actor.

JD: These horror-movie actors kept coming to mind, these iconic figures, and that’s where Sweeney Todd lives.

TB: You see Peter Lorre in Mad Love or Boris Karloff or Lon Chaney, all those old classic monsters … it’s an image and we just felt like that was what this character is about. You could see him in a wax museum. It’s a certain look, a certain feel, and it’s always exciting.

Q: Johnny, when Tim first mentioned the prospect of singing on film to you, did you get the idea immediately?

JD: Oh, yeah! But I didn’t know if I was going to be able to actually sing. I wasn’t sure.

TB: I haven’t got a huge knowledge of musicals, but I do know that this is a very hard musical and what I love about it is the fact that Johnny and everybody in it isn’t a singer. There’s one actress who is a singer, but nobody else has sung in their lives.

JD: (Laughing) It’s going to be great!

TB: I think it brings an interesting tone to it.

JD: Everybody was great — Helena [Bonham Carter] was unbelievable, Sacha [Baron Cohen] was great. He can sing.

TB: Alan Rickman — great ... It’s exciting to hear a duet between Johnny and Alan Rickman. It’s just surreal. I mean, who would ever think about that?

JD: And it’s also really cool because Alan and I did a duet before we ever met!

Q: So you recorded the music first so that you had it to play back on set?

TB: Yeah, and that was an aspect of it that was really fun. It was like making a silent movie and having music on the set. It was fascinating for me to watch the actors ... You just move differently when you are hearing music. I would consider doing it even when I wasn’t making a musical now, because it’s fascinating.

Q: Johnny, did you sing along with yourself again when you were doing a take?

JD: Unfortunately, yes (laughs).

Q: How extensive was Stephen Sondheim’s involvement in the film?

TB: He’s a really smart, talented person and he’s been very respectful of the process. Like me, he loved the idea of Johnny but he had never heard him sing. I think he’s a movie fan, so I think he understands that there’s a difference between what you might do on stage versus a movie.

Q: Sweeney Todd is a very dark character, to state the obvious, but there’s also humour and pathos to him, isn’t there?

JD: He’s misunderstood (laughs).

TB: It’s a tragic love story.

JD: He’s actually horribly misunderstood because really he’s a very sweet guy.

TB: He’s a damaged individual.

JD: He’s basically been dead since his life was taken away from him all those years before.

TB: : He’s Dead Man Walking …

JD: It’s the only reason he has continued breathing, to wreak vengeance!

TB: There’s something very real about it, too. Obviously, it’s fantasy and he looks strange and all of that, but what I love about it is there’s something very primal and just real about the character.

*The Times*

Johnny Depp Nominated for Actor in a Lead Role in “Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street” at 80TH Academy Awards

2008-02-21T15:24:00.000-08:00

Johnny Depp will be looking to capture his first Academy Award on Feb. 24 after earning a nomination for Actor in a Lead Role for his performance in “Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.’

Depp plays the title character, Sweeney Todd, who unleashes a murderous assault against a variety of clients who sit in his barber’s chair.

Twice Depp has been nominated for an Oscar, “Finding Neverland” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” but both times the Academy Award slipped past him.

Joining Depp in the list of nominees for Actor in a Lead Role are George Clooney, “Michael Clayton”; Daniel Day-Lewis, “There Will Be Blood”; Tommy Lee Jones, “In the Valley of Elah”; and Viggo Mortensen, “Eastern Promises.”

The 80^th Academy Awards will air Feb. 24 at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.

*TransWorldNews*

Depp's Doppelganger Doing Boffo Business

2008-02-21T15:22:00.001-08:00

After wrapping up his busiest month yet as a Johnny Depp impersonator, 44-year-old showbiz veteran Danny Lopez is finding this gig more profitable than those involving a Beatle, a Monkey and a Rolling Stone.

It’s a rare thing for someone who looks so much like a celebrity that they can earn a living impersonating them to be born on the exact same date as their famous quarry. But that’s the case with 44-year-old Great Falls, Montana resident Danny Lopez, who was born on June 9th, 1963, the same date as actor Johnny Depp. January, 2008 was Lopez’s busiest month ever as a Depp impersonator, with twelve corporate appearances for companies such as Hyatt and Carfax.com. He’s also appearing this week on a series of special male vs. female celebrity impersonator episodes of the syndicated TV game show Family Feud. And he will certainly get some attention this coming summer with a cameo in the Steve Carell comedy Get Smart; he plays a car wash worker who looks like… Johnny Depp. This is not the first go-round at celebrity impersonation for Lopez, who filmed his first TV commercial when he was seven. Before he hit his stride with Depp duty, Lopez was a member of three different rock’n roll tribute bands: Backbeat (as George Harrison), The Missing Links (as Davey Jones) and Satisfaction (as Keith Richards). That’s right, in the second irony to go along with the birthday date overlap, Lopez has played both Depp and his infamous Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End cameo co-star Richards. It was in fact the Harrison gig that led to the Depp one, as fans at concerts kept telling him that, in that garb, he looked more like Depp. Lopez also knows a celebrity or two himself. According to the Great Falls Tribune, it was actor Dennis Quaid who recommended that the southern California native, tired of the hectic pace of life there, buy a house in Big Country. Lopez tells the paper he has yet to meet Depp, but the actor is apparently aware of his lookalike shadow. Up next for Lopez is a February 22nd taped appearance on The Maury Povich show, some weekend work at one of the casinos in Cripple Creek, CO and a tentatively booked engagement at an Academy Awards party in Los Angeles on Sunday.

*FilmStew.com*

Fort Lauderdale band pal helped Johnny Depp sharpen singing skills

2008-02-21T15:19:00.000-08:00

OK, you never heard of Bruce Witkin.

But if you're watching the Academy Awards on Sunday, you might hear his name.

Johnny Depp — a pal of Witkin's — credits the South Florida native with helping him find his vocal groove.

No small feat when you consider Depp, 44 — who'd never sung a note previously — snagged a Golden Globe and is nominated for an Oscar for his singing performance in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.Having accepted the title role, Depp called Witkin with a plea to help ascertain if he was capable of pulling it off, because director Tim Burton didn't want his actors to lip sync. After privately recording a demo of Depp singing the showcase number My Friends in his Los Angeles studio, Witkin said there was no doubt.

In the film's production notes, Depp admits, "That was the first song I ever sang in my life."

Working from a Broadway cast recording, the two men were forced to pick Stephen Sondheim's demanding melodies apart on the piano and rely on their ears for the vocal lines because neither reads music.

"If there was a long note Johnny needed to hit, he would just get it up and hit it," said Witkin, a 45-year-old sound engineer who records and produces under his own Unison Music label. "To see someone like Johnny, who had never sung before, come into my studio so prepared really blew me away."

Witkin and Depp's friendship dates to 1980, when both played in a Fort Lauderdale garage band called the Kids.

They were so young they often had to sneak in the back doors of clubs — the Button South, the Tree House, the Play Pen and the Candy Store — to play.

"I was the vocalist and played bass; Johnny was our guitarist," recalled Witkin, who dropped out of Hollywood High — with the permission of his mother, a local band manager — to pursue his music career.

"Those early days were a lot of fun and fruitful for guys of our age. We were pulling in around $50 a night between four of us, and we were playing shows and we were surviving."

Depp calls Witkin "a brother." In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he said, "We worked in bands together, we were on the road together. We lived together when we were teenagers. His mom was basically my second mom." Indeed, last year, at a charity concert in memory of Sheila Witkin, Depp turned up at Club Cinema in Pompano Beach to reunite with his Kids band mates.

After heading to Los Angeles to seek their fortunes, the Kids — a punk/new-wave outfit whose sound was a mix of Ramones, XTC and other '70s-'80s bands of that ilk — survived for a few months before breaking up in 1984, whereupon Depp went into acting. That same year he appeared in A Nightmare on Elm Street — and the rest is box office history.

Witkin continued making music.

He played on bills with Adam Ant, the Romantics, the Pretenders, U2, the Ramones, the B-52's, REM, Chuck Berry, and made an album of his own. But somehow he never hit it big.

"Johnny and I reconnected in 2000, when I started working and touring with his girlfriend Vanessa Paradis, a talented French singer," he said.

Will Witkin's work with Depp in Sweeney Todd open new doors?

"I did it because Johnny's my friend and I wanted him to come out sounding great," Witkin said. "He put this in my hands — and he trusted me with his voice. My goal was for him to be happy with the result.

"I think I succeeded."

Patricia Towle is a freelance writer in Lantana.

*Sun-Sentinel.com*

Johnny Depp mocks his fans in public

2008-02-21T15:17:00.000-08:00

Nasty pirate, Johnny Depp, has mocked his fans, the world famous 'Depp Heads', at a bar in the South of France according to reports circulating on the Cote d'Azur.

Depp, who had been drinking with his good friend Orlando Bloom at the Cristal bar located in Cap d'Antibes became agitated after Bloom praised his fans "You know they are a good bunch" said Bloom "I am proud to have a fan club - those kids appreciate my work and idolise me, they don't bother me in public. I love them."

Depp reacted furiously to Bloom's statement of affection towards the 'Bloomers', his army of fans. "My fans? Fuck 'em," sneered Depp staring angrily into his empty glass. "They have no sense of humour the rancid twats," he said in a faux English accent. "Those Depp Heads can't see what they are doing. They are reflecting on me. I'm a funny guy right? Talented actor right? Why are my fans so asinine? (look it up Depp Heads)."

Depp was of course referring to a spoof article written about him that has had an amazing 225 ratings. All 1's. "The story wasn't bad, probably a 2.5 maybe a 2" said Depp "but oh no, those leaches, those so called 'fans' give it a 1 - so now what? More stories about me being a 'wanker' no doubt."

Dead right Mr Depp.

*The Spoof!*

Oscars Best Actor - Johnny Depp

2008-02-21T15:14:00.000-08:00

Johnny Depp

Age:

Role:

Sweeney Todd in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Character:

Adopting the guise of Sweeney Todd Baker returns to his old barber shop above Mrs Lovett’s pie making premises and sets his sights on Judge Turpin who stole his wife and baby daughter.

Previous Oscar Wins:

None

Previous Oscar Nominations:

Two - 2003 Best Actor for Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.

-2004 Best Actor for Finding Neverland.

Awards for Role:

Depp won Best actor in a Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes.

Critics:

‘Depp is such a soulful presence he gives you a glimpse of this maniac's pain and pathos.’ Newsweek

‘A thoughtful, sincere and moving film, buttressed by a fine, central performance by an actor at the top of his form.’ Time Out

‘Sweeney Todd is a thriller-diller from start to finish: scary, monstrously funny and melodically thrilling. And Depp is simply stupendous.’ Rolling Stone

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw

*FemaleFirst*

Johnny Depp gushes about fatherhood

2008-02-21T15:11:00.001-08:00

Johnny Depp, 44, might've been a demon in his latest movie Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street but in real life, he is a doting father to daughter Lily-Rose Melody, 8 ½, and son Jack, 5 ½. He talked to Life & Style about fatherhood and relationship with his partner of 10 years, Vanessa Paradis, 35.

Q: You’re such a famous actor — how important is your family in keeping you grounded?

A: My family is my sanctuary. I live for them. I finally found a reason to exist in this world. There’s nothing like it. I would give away everything if I could only keep my family. They have given me life, and they’re the greatest gift in the world.

Q: How do you keep your romance with Vanessa so strong?

A: I think trust is the most important thing in a relationship, along with the ability to communicate honestly with each other. Once communication stops, that waylays danger.

Q: You and Vanessa never married — do you think you will at some point?

A: We have considered ourselves husband and wife since the day we moved in together. We just haven’t gone through the formality.

Q: How do you feel about having to raise your children in today’s uncertain world?

A: As a parent, my job, besides giving them love and education, is to protect them by not allowing the harsh realities and difficulties of our world into theirs. You’ve got these pure, innocent little things, and all they want is love and happiness.

Q: You move around with your family a lot, having lived in LA and France. Have you always been such a free spirit?

A: Yes. It has to do with my upbringing. I don’t like to be stuck in one place for too long. We were total nomads when I was growing up. We traveled around all the time. It’s ingrained in my being. I think it’s good for kids to get out there and see the world.

Q: You’ve been working a lot lately. What would be your dream vacation?

A: Running around on the beach with the kids and taking them out on the boat. I want to take them swimming with dolphins, though hopefully not with sharks!

*Celebrity Baby Blog*

How Johnny Depp became the world's most desireable man

2008-02-21T15:06:00.000-08:00

'Idiot," Johnny Depp likes to joke, is the German translation of his surname. The swooned-over film actor, who picked up his first Golden Globe for his all-singing portrayal of Sweeney Todd, has, over a 24-year career, gained a reputation for playing the outsiders, rejects and oddballs - the idiots. Big-bucks, twinkly-eyed romantic leads have never held any allure.

Instead, Depp has transmogrified into pallid Edward Scissorhands, kohl-eyed pirate Captain Jack Sparrow and Cry-Baby Walker, the delinquent of John Waters' 1990 Cry-Baby. He has cross-dressed in Before Night Falls and Ed Wood, shaving his legs for the latter.

"I always thought it'd be interesting to see them all in the same room together," Depp says of his characters.

Tim Burton, who's directed Depp six times, describes him as a risk-taker. "He could've gone and made millions as this great-looking lead guy. But no." Depp turned down leads in Speed and Interview With A Vampire, but he's not in penury: he picked up $20-million for each his Pirates Of The Caribbean films, and smaller movies reputedly start at $8-million.

With the straggly beard, skull rings, nerd specs, fedora, leather jackets or Rat Pack suits, Depp doesn't have the clean-cut appeal of a Pitt or a Cruise. His is "a delicate beauty that's startling, perhaps more so for being intermittent ... with a tilt of the head, impossibly handsome," according to Franz Lidz in the New York Times.

On celluloid, Depp does not exude menace or muscularity, but rather a lightness and naturalness. "Johnny doesn't rely on tricks, his acting is about ease and intuition," says Lasse Hallström, who directed him in Chocolat and What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

After the success of the Pirates films, Depp is now a blue-chip Hollywood name with indie appeal. He doesn't play the La-La land games and claims not to have seen the final version of many of his films: "Once my job is done, it's none of my business. I walk away."

In 1983, Depp escaped to LA and joined the Loft Studio school to take acting lessons, but dropped out to concentrate on his band, The Kids. The Kids were successful enough to support the Talking Heads and the B-52s, but Depp was still forced to find sales work. "We sold ink pens. I'd met Nicolas Cage who was, like, a friend of a couple of friends. And he told me one day, 'You should try acting or whatever'."

Depp went to see Cage's agent and, in 1984, landed his first significant role, in Wes Craven's Nightmare On Elm Street, playing a boy who was swallowed by a bed, and he made $1 200 a week . That was followed, in 1986, by a role as a Vietnamese-speaking private in Platoon. But TV gave Depp his big break, as an undercover cop at a high school in 21 Jump Street.

The teen idol image was all but forgotten after his first movie with Burton, Edward Scissorhands. But, even as Depp chalked up critically acclaimed roles in Gilbert Grape and Benny & Joon, he took more drugs. "It was anything I could stuff into my system to medicate, self-medicate, or numb myself," he admits.

The role of Ed Wood, another Burton project, was for Depp "the rocket ship that took me away from that horrible black bleak time". So convincing was his female impersonation, Depp was reportedly considered as the first transvestite cover girl of US Vogue.

During the late '90s, he starred in Don Juan DeMarco, Donnie Brasco, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, Sleepy Hollow and Chocolat. In 2001, he played the 1970s cocaine kingpin George Jung. Then came a curious career transition. From that seedy role, Depp moved into the world of Disney, starring as Jack Sparrow in the first Pirates movie in 2003. More than that, fatherhood altered his tastes. "I thought it'd be great to make a movie my kids could watch."

Sweeney Todd, which opens tomorrow, has been hailed as the Burton-Depp relationship at its best. Even Depp's singing has mostly been praised; only the New Yorker's Anthony Lane dismissed his warblings as a "Bowie impression".

If there is criticism of Depp's work as an actor, it is that his weirdos are so emotionally guarded that we never get beneath their skin. "For me, it seems he's been hiding a bit beneath eccentrics and outcasts," says Hallström.

For all his rebellious instincts, Depp is uncomfortable with political statement. In 2003, he tried to withdraw quotes that criticised the Iraq war - dismissing America as "a dumb puppy that has big teeth" - given to Stern magazine in 2003.

Perhaps that attitude will have to change: Depp's production company has bought the rights to the story of the Litvinenko poisoning.

If all else fails, he's kept the scissorhand gloves. "In a couple of years, I may be doing birthday parties at McDonald's - as Edward. You know, $200 a party."

Idiot? Hardly. - The Independent

*tonight*

CurbedWire: Johnny Depp, The Carpenters, Affordable Housing

2008-02-15T16:23:00.000-08:00

DOWNTOWN - Confirmed! Maybe. A reader sends in a second hand report of a scruffy individual at the Eastern Columbia. "Yes, Johnny Depp does live in the Eastern Columbia. One of my profs lives there as well and she saw him in the lobby. Scruffy, unshaven, but unmistakably Depp."

*Curbed*

Public Enemies starring Johnny Depp to hold extras casting call in Madison

2008-02-15T16:20:00.000-08:00

Public Enemies, the Depression-era gangster film that is being produced and directed by University of Wisconsin alumnus Michael Mann this spring, will hold an open casting call for extras in at Monona Terrace in Madison on Saturday, February 16. This follows a casting call for vintage cars that was held at the Overture Center in late January. Needless to say, excitement among movie fans and hopefuls in town is building.

The film, which stars Johnny Depp (as John Dillinger), Christian Bale (as FBI agent Melvin Purvis), and Marion Cotillard (as Billie Frechette), among others, will be shooting in Chicago and around Wisconsin this spring. Locations in the state are set to include Manitowish Waters and Richland Center, with others sites scouted over the last month including Oshkosh, Milwaukee, Baraboo, and the Capitol in downtown Madison. Now the production is searching for people in the region to work as paid non-speaking extras for these shoots, with the open casting call from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday at Monona Terrace.

"We are shooting in the Wisconsin area and need people with great faces for this 1930s period film," begins an announcement from the extras casting agent. "We are currently looking for men no taller than 6'1", women should be no taller than 5'8", and no larger than a size 12. We are also looking for children of all ages."

Hopefuls attending the casting call are also recommended to arrive dressed in specific outfits, detailed in the announcement:

Men: Dark to medium suit, tie, and an overcoat (not brown) and dress shoes. As this is a period piece, it is very important that your hair be kept long; therefore do not cut your hair. If you have long hair, pull back in a ponytail.

Women: Dark to medium dress and skirt and sweater, overcoat and pumps (med heel). Set hair in curlers the night before and arrive with hair brushed out.

Applicants are also requested to bring a recent color photo and a pen to fill out a registration form.

The extras casting is being conducted by Joan Philo Casting of Chicago. She has cast extras in a large number of films shot in that city and around the Midwest, including The Dark Knight, Fred Claus, Flags of Our Fathers, Stranger Than Fiction, Batman Begins, and High Fidelity, as well as the 2001 Micheal Mann film Ali and the 1996 action flick Chain Reaction, which was shot partially in Madison. More details about Philo’s work can be found on her IMDB profile.

Philo has published a notice about the extras casting for Public Enemies online, noting that the film will be shot from mid-March through June. As she details in this announcement:

Buckle up, we're due for an amazing ride!

Are you ready? Here we go...

... Public Enemies is a "period" feature film, circa early 1930s. You know what this means period hair styles and wardrobe fittings -- guys please keep your hair long -- do not cut it!! Women will need to have period hair styles -- Everyone that will be cast will need to attend a wardrobe fitting. The fitting usually takes a few hours -- you'll be fit in an outfit and also be looked at by the hair department. Haircuts will most likely happen at the wardrobe fitting. The fitting usually happens a week or so before your day on set.

I am looking for a core group of extras (non-speaking roles) that will be able to work many days. So let me know if this might be you! I'm also searching for people that might be available for one or two days. These are paid extras positions. Rate TBD.

Being that this is a period film we need to find people that are able to fit into the period wardrobe. There are size requirements!

MEN need to be 6'1" and under and WOMEN 5'8" and under (no larger than a size 12), all ages (including children) in order to be considered.

*KIDS: I only consider casting kids that have current work permits on file with Joan Philo Casting. Casting children goes down fast. I mean super fast. They might call me the night before a shoot and ask for a child of a certain age. I run to my kids' files and pull any child that has a work permit. Don't miss out because your child doesn't have a work permit! (I know that getting a work permit takes effort and I appreciate that this is done in the hopes of getting cast, thank you!)

We start shooting in mid-March and shoot through June 2008. I will be holding open casting calls soon! Stay tuned.

We will be shooting in Chicago and on location in Wisconsin (various towns). We will have open casting calls in Chicago for our Chicago extras and in Wisconsin for our Wisconsin extras...

Philo goes on to give advice to aspiring extras, her first and foremost point being that film shoots can be exceedingly long and boring, and that patience is a virtue. "Never ask on set, or at a wardrobe fitting, when you can go home -- this is quite the uncomfortable question and will make you look ill-prepared,' she notes. "Please don't ask."

*The Daily Page*

Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law to Help Finish Heath Ledger's Last Role

2008-02-15T16:18:00.000-08:00

Three actors are reportedly set to take over Heath Ledger's role in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, the film the actor was working on at the time of his tragic death in January.

Website Ain't it Cool News claims that director Terry Gilliam has cast Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law in the film and all will play Tony, the same character Ledger was playing prior to his death. The changes in the character's appearance will be attributed to the magical nature of the film.

Ain't it Cool also reports that Depp, Farrell and Law will pay a final tribute to Ledger by tailoring their performances into interpretations of his own.

Ledger died on January 22 in New York City of an accidental drug overdose. He was 28 years old.

*dose.ca*

Depp fans in deep over possibility that actor could be filming here

2008-02-12T23:19:00.001-08:00

Even beneath Jack Sparrow's smoky eyeliner and mangy dreadlocks and Sweeney Todd's severe white complexion and sunken dead eyes, Johnny Depp unassumingly lights fires.

"He's really hot in a really (messed) up way," fan Stephanie Brehmer, 25, said.

The Oshkosh woman and her sister, Beth Mueller, chatted recently at the Otter Street Fisheree, unabashedly gushing about the 43-year-old actor and sharing excitement over the possibility that he and fellow heartthrob Christian Bale soon could be visiting Oshkosh if it's confirmed that Universal Pictures' "Public Enemies" will shoot scenes in downtown Oshkosh in the spring.

"He's so skinny now, though. But he acclimates to every character really well," Brehmer said, trying to put a finger on just where Depp's star power stems from.

Mueller, 24, interjected simply, "He's just hot. And it's probably the fact that he can do completely different movies — crazy parts. He's the only actor that can do that."

Johnny Depp fever has been building in Wisconsin since January, when word first leaked out that production scout Robert Medcraft had toured the First National Bank Building, Grand Opera House and the Oshkosh Northwestern building as potential sites for filming bank robbery scenes for "Public Enemies." The city and the nation will know in a few weeks whether Oshkosh will be one of several Wisconsin spots to see film crews lining the streets.

Julie Schaus said if she ever got the chance to meet Depp face to face, the Fond du Lac resident and enthusiastic Depp fan probably would just blush, giggle and be too shy to take his picture. Though she wouldn't call herself a would-be stalker, Schaus says she plasters pictures of the actor around her desk at work.

"I get giddy. I don't know, I act like a little kid, and my friends get a good kick out of it," she said. "I keep telling everyone, 'This is my year,' because the chances of him coming anywhere around here to film a movie are just rare."

Where Depp may be seen as maniacally unconventional, in real life and onscreen, it's only served to fuel his appeal with diehard fans like Schaus and those of the teenage- to middle-age persuasion, local film experts say.

UW-Oshkosh radio, TV and film professor Doug Heil said people have always been drawn to actors who embody that provocative, bad-boy persona.

"Johnny Depp's appeal also draws from the quality of being 'dangerous' … on multiple levels," Heil said. "He gravitates toward dangerous filmmakers — people like Tim Burton, Jim Jarmusch, Terry Gilliam and Robert Rodriguez — who take chances with their work."

The actor's also known for boldly tackling non-prescriptive roles like Willy Wonka, Captain Jack and the recent Sweeney Todd.

"He opts for characters burdened with internal conflict, where baggage and demons bottled up inside waylay the goals being pursued," Heil said. "Most of us have our own baggage we're sorting through, so his characters resonate with us."

Merlaine Angwall, a 10-year UW-Oshkosh acting and directing professor, said it isn't just about mysterious good looks, though that helps in Hollywood.

"Certain stars or actors, they get to be great because they really are talented and do possess an ability to act — unlike Paris Hilton who's famous for no reason," she said. "People like them because they believe them in roles they play."

Depp and Bale instantly give "Public Enemies" a certain recognition, likely meaning they could bring paparazzi, national media and obsessed fans to wherever filming goes down.

"You're going to have the crazy ones come out, clearly you will," Schaus said. "But I just think it's a great opportunity, very exciting for Wisconsin and extremely exciting for me."

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle confirmed last month to The Associated Press that NBC Universal committed to Wisconsin as a scene for parts of the film.

It's the first major production to come to Wisconsin since tax incentives for the film industry took effect Jan. 1.

At a glance

Johnny Depp

Birthday: John Christopher Depp was born June 9, 1963, in Owensboro, Kent.

Early starts: Depp debuted onscreen in "A Nightmare on Elm Street" as Glen Lantz (1984).

Star power: Depp received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999, won 27 awards and has been nominated for three Oscars.

Depp in action: "Cry-Baby" and "Edward Scissorhands" (1990), "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" (1993), "Sleepy Hallow" (1999), "Blow" (2001), "Secret Window" and "The Libertine" (2004), "Pirates of the Caribbean" trilogy (2006, 2007), "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (2007). "

Christian Bale

Birthday: Christian Charles Philip Bale was born Jan. 30, 1974, in Wales.

Early starts: Bale got his start opposite British comedian Rowan Atkinson on London's West End stage (1987).

Star power: Bale has eight wins and 15 nominations from the likes of MTV Movie and Screen Actors Guild awards.

Bale in action: "Empire of the Sun" (1987), "Newsies" (1992), "Little Women" (1994), "American Psycho" (2000), "Harsh Times" (2005), "Batman Begins" (2005), "Rescue Dawn" and "The Prestige" (2006) and "3:10 to Yuma" (2007).Source: The Internet Movie Database (www.IMDb.com)

*postcrescent.com*

Longoria-Parker dreams of role with Depp

2008-02-12T23:18:00.000-08:00

Actress Eva Longoria Parker is desperate to have an on-screen romance with Johnny Depp - branding the Pirates Of The Caribbean actor "beautiful".

The Desperate Housewives star insists the Hollywood hunk would hit the top of her list if she could have a romantic encounter with a celebrity heartthrob of her choice.

But the 32-year-old fears she would be intimidated by his matinee idol looks - insisting she'd be too nervous to work with him.

She says, "Johnny Depp. But I'd probably be too nervous to talk to him because he's so beautiful..."

*ChinaDaily*

Bay City Motors to get a spot on the big screen

2008-02-12T23:17:00.000-08:00

A Bay City beauty has arrived in Chicago and is being prepped for her big-screen debut opposite Johnny Depp.

A 1935 Hudson Terraplane, purchased from the Bay City Motor Company, left town earlier this month and is being overhauled for use in the film "Public Enemies," with shooting set to begin March 10.

The car will lose her burgundy hues and be painted black and tan to emulate the Depression-era vehicle that was used as a getaway car by the legendary gangster John Dillinger, said David F. Cotten, managing partner of the motor company.

The car features a 330-horsepower engine and three-speed manual transmission with overdrive. The original instruments include a speedometer that goes up to 100 mph, a clock and an a.m. radio.

The Universal Studio's production is tentatively set for a 2009 release and will feature the antics of Dillinger, Babyface Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd.

*mlive.com*

Nominee Spotlight: Johnny Depp

2008-02-12T23:16:00.001-08:00

He's played Ichabod Crane, Willy Wonka, Raul Duke and Don Juan DeMarco.

And those eclectic characters arguably don't even rate among Johnny Depp's five best performances.

Now 44, Depp has his third Best Actor nomination this year as a result of his madcap sixth collaboration with filmmaker Tim Burton. The bizarre envelope-pushing duo have given us a quirky masterpiece with Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, and here's a celebration of the Oscar-nominated role -- the role that made Depp sing.

Read on to meet the demon himself.

*rediff news*

Johnny Depp stays top earner in Hollywood in 2007

2008-02-08T16:28:00.001-08:00

Johnny Depp has been voted the Top Money-Making Star of 2007 thanks to his performances in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Depp earned the accolade in The Quigley Poll, an annual survey of motion picture exhibitors conducted every year since 1932, which asks the cinema owners to vote for the ten stars that they believe generated the most box-office revenue in the preceding year for their theatres. Depp was first in 2006 and was second to Tom Cruise in 2005.

Will Smith, who starred in I Am Legend, finished second in the voting followed by George Clooney (Michael Clayton and Ocean's Thirteen) and Matt Damon (The Bourne Ultimatum and Ocean's Thirteen). Denzel Washington (The Great Debaters and American Gangster) was fifth and Russell Crowe (American Gangster and 3:10 to Yuma) was sixth.

Shia LaBeouf (Transformers, Disturbia) and Ellen Page (Juno) were named the Stars of Tomorrow, the actors most likely to dominate the box office in years to come.

Top Ten Money Making Stars of 2007

1. Johnny Depp
2. Will Smith
3. George Clooney
4. Matt Damon
5. Denzel Washington
6. Russell Crowe
7. Tom Cruise
8. Nicholas Cage
9. Will Ferrell

*Hindustan Times*

City swoons over possibility of stars in town for movie shoot

2008-02-08T16:25:00.000-08:00

Even beneath Jack Sparrow's smoky eyeliner and mangy dreadlocks, and Sweeney Todd's severe white mask and sunken dead eyes, Johnny Depp unassumingly lights fires.

"He's really hot in a really (messed) up way," said thoughtful fan Stephanie Brehmer, 25.

The Oshkosh woman and her sister, Beth Mueller, chatted last week with friends at the Otter Street Fisheree, unabashedly gushing about the 43-year-old actor and sharing excitement over the possibility that he and fellow heartthrob Christian Bale could soon be visiting Oshkosh if it's confirmed that Universal Pictures' "Public Enemies" will shoot scenes downtown this spring.

"He's so skinny now, though. But he acclimates to every character really well," Brehmer said, trying to put a finger on just where Depp's star power stems from.

Sister Beth Mueller, 24, interjected simply, "He's just hot. And it's probably the fact that he can do completely different movies – crazy parts. He's, like, the only actor that can do that."

Star struck

Johnny Depp fever has been building in Oshkosh and Wisconsin since January, when word first leaked out that production scout Robert Medcraft had toured the First National Bank Building, Grand Opera House and Oshkosh Northwestern as potential sites for filming "Public Enemies" bank robbery scenes. The city and the nation will know in a few weeks whether Oshkosh will be one of several Wisconsin spots to see film crews lining the streets.

Julie Schaus said if she ever got the chance to meet Depp face to face, the Fond du Lac resident and overtly enthusiastic fan probably would just blush, giggle and be too shy to take his picture.

Though she wouldn't call herself a would-be stalker, Schaus, a friend of Mueller and Brehmer's, says she plasters pictures of the actor around her desk at work.

"I get giddy. I don't know, I act like a little kid, and my friends get a good kick out of it," she said. "I keep telling everyone, 'this is my year,' because the chances of him coming anywhere around here to film a movie are just rare."

Where Depp may be seen as manically unconventional, in real life and onscreen, it's only served to fuel his appeal with diehard fans like Schaus and those of the teenage- to middle-age persuasion, local film experts say.

UW-Oshkosh Radio, TV and Film professor Doug Heil said people have always been drawn to actors who embody that provocative, bad-boy persona. "Johnny Depp's appeal also draws from the quality of being 'dangerous' … on multiple levels," Heil said.

"He gravitates toward 'dangerous' filmmakers – people like Tim Burton, Jim Jarmusch, Terry Gilliam and Robert Rodriguez – who take chances with their work."

The actor's also known for boldly tackling non-prescriptive roles like Willy Wonka, Capt. Jack and the recent Sweeney Todd.

Merlaine Angwall, a 10-year UW-Oshkosh acting and directing professor, said it isn't just about mysterious good looks, though that helps in Hollywood. "Certain stars or actors, they get to be great because they really are talented and do possess an ability to act – unlike Paris Hilton who's famous for no reason," she said.

"People like them because they believe them in roles they play."

The whole package is a recipe for hotness, and Oshkosh fans going gaga for the male cast of the Depression-era "Public Enemies" say they'd stake a manhunt downtown if only to catch a glimpse of bank robber "John Dillinger" (Depp) and FBI agent "Melvin Purvis" (Bale).

"They are two really great examples – two actors who enjoy their craft and really work at it," Angwall said of the heartthrob factor. "They are not lightweights."

Local pandemonium?

That Depp and Bale instantly give "Public Enemies" a certain recognition likely means with a film crew it could bring paparazzi, national media and obsessed fans to wherever filming goes down.

"You're going to have the crazy ones come out, clearly you will," Schaus said. "But I just think it's a great opportunity, very exciting for Wisconsin and extremely exciting for me."

Oshkosh's Brehmer said, if the film comes to Oshkosh she'll be downtown in a heartbeat.

"I've always wanted to be an actor, but it didn't work out," she said. "So if I could be an extra in the movie …"

Whether the flick's big names excite fans, or it's simply the realization that Oshkosh would play a role in a major movie, residents say it's about time the film industry looked to Oshkosh — and Wisconsin — as a potential location.

Oshkosh resident Barb Duvall, 39, admits she's not a huge Depp fan. "I know everybody is, but … I still think it's really cool that they want to do a movie in Oshkosh; I would definitely come out to watch."

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle confirmed last month to The Associated Press that NBC Universal committed to Wisconsin as a scene for parts of the film, with Depp playing the robber whose Midwest crime spree ended when FBI agents shot him to death in Chicago in 1934. It's the first major production to come to Wisconsin since tax incentives for the film industry took effect Jan. 1.

Universal Studios' presence in locations like Oshkosh, Madison and La Crosse searching for vintage 1930s cars to feature onscreen also has upped curiosity and excitement over "Public Enemies," which could translate to big box-office success in the Midwest upon its 2009 release.

"They always do movies about Wisconsin, but never in it," Mueller said. "There's some really pretty spots here, so why not?"

Depp and Bale: The stats

Birthday: John Christopher Depp was born June 9, 1963, in Owensboro, Kent.; Christian Charles Philip Bale was born Jan. 30, 1974, in Wales.

Early starts: Depp debuted onscreen in "A Nightmare on Elm Street" as Glen Lantz (1984); Bale got his start opposite British comedian Rowan Atkinson on London's West End stage (1987).

Star power: Depp received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999, won 27 awards and has been nominated for three Oscars, 45 others. Bale has eight wins and 15 nominations from the likes of MTV Movie and Screen Actors Guild awards.

Bale's rap sheet: "Empire of the Sun" (1987), "Newsies" (1992), "Little Women" (1994), "American Psycho" (2000), "Harsh Times" (2005), "Batman Begins" (2005), "Rescue Dawn" and "The Prestige" (2006) and "3:10 to Yuma" (2007). Upcoming films: "The Dark Knight," "Public Enemies," "Killing Pablo" and "Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins."

Source: The Internet Movie Database (www.IMDb.com).

*thenorthwestern.com*

Johnny Depp's Piha dip

2008-02-07T16:52:00.002-08:00

Hollywood A-lister Johnny Depp is said to have been easing back at Auckland's most famous surfing spot - while one of music's big names also paid a visit.

Johnny Depp was reportedly spotted taking an early evening swim in the Piha surf on Thursday, an event that has since become the talk of the locality.

It has been rumoured for weeks that Depp, who last week won a Golden Globe Best Actor for his bloody turn in horror-musical Sweeney Todd, was due in New Zealand for a summer holiday.

The story doing the rounds in the film world is that Depp has been holidaying on the Coromandel Peninsula.

There was no sign of him at Piha yesterday, but the tiny settlement was abuzz with the rumours.

One local woman claimed he'd been seen getting coffee from the store, but store assistants denied this.

A film industry insider who was surfing at Piha yesterday said Depp was mates with Pirates of the Caribbean co-stars Geoffrey Rush and Bill Nighy, both currently or recently in New Zealand shooting films (Rush for fantasy action movie Laundry Warrior, Nighy for Underworld: Rise of the Lycans). She speculated Depp may have been visiting one of them.

Eileen Ratcliffe, co-owner of Ahipara Backpackers and Motorcamp, said Depp was spotted in the Far North surf town recently. "Apparently he stayed in Ahipara, but he didn't stay at our motorcamp unfortunately!"

Meanwhile, Bjork and Rage Against the Machine band members were definitely at Piha - they kicked back there before facing the crowds at Big Day Out.

Jackie from Piha Store, who declined to give her surname, said she sold bottles of water to guitarist Tom Morello and singer Zack de la Rocha on Wednesday.

Bjork, the Icelandic electronica diva with a reputation for walloping press members and dressing unconventionally, also dropped in and bought a couple of shirts from the adjoining surfwear store.

"It was very exciting for me," said Jackie. "Bjork was just wearing normal beachwear. She looked absolutely normal."

Daniel Morini, chef at the Piha Surf Lifesaving Club restaurant Beachside Kitchen, served Bjork chicken caesar salad on Wednesday and pan-fried fish on Thursday night.

"The first night she came in with her security guard, the second by herself," said Morini.

"She sat on the balcony and chilled out.

"Everyone was saying, ask her for an autograph. I said, nah - didn't want any 'talk to the hand'.

"I thought of putting her fork on eBay, but I didn't."

Meanwhile, another music sensation, Sting, was reportedly set to join the crowds at the A1GP race in Taupo today, after entertaining thousands of fans at The Police concert in Auckland last night.

*The New Zealand Herald*

Tim Burton on working with Johnny Depp again

2008-02-07T16:50:00.001-08:00

DIRECTOR Tim Burton talks about working with composer Stephen Sondheim, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter on the tale of London's most bloodthirsty barber.

Sprawled forlornly on a sofa, Tim Burton splutters his very British cold into a very British handkerchief. Having lived in London for years, the LA transplant seems to have gone quite native in London.

Partner Helena Bonham Carter, with apparent shared enthusiasm for Burton's dragged-through-several-hedges-backwards coiffure, makes a brief appearance. Perhaps she's tending to their two children, Billy Ray, 4, and Indiana Rose, 5 weeks.

Burton's local knowledge still has gaps, however. Does he know Sweeney Todd -- the name of his new film -- is cockney rhyming slang for Flying Squad, the elite detective branch of the London Metropolitan police?

‘‘No,'' says Burton, pepping up.

The 1970s cop TV series is named after it.

‘‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,'' he enthuses. ‘‘So that's what it relates to?''

The original Todd belongs in a different tale from Burton's adopted city. The legendary Demon Barber of Fleet St would, according to lore, slit the throats of customers without so much as an ‘‘Anything for the weekend, sir?'', their carcasses dispatched to the pie shop downstairs to be minced up for filling by kindly Mrs Lovett.

‘‘You think,'' asks Burton, ‘‘he was a real person?'' Burton doesn't. ‘‘Urban myth,'' he says.

Quite possibly there was a psychotic shaver, his misdeeds given currency by the Penny Dreadfuls of the era, bringing him within an untrimmed whisker of the notoriety of Jack the Ripper. But veracity doesn't matter.

Burton's quirky flicks have generally celebrated oddballs (Ed Wood, Willy Wonka) or the macabre (Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride), so you can see why he'd be jumping all over this story.

A $57 million gothic opera, Sweeney Todd stars Johnny Depp as the throat-slashing barber, and Bonham Carter as his pastry-rolling accomplice.

It is Burton and Depp's sixth film together (‘‘Our final descent into darkness,'' laughs Burton), and makes for a moodily handsome beast -- Depp's skunk-haired Todd slicing carotid arteries in the manner of an untamed distant relative of the first Burton/Depp creation, Edward Scissorhands.
It's also Burton's most ambitious film so far, for the words ‘‘Sweeney'' and ‘‘Todd'' have, in recent times, become synonymous with the musical by Stephen Sondheim. It's this that Burton is realising for the big screen.

‘‘I'd never really done something like this,'' he says. ‘‘It's very operatic and almost everybody in the cast is not a professional singer.''

You could throw in the commercial no-no of several hundred pints of blood, that cannibalism has never been a box-office turn-on, or that in the US it has been slapped with a kiss-of-death R (restricted) rating.

Dare one mention this particularly dissonant Sondheim score is not exactly High Society when it comes to populist singalong show stoppers?

‘‘Even seasoned Broadway people are saying how difficult it is,'' Burton accepts.

Burton was a humble art student when he saw Sondheim's Sweeney Todd in 1980, long before the then-aspiring animator harboured notions of becoming a film director.

‘‘I just sort of stumbled in on it and it really affected me,'' he says. ‘‘The first time on stage I saw them singing Joanna, and the throat -- you know, the blood -- I thought this is a unique juxtaposition of music and image.

‘‘It seemed like a great movie score. It would lend itself to one of those old horror movies.''

Twelve years later, after Burton launched his own film career with Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985) and sealed his spot on the Tinseltown A-list with Beetlejuice (1988) and Batman (1989), he approached Sondheim about a film version. They were sidetracked until a couple of years ago.

Sondheim has retained control over the casting and score. Even so, given Burton's idiosyncratic sensibilities, the old maestro seems to have been generous, not least because Depp had no proven record as a singer -- a sticking point for the studio until the actor's home-made demo of himself crooning My Friends (Todd's ode to his darling razors) convinced all.

‘‘I had absolutely no idea if he could sing,'' Burton says. ‘‘When it came to it, he exceeded my expectations, so I was very lucky I didn't go through any angst.''

THE movie opened before Christmas in the US, and the public and critics have given their verdict.
Indeed, as well as a box-office hit, Burton has been notching up winners in the pre-Oscars sweepstakes, bagging Golden Globe gongs for Best Musical or Comedy and an acting win for Depp, whose deep, crooning performance comes over like a Berlin-era Bowie.

Burton is still anxious to see how it will play around the world.

‘‘From a studio marketing point of view, I'm sure it's difficult,'' he says.

‘‘Things can fall through the cracks. People say, ‘I want to see a musical but there's too much blood', or ‘There's just the right amount of blood but what the hell's all that singing about?' It could go that way or it could go the way I hope it goes, which is it's not like something you've ever seen.''
He's working on his own tagline, just in case.

‘‘The Sound of Music,'' he laughs, ‘‘with blood!''

*Herald Sun*

GOING DEPP TO HELP HEATH FLICK

2008-02-07T16:48:00.002-08:00

HEATH Ledger was only weeks from finishing the fantasy flick "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus." In the story there's a point where Heath falls through some magic mirror. Theoretically this might then osmose him into another character. Director Terry Gilliam's saying maybe this is where a different actor could come on and film the remaining scenes. I don't know if this is happening. I simply know it's being discussed. Being a weird, time-travel movie, Heath's character could easily change appearance. They're talking Johnny Depp.

*New York Post*

'Pirates 4' Plot Rumors Ahoy!

2008-02-07T16:48:00.001-08:00

Yes, Virginia, there will likely be a Pirates of the Caribbean 4, regardless of what you thought of the last couple of Pirates movies. Why? Because they made about a googol of dollars, that's why. Still, you might ask, what would happen in such a film? Good question, and now, here's a rumor about the answer. Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner would be jettisoned, and the film would be a "bawdy buddy movie" featuring Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush's characters.

Note we didn't say it would necessarily feature Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush. Nope. We're thinking that, in the end, such a movie would be such an unpopular move that both men would decline involvement, and it would end up being a typical Disney straight-to-video release that kids would absolutely love and parents would kill if they had to watch more than once. And it would be called Pirates of the Caribbean 3 1/2 or some such.

*The Feed*

Johnny Depp to film in Aurora?

2008-02-05T22:25:00.000-08:00

He's toiled in the chocolate factory as Willy Wonka and sailed the high seas as Capt. Jack Sparrow, but will Johnny Depp soon patrol the seedy bank-robbing underground in Aurora as John Dillinger?

City officials are keeping their fingers crossed.

Paramount Theatre Executive Director Diana Martinez says four-time Oscar-nominated film director Michael Mann and several of his associates spent much of Wednesday examining the nearly 80-year-old structure for "historical accuracy."

Mann, she said, expressed interest in using the Paramount in his planned 2009 film titled "Public Enemies," set to star Johnny Depp and Christian Bale.

"It's so exciting," Martinez said. "I feel really good that they'll be back."

Depp is signed on to play notorious bank robber John Dillinger in the film adapted from Bryan Burrough's book, "Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34."

"They expressed a lot of interest in using the theater as the backdrop where Dillinger was killed," Martinez said Thursday. "The real theater was the Biograph in Lincoln Park, but it's since been updated. The Paramount, though updated, remains historically accurate, so 'Yay!' for us."

She said Mann and his accompanying art directors also commented many times how much they "like the look" of the city's downtown area.

Mayor Tom Weisner said seeing Depp strolling down the streets of downtown was a "pretty exciting prospect" for the Paramount, the city and his wife, Marilyn.

"It certainly speaks well of our beautiful city and the job they have done preserving the Paramount," he said. "Johnny Depp coming here would be great for Aurora. My only concern is that I will have a hard time keeping (Marilyn) at least 400 feet away from him at all times."

Martinez said the director did not give her a timetable for filming, but the Web site www.imdb.com lists the start date as March 10.

If Aurora is chosen as a location, Weisner said he expects the city will use the opportunity as a chance to advertise many more examples of its historic architecture.

*Daily Herald*

Flint-area businessman provides old Buick for next Johnny Depp movie

2008-02-05T22:23:00.000-08:00

A Mid-Michigan man might have something to brag about when a new Johnny Depp movie is released next year.

It's possible his car will be in the film and in a starring role.

When the movie "Semi Pro" was shot in Flint last year, a local businessman did a favor for the production team by providing a number of vintage cars.

"They gave me the years, I went through my database and was able to get about 400 cars," said Jeff Geisert.

Geisert struck up a friendship with one of the crew members. They talked about Geisert's 1937 Buick Special that his great uncle had passed along to his father and his three brothers, and eventually on to him. The old car was in need of lots of tender loving care.

"It looked really bad," Geisert said.

Blaine Currier, who handles vintage cars for Universal Studios in Chicago, had an idea for the old Buick. "He said that's perfect. That what I want. Get it down here," Geisert said.

If Geisert would lend it to him, he would restore it and place it in a movie to be shot this spring in Chicago. The Michael Man film is titled Public Enemies and will star Johnny Depp. Two weeks ago, Geisert put the Buick on a trailer and towed it to Chicago.

"I'm excited just to have the car down there being rebuilt."

With a few changes to the grill and turn signals, the car will be made to look like a '34 Buick. "I'm really proud to be able to do something with it like this; to have the opportunity to have this done," he said.

It's possible Johnny Depp will get behind the wheel of the Buick in the movie. "It's like hitting the lottery. I just can't believe it."

Geisert should be able to pick up his restored Buick when shooting ends in June.

*First at 4*

What the Sweeney Todd trailer failed to tell us about the film

2008-02-05T22:21:00.002-08:00

'This is the tale of an ordinary man who had everything ... " the gravelly voiced man intones, as the Warner Brothers logo melts into a Victorian London street and tinkling suspense music starts up, " ... until a man of power stole his freedom, destroyed his family and banished him for life ... " Drums pound, bells clang ominously, skies darken, Johnny Depp flashes his cut-throat razors, Helena Bonham Carter flashes her cleavage, and blood spatters across the screen.

This is the trailer for Sweeney Todd, replaying ad infinitum at cinemas and on TV spots. It resembles a vintage Tim Burton movie, but nowhere does the trailer mention the fact that Sweeney Todd is a musical. In fact, it goes out of its way to conceal the fact that the movie is entirely sung, save for a few snippets of dialogue (and Alan Rickman's bits - which really can't be described as singing). Stung at paying to see a collection of tortuously constructed Stephen Sondheim tunes when they were expecting a gory Gothic thriller, a fair proportion of cinema audiences has been walking out of Sweeney Todd. A complaint has even been made to the Advertising Standards Authority.

Trailers are a language we assumed we all understood. We knew exactly how much to downgrade our expectations according to the number of explosions, the intensity of the pounding drums, and the presence of phrases such as "Academy Award Nominee" and "Adam Sandler". We have even become used to the fact that trailers promoting foreign-language films strenuously avoid all reference to the fact that they are not in English.

But the goalposts are shifting. Sweeney Todd's sleight of hand pales next to the trailer for National Treasure: Book of Secrets, which was recently exposed in the New York Times for featuring camera shots, scenes and lines of dialogue that weren't in the actual movie at all. "Apparently, the studios and all their lawyers feel it's not a legal problem," said National Treasure's director, John Turteltaub. "They cut together the trailers long before we have had time to cut the movie together." Turteltaub hastened to point out he was dead against the practice. "Great movies can get lost because of this," he said, although he declined to name any.

Perhaps it's better this way. If movies really were like their trailers, they'd be so exciting, audiences would routinely die of laughter, despair and fear. Instead, we should acknowledge the fact that trailers have become an art form in themselves. They aren't advertising, they're experimental short-film collages, assembled from existing movies by avant-garde marketing teams. Perhaps we could make an Oscar category for them.

*Guardian Unlimited*

Cage: 'I discovered Johnny Depp'

2008-02-05T22:20:00.000-08:00

Nicolas Cage has revealed that he pushed Johnny Depp to take up acting.

The 44-year-old was introduced to Depp after he moved to LA with his garage band The Kids in his late teens.

He told Heart FM: "I met Johnny many years ago - he was a guitar player and had come to Los Angeles from Florida.

"We had a mutual friend and we were just playing Monopoly one day. I told him he ought to try acting so I introduced him to my agent and the next day he got his first audition and got the part.

"I can't really take credit for it... I was just one small step in his whole career... but that's just how it happened. It was quite simple."

He added: "Please don't ask me who won the game of Monopoly, though, I can't remember... it was a long time ago!"

Cage recently revealed that the movie industry has made him "reclusive".

*digital spy*

Depp & Jolie are the dishes of the day this Valentine’s

2008-02-05T22:19:00.000-08:00

Hollywood stars Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie have topped a poll by kitchen manufacturer and retailer Sigma 3 of celebrities Britons would most like to cook for on Valentine’s Day.

But it’s a different story when being cooked for, as Britons would prefer TV chefs Gordon Ramsey and Nigella Lawson to don their aprons and cook up a storm for them on February 14th.

Sweeney Todd star Depp compounded David Beckham’s miserable month after his axe from the England squad by polling 28% of the vote, just 1% more than the L.A. Galaxy footballer. Sean Connery was top of the menu when women over 40 were asked who they would most like to cook for, polling 31% of the vote. Almost a third of men decided Angelina Jolie would look great sat at their dining table, beating Oscar winner Helen Mirren into second place (26%).

When it came to being cooked for, Britons let their taste-buds rule over Hollywood glamour with half of women choosing Gordon Ramsey as the ideal Valentine’s chef and three quarters of men deciding Nigella Lawson would look great in an apron on the special day.

However, the likely reality facing couples across the country this Valentine’s Day was not on many people’s wish-lists; just 7% of women said they would most like to cook for their partners alongside just 3% of men.

Paula Morris, Marketing Manager, Sigma 3 commented, “It’s no surprise that Britons picked two dishes in Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie as the two people they would most like to cook for this Valentine’s Day. Their taste-buds definitely ruled when choosing the person they would most like to cook for them, but in Nigella Lawson I think the boys might have the best of both worlds!”

*easier property*

Johnny Depp. Dribble.

2008-01-31T18:43:00.000-08:00

Someone once asked plaintively, and not a little naffly, 'Where have all the cowboys gone?'. And here, ladies and gentlemen, is their answer.

They've all been melted down and re-built into this über-cowboy for the 21st century, with all of the brooding sexiness and none of the dodgy attitude towards 'injuns'.

Johnny Depp. Officially (yes, officially) the most beautiful man in the world, even at 44. Especially now that Brad Pitt's gone all beardy and George Clooney's gone all old.

He can lasso me anytime. I'll be his ra(u)nch hand. Etc etc.

*OSoYou.com Blog*

Depp film firm coming to town Saturday in search of vintage vehicles

2008-01-30T21:03:00.001-08:00

The production company behind the Johnny Depp film "Public Enemies" will return to Oshkosh Saturday, this time in search of vintage cars, trucks and buses.

Howard Bachrach, picture car captain for Universal Pictures, will be in Oshkosh to search for vehicles to use in the 1930s-era gangster film directed by Michael Mann. He is asking people who own vehicles built between 1930 and 1935 to stop by the Oshkosh Convention Center, 2 N. Main St., between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday.

He said vehicles produced between 1931 and 1935 would be ideal because they are models with V-8 engines and smoother body lines. He also said the car has to have its original exterior and an original color available at the time.

"I've done three of (Mann's) movies and this will be my fourth," Bachrach said. "He's all about authenticity. He's a stickler for having them say the right things and drive the right vehicles."

The buzz over the film has been a hot topic in Oshkosh and throughout Wisconsin, with site selectors and other production staff looking at historic buildings around the state.

Oshkosh sites that have been visited by the production company, such as the Grand Opera House, report no requests have been made to film scenes in Oshkosh.

"I don't think anything's set in concrete at this point," Grand Opera House Development Director Jeff Potts said. "We're still kind of in the dark and hopeful the city remains in the running. We're hoping we hear soon one way or another."

*Oshkosh Wisconsin*

Depp movie producers seeking

2008-01-30T21:01:00.000-08:00

Film official coming to Miller Park on Sunday to meet people

Picture the scene: A Wisconsin road in the early 1930s. Johnny Depp, portraying legendary American bank robber John Dillinger, and his gang are on the lam, trying to escape the FBI.

Local classic car owners could help to create this scene by allowing Universal Productions to use their cars in the period movie "Public Enemies," starring Depp as Dillinger and directed by Michael Mann. The movie has long been rumored to be considering multiple Wisconsin locations for shooting, and now its production company is asking local vintage car owners to show off their vehicles for possible use in the movie.

Howard Bachrach, the picture car captain for Universal Pictures, will be in Milwaukee on Sunday at Miller Park to scout potential cars, trucks and buses to be used as background vehicles.

"They (car collectors) are a bunch of great people and because they’re passionate about what they’re doing, they’re willing to help us out," Bachrach said.

He said that he has contacted local car clubs in the area inviting them to bring their vehicles made from 1930 to 1935 to the stadium for consideration.

*GM Today*

Truly, madly, Depp-ly

2008-01-30T20:57:00.001-08:00

Everybody loves Johnny. That, I've learned, is an undeniable universal truth.

For two weeks before I left for London to meet the cast and creative team behind the film adaptation of the stage musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, everything that anyone said to me was Johnny Depp-related. I would text message a friend about dinner plans and the reply would read: "Please swipe Johnny's water bottle for me. Want his DNA for Christmas".

I arrived at the immigration counter at Heathrow and was interrogated by an officer with a face so crumpled and grumpy, you'd think a flock of angry sheep had fallen out of her dreams and thumped her on the head.

"What is the purpose of this visit?" she growled at me as if I had left her broken-hearted at the altar last Valentine's, and was back to take custody of our dog. I informed her politely that I had made the trip to England to interview Johnny Depp.

I swear the previously cantankerous woman giggled like a schoolgirl, professed her undying love for Johnny, and merrily stamped my passport.

SUFFER THE LITTLE PEOPLE

In Sweeney Todd — Depp's first musical — he plays a murderous barber whose victims end up as pie-filling. The gruesome role is far from loveable, unlike his iconic takes on Captain Jack Sparrow or Edward Scissorhands, but it will do little to quell the public's adoration for the one-time teen idol.

Sitting in a function room at the very fancy Claridge's Hotel in swanky Mayfair, it was clear the cosy gathering of the world's press had also braved turbulence and Nazi airport security just for Depp.

"I can't believe we have to sit through all the interviews with all these people just to talk to Johnny Depp at the end," I overheard an Asian journalist complain with a pout.

"These people" included celebrated composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim (Sweeney Todd, West Side Story, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum), legendary film producer Robert Zanuck (Jaws, Driving Miss Daisy, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), the wonderful Alan Rickman (Harry Potter's Severus Snape) and a very pregnant Helena Bonham Carter (Howard's End, Fight Club and mother of director Tim Burton's children).

It was hardly a group to snub one's nose at, and the journalist was being highly disrespectful. At least I pretended to listen to those people talk. Never forget your manners — even when you're being dismissive.

First, it was Sondheim's turn to talk. The composer speaks with his eyes almost completely closed, as if he's constantly squinting at the world. This is what happens when you read musical sheets all the time — they should totally use bigger paper.

Oscar-nominated costume designer Colleen Atwood talked about her inspiration for the clothes, but I was too distracted by her scuffed suede shoes to pay attention.

The two young actors who play lovebirds in the film — Jayne Wisener and Jamie Campbell Bower — popped in for a chat. I asked them how they set about playing love-struck innocents without being terribly irritating.

Wisener asked if I thought they were annoying on screen. I laughed and said: "Of course not!"

I lied.

I hated their performances the way I detest fava beans. Rickman was taller and larger than I had imagined he would be, and he has a way of speaking that makes any drivel that comes out of his mouth sound utterly intelligent. Bonham Carter wore frightful miniature doilies in her frizzy hair.

A VERY DEPP CONVERSATION

Finally, after an entire morning of chatting to people who didn’t star in 21 Jump Street, Johnny Depp appeared, accompanied by director Tim Burton. The actor was swathed in a mountain of clothing. He had on a thick tweed jacket over a long-sleeved denim shirt, which was in turn over another shirt. He finished his look with a thick scarf, a great big hat and a large haul of necklaces. It turned out the actor was keeping himself warm because he was nursing a bad flu. "I go through bouts of, like, shivering and then just sweating," he said to his handlers. But that didn’t explain why he had on more necklaces than Mr T at Mardi Gras.

The notoriously private Depp is soft-spoken and rather shy. He’s not unfriendly. On the contrary, he was cracking jokes and speaking candidly. He sounded thoughtful and philosophical — if only I could understand what he was saying.

The 44-year-old mumbles at a decibel lower than that of most vibrating devices. It doesn’t help that his American accent is now hooded by a strange European slur. Imagine an eccentric old man drunk on grappa and you wouldn’t be too far off the mark.

THE GREATEST LOVE OF ALL

During the rare moments when Depp was audible, he showed a palpable rapport with Burton — a director he has worked with six times.

When asked why he chooses quirky film roles like an all-singing murderous barber in Sweeney Todd, he answered: "I think it’s probably a combination or something in between being hard-headed and ignorant in terms of taking the road I’ve taken … And for something like Sweeney Todd, Tim comes in the picture before all of that, and anything he would ask me to do I would jump at the opportunity."

"Except ballet," teased Burton.

"No, I actually would! I would try," said Depp with a laugh.

The men continued to sing each other’s praises.

"Since the first second that we met all those years ago in a café in Los Angeles, for me, there was an instant connection on a lot of different levels. He had a weird fascination and understanding of the absurdity of things … like macramé owls and fake fruit on the kitchen table," said Depp, who is the godfather of Burton and Bonham Carter’s three-year-old son, Billy.

“Ever since then, I have only wanted, as an actor, to give him as close to what he wants as possible … With Tim, before I think about what I feel for the character, I’m just hoping that I won’t let him down. He comes first.”

According to Depp, even filming a movie as dark and macabre as Sweeney Todd was fun together.

“Filming was like a laugh riot. We were constantly laughing. It was a great time,” he said.

Burton, 49, returned the compliment: “Johnny tries anything … He’s just willing to go out there. It’s an artistic pleasure to watch somebody try different things and actually achieve it beyond your expectations.”

Yes, everybody loves Johnny.

But nobody, it seems, more than Tim Burton.

*Channel NewsAsia*

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

2008-01-29T21:56:00.000-08:00

This should be the climax of one of the all-time classic trilogies, up there with Back to the Future, Indiana Jones and - dare we say it - the original Star Wars series.

Unfortunately, Pirates of the Caribbean began with a hit (Curse of the Black Pearl), kept viewers guessing with a confusing middle (Dead Man's Chest) and bored everyone to tears with At World's End - the third and hopefully final instalment.

It's not Johnny Depp's fault - his performance of drunk pirate Captain Jack Sparrow is still pitch-perfect. His surreal set-piece while stuck in Davy Jones' Locker is one of At World's End's best moments.

But what should be a simple and enjoyable finale is instead let down by a grim opening, an extremely complex plot and a climax that leaves viewers wondering what the hell is going on - and why they're even bothering.

Director Gore Verbinski would have been better to remember that old acronym, Keep Things Simple Stupid, next time he attempts something on this kind of scale.

Extras: A second disc includes bloopers, deleted scenes, features on Chow Yun Fat and Keith Richards' cameos and an inside look at the filming of Depp's extraordinary Davy Jones' Locker sequence.

*Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is rated M. Out now through Roadshow Entertainment.

*stuff.co.nz*

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

2008-01-29T21:55:00.001-08:00

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Cert. 12A, 168 min)
Starring: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Geoffrey Rush, Chow Yun-Fat
Director: Gore Verbinski

IN THE same week that the Cutty Sark went up in flames, we now bear witness to another maritime disaster.

Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End is not a complete shipwreck but it sails perilously close, capsizing in the first hour under the weight of audience expectation.

Rumbustious action set-pieces, augmented with spectacular computer-generated effects, bookend this third instalment of the series, and cute comic interludes buoy the downbeat mood.

However, there’s no mistaking warning flares sent up by Johnny Depp, who looks interminably bored with his character, salty seadog Jack Sparrow.

He barely musters the energy to deliver a performance. If you haven’t seen the first two films, there’s very little point seeing At World’s End.

Screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio presume audiences are savvy with the characters and their fates, chugging full steam ahead with the quest to rescue Jack from Davy Jones’s locker.

Falling foul of a pact forged with the multi-tentacled Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), Jack finds himself consigned to purgatory.

Thankfully, lovebirds Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley, left) have joined forces with Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) to rescue Jack from walking the plank to eternal damnation.

They head to Singapore to meet with Chinese pirate Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat), in the hope of creating an alliance against the despicable East India Trading Company, which now controls Davy and his vessel, The Flying Dutchman.

The overblown action sequences are thrilling as expected, and Jack’s hare-brained scheme to escape The Land Of The Dead definitely shivers the timbers, as does Keith Richards’s delicious appearance as Sparrow Snr, strumming a guitar and dispensing cryptic advice to his wastrel son.

Knightley is thrust to the fore in this third film, usurping both Bloom and Depp and flings herself into the melee with impressive sword fights. Bloom postures and pouts with fervour, while Depp press-gangs the few decent one-liners.

Supporting performances are drowned out by Hans Zimmer’s bombastic orchestral score.

The romance between Elizabeth and Will is soaked through with sappiness, resolved in the midst of the titanic final battle in a manner that will have even the most ardent fan screaming “Plausibility overboard!”

In truth, Gore Verbinski’s film can weather an entire armada of critical drubbing: Dead Man’s Chest became only the third film in history to gross in excess of $1bn worldwide.

Audiences adore Depp’s swaggering anti-hero and the cliffhanger finish of the second film will attract cinemagoers in their droves, quite possibly shattering box office records.

Unfortunately, once the initial storm of excitement and anticipation blows itself out, At World’s End will be dead in the water.

*icLiverpool*

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

2008-01-29T21:53:00.000-08:00

Johnny Depp sings for his gruesome supper in Tim Burton's latest Gothic masterpiece.

For a director who never writes his own scripts, Tim Burton is a remarkably consistent artist. Aside from the disaster that was Planet of the Apes (2001), he has never made a film that did not feel deeply personal, and his sumptuous adaptation of Steven Sondheim's famous musical about 19th-century barber Sweeney Todd, who made his customers into meat pies, is no exception.

In the version of the story concocted by Sondheim and collaborator Hugh Wheeler - adapted here by screenwriter John Logan - Sweeney (Johnny Depp) is really Benjamin Barker, a barber transported to Australia for 15 years for a crime he did not commit. On his return to London, he learns from his former landlady, Mrs Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), that his wife has been driven to suicide by the villainous Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman).

Taking up quarters once more above Mrs Lovett's pie shop, Sweeney plots his revenge and returns to his old trade. When his former assistant (Sacha Baron Cohen) tries to blackmail him and meets a grisly fate, it is the practical yet unconventional Mrs Lovett who proposes a means of disposing of the corpse that will, so to speak, kill two birds with one stone.

Sondheim's ingeniously rhymed, blackly witty lyrics suggest that Sweeney and Mrs Lovett have simply taken the universal principle of "man devouring man" to its logical conclusion. But Burton has never been especially interested in social commentary - or even in society, as anything more than a foil for his solitary anti-heroes. He and Depp are more concerned with the personal plight of Sweeney, a dead-eyed loon whose skill with the razor also makes him a gifted artist.

This version of the story puts a new, particularly bleak slant on many of Burton's cherished themes - the victim turned killer, the loner who becomes head of a surrogate family - while offering all the pleasures of traditional blood-and-thunder melodrama. Burton revels in the giddy, excessive horror of the material, but never treats Sweeney's disillusionment with humanity merely as a joke. Likewise, Bonham Carter is both fetching and genuinely chilling as Mrs Lovett, who is perfectly willing to condone Sweeney's murders provided they are done for "respectable" reasons.

With many songs from the stage version of the show truncated or omitted, this may not be a movie to satisfy purist Sondheim fans. Depp in particular will never be mistaken for a singer, but he dives into the part with such relish that his spiteful murmur becomes an acceptable convention after the first 20 minutes or so. Dramatically speaking, the mostly English supporting cast could hardly be bettered. Rickman is surprisingly restrained as Turpin, a psychopath as helplessly egotistical as an infant, and Timothy Spall at his hammiest is a natural to play the abjectly servile Beadle Bamford, whose very name suggests his kinship with Mr Bumble from Oliver Twist.

As much as he loves the jowly or cadaverous faces of English character actors, Burton loves to doodle in the margins of whatever tale he tells: in an inspired dream sequence, Mrs Lovett imagines running away to the seaside with Sweeney, who walks beside her along the pier like a zombie in a tailored suit. It's a cartoonist's conception - the images look like collages made by cutting up old postcards and pasting them together.

Given the geysers of blood that flow when Sweeney gets to work, it is remarkable how far Burton's visual approach depends on literal understatement - draining most of the colour from the image, placing the actors against blank or drab backgrounds and keeping them at a slightly greater distance than expected.

There is a kind of affinity between the deceptive simplicity of this style and the trickiness of Sondheim's score: the melodies seem easy to grasp for a few bars at a time, then slide out of reach. Certain musical phrases lodge in the head since they recur so often in different contexts - Sweeney's autobiographical recitative (beginning "There was a barber and his wife . . .") or the opening of Nothing's Going to Harm You, a soothing lullaby that turns unforgettably sinister when reprised.

But the song that haunts me most is the deliberately banal Pirelli's Miracle Elixir, an advertising jingle sung by Toby (Ed Sanders) to promote a hair tonic marketed by Sweeney's rival. In the second half of the film, Toby is hired by Sweeney and Mrs Lovett, and uses the same tune to shill their meat pies. The metre remains so regular that one might suspect a submerged pun on "organ grinder".

*Fairfax Digital*

5 things you may not know about poliosis

2008-01-29T21:52:00.000-08:00

Here are five things you may not know about poliosis:

1. What it is: Actor Johnny Depp sports one in the movie Sweeney Todd. Blues singer Bonnie Raitt proudly displays hers. We're talking about a white forelock or streak. The medical name for this natural tuft of white hair is poliosis, from the Greek word — "pilios" — for gray.

2. Where it happens: While the white patch occurs most often along the forehead, poliosis can involve eyebrows, eyelashes or hair anywhere on the body.

3. Why it happens: This is not a disease. Most people with poliosis are healthy and experience it only because there is no pigment in the hair and skin in that area. It can be hereditary.

4. When little Johnny goes gray: Gray hair in a child is uncommon and should be evaluated by a doctor. It could just be a matter of premature graying, but some early loss of hair color can be associated with thyroid disorders, vitamin B-12 deficiency and other conditions.

5. An overnight phenomenon?: While some people claim psychological shock or trauma can turn hair gray overnight, many scientists doubt it happens that quickly. Prevailing medical opinion traces rapid hair whitening to a genetic autoimmune disease called alopecia areata in which T cells mistake hair follicles for a foreign substance and aggressively attack them, sometimes targeting only pigmented hairs.

*chron.com*

I’d never sing in the shower, says Johnny Depp

2008-01-29T21:50:00.000-08:00

Johnny Depp is celebrating his third Oscars nomination for his latest role as the manic Sweeney Todd. But, he tells Rob Driscoll, that the most challenging thing about filming was having to sing

AS Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street, Johnny Depp has to slit several throats before dispatching his customers’ bodies to the pie shop downstairs.

But for the heart-throb actor, who’s won an Oscar nomination this week for his bloodcurdling performance, the real terror lay not with those gruesome scenes of slaughter, but having to sing for the first time in his impressive career.

“I actually did a movie musical many years ago with John Waters, called Cry Baby, but technically that was only half me – it wasn’t really me singing,” recalls 44-year-old Depp, who’s already bagged a Golden Globe for his latest screen role.

“Tim Burton is the only person brave enough to let me try to sing. This was the first time I’d ever sung. I’ve never even sung in the shower – I was too mortified.”

Burton, of course, is the maverick director with whom Depp has now collaborated on the big screen six times – their previous films being Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Corpse Bride.

Sweeney Todd, however, is without any doubt their most ambitious and riskiest project yet; a $50m big-screen version of Stephen Sondheim’s lauded 1979 Broadway musical, about the semi-mythical, razor-wielding Victorian barber with a truly twisted idea of revenge.

Who else but Burton could sell to Hollywood the idea of a movie stuffed with cult, semi-operatic show tunes and R-rated violence?

Yet the gamble has paid off handsomely. As well as Depp’s Golden Globe win earlier this month for Best Actor (in a Musical or Comedy), Sweeney Todd won a second trophy for Best Film (Musical or Comedy), and now possible Oscar success looms at the February 24 ceremony, with Depp’s Best Actor nomination – his third bid for that coveted gong, after nods for Pirates of the Caribbean and Finding Neverland.

Burton must have a masochistic streak, because Sweeney Todd is a far-reaching, hugely operatic musical – no sweet and sassy “jazz hands” numbers here – yet almost everybody in his cast is not a professional singer.

That includes his wife, actress Helena Bonham Carter, who co-stars alongside Depp as Todd’s pastry-rolling accomplice, the sad but kindly Mrs Lovett, plus Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall and Sacha Baron Cohen.

It’s nearly three decades since Burton first saw Sweeney Todd on stage, and clicked instantly with everything about it. “I was still a student, and I didn’t know if I would be making movies or working in a restaurant – I had no idea what I would be doing,” says Burton “I didn’t go to the theatre much, I’m not a big musical fan, and I didn’t even know who Stephen Sondheim was.

“I didn’t know anything about the show, but I just wandered into the theatre and it just blew me away because I’d never really seen anything that had the mixture of all those elements. I actually went three nights in a row because I loved it so much.”

Fast forward some 28 years, and Burton had only one actor in mind to play his big-screen Sweeney Todd – Johnny Depp. “Every time Johnny and I work together, we try to do something different – and singing for a whole movie is not something we’re used to,” says Burton. “We’re always wanting to stretch ourselves, and this was a perfect outlet for that.”

Right now, Depp is at the peak of his game. Considered to be one of his generation’s finest actors, his stock has skyrocketed in recent years thanks to his starring role as Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, which also brought him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

Now, the Golden Globe for Sweeney Todd has put him into the ultimate A-lister league. It’s perhaps the least likely role with which he might have expected to win an award, however, precisely because of the singing.

In the ‘80s, Depp had played guitar in a band in Florida called The Kids, although even now he insists he never actually sang an entire song. “I was the guy who would come in and sing the harmony, very quickly,” he laughs. “So I’d never sung a song, certainly not.”

To find out whether he could sing or not before embarking on his most challenging film project, Depp called his former bandmate, Bruce Witkin, who had been the singer and bass player in The Kids, and the pair of them went to Witkins’ Los Angeles studio to record Depp singing My Friends from Sweeney Todd.

“That was the first song I ever sang in my life,” explains Depp. “It was pretty weird and scary. And I trusted Bruce to be honest with me on his verdict. He simply asked me, ‘Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news?’ I said, “Well, give me the bad news.’ And he said, ‘The bad news is that you’re going to have to do this.’”

Depp’s voice on the film is indeed surprisingly strong – an eerie, sophisticated mixture of David Bowie and Anthony Newley, some have suggested. Bonham Carter says, “It’s very sexy singing, and it sounds like him, that’s what’s exciting. He sings from the gut, and it’s a very emotional role.”

Likewise, Bonham Carter was required to deliver some very complex songs, in a role she’d hankered after since she was a teenager.

“I’ve always wanted to be in a musical, but I never thought I could sing, except in the bathroom,” she explains. “So I gave myself three months to learn.”

Despite her relationship with Burton, Bonham Carter argues she was far from a shoo-in for the role of Mrs Lovett. “I would certainly say that it made it much harder,” she says.

“Tim told me that I looked right for it, I was potentially right for it, but he had no idea if I could sing. So I said I’d try to learn, while he said, ‘It will always be good for you to try to have singing lessons.’

“I had to be righter than right, just for my sake. I didn’t want to feel like I’d got it just because I’d slept with the director! At the end of the day Stephen Sondheim had final say – and I definitely didn’t sleep with him!”

During the production of Sweeney Todd last year, Depp’s young daughter Lily-Rose fell critically ill, having caught an E.coli bacteria infection that began to cause her kidneys to shut down, and resulted in an extended stay at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital. As a result, her father had to abandon the film shoot for several weeks.

“I don’t know what anyone else’s feelings on the film set were at the time, whether I was coming back or if I wasn’t coming back,” recalls Depp, whose main home is in Paris with his partner, singer Vanessa Paradis and their children – eight-year-old Lily-Rose and five-year-old Jack.

“I really wasn’t sure if I’d be able to come back. Tim and the production were unbelievably supportive, and they said, ‘Look, we’re hitting pause.’ For that, I’ll be eternally grateful.”

Thankfully, Lily-Rose recovered fully and recently Depp gave a £1m donation to Great Ormond Street Hospital as a thank you for saving his daughter’s life. He also invited five doctors and nurses from the world-renowned children’s hospital to the premiere party of Sweeney Todd – and unknown to the public, spent four hours at the hospital telling bedtime stories to patients, dressed as Captain Jack.

Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street opens today

*icWales*

Depp to replace Ledger

2008-01-29T21:49:00.001-08:00

The film that Heath Ledger was shooting when he died will continue shooting as a new face is brought in

Still reeling from the sad news of the untimely death of Heath Ledger, we were interested to read that it has taken less than a week for talks of his replacement on Terry Gilliam’s forthcoming ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’ to emerge.

According to a piece in the Sun, it looks like Gilliam muse Johnny Depp is going to be stepping up to the plate. Interestingly, however, we may not be due a ‘Lost in La Mancha 2’ quite yet, as, in ruthlessly efficient Hollywood style, Depp is just going to carry on where Ledger left off. As Gilliam told the Sun: 'Ledger's character falls through a magic mirror. He could change into another character after that and that is where Johnny would come in.'

The latest news on Ledger’s death now suggests that he could have passed from natural causes, with reports claiming that the level of toxicity in his blood was low enough that there is a possibility that it may not have been the reason for his death.

*Time Out London*

Ripping yarns

2008-01-29T21:47:00.000-08:00

Sweeney Todd looks good and sounds great but lacks true emotion

Director: Tim Burton, 18, 95min

Stars: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter

The revenge movie gets a Gothic musical makeover thanks to Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Stephen Sondheim. The latter’s 1979 hit musical featured an 18th-century London barber newly returned from false imprisonment in Australia and reeking furious vengeance. He does this with the help of his pie-baking landlady Mrs Lovett, and lots, and lots, of singing.

Thus the hype and speculation generated around Burton’s Sweeney Todd has focused almost exclusively on the vocal challenges faced by stars Depp (as Todd) and Bonham Carter (as Lovett) – can they sing? Can they convince? Will they hit the high notes? The answer, of course, is that they sing perfectly well (though Depp does a few too many bars of Rex Harrison style talky-singing). But the great communal sigh of relief and the subsequent adulation that has followed this revelation have somehow obscured the fact that Sweeney is only a minor work – visually ravishing, and buoyed by Sondheim’s sweet lyrical élan – but certainly not Burton at his best.

The film has a relentless linearity to it. Todd announces, in an early musical number, that he “will have vengeance”, and then he does just that for the next 60 minutes.

The songs are amiably lilting and melodic without ever once producing a barnstorming set-piece singalong. And while Depp and Bonham Carter are both beautiful to look at, they generated far more screen heat in their previous musical collaboration with Burton, The Corpse Bride. In that superlative film, a simple piano duet between Depp and Bonham Carter’s marionette doppelgängers unearthed more genuine human emotion than anything found in the full-length feature of lovingly crafted whimsy that is Sweeney Todd.

*Times Online*

Scissorhands to bring his ‘shear magic’ to Perth

2008-01-29T21:44:00.000-08:00

An acclaimed ballet version of Johnny Depp’s 1990 cult classic Edward Scissorhands is set to cut a swath through Australian theatres.

Made with the blessing of Depp and the film’s director Tim Burton, this oddball modern-Gothic fable about a boy with scissors for hands has been playing to sell-out audiences in Britain and America since its London debut in 2005.

This lavish production in which a shock-haired outcast wanders into candy-coloured mid-50s America is bound to do the same when its Australian tour brings it to His Majesty’s Theatre from July 1 to 6.

Sending expectations through the roof is the creator of Edward Scissorhands, British choreographer Matthew Bourne, whose revolutionary Swan Lake featuring a rugby scrum of feathered hunks had audiences gasping when it played in Perth last year. Bourne’s new work — a loose adaptation of the original film — has made just as big a splash as Swan Lake, with Time magazine declaring: “Edward’s magic shears make shear theatrical magic.”

Traditionalists, however, continued to turn up their noses at Bourne’s shameless populism and trademark blurring of the lines between ballet and theatre. He calls it musical theatre while cynics have dubbed his productions “dansicals”.

At the tour launch at the Sydney Opera House yesterday, Bourne said he had been dreaming of turning Edward Scissorhands into a ballet since he emerged in the early 1990s as Britain’s most exciting young choreographer.

But it took almost a decade for him to persuade Burton, co-writer Caroline Thompson, film composer Danny Elfman and 20th Century-Fox to give him the rights to recreate the struggle of Pinocchio-like Edward to find acceptance in prejudiced middle America.

“In a way Edward Scissorhands is Tim Burton,” he said. Bourne got the mother of Helena Bonham Carter, who is the partner of the London-based Burton, to cajole the director into seeing one of his productions.

Bourne was most nervous about Johnny Depp as he was the one who gave Edward his soul. It took many months but Depp finally caught up with the show in Los Angeles.

“He spent an hour with the company and tried on the hands. He wrote to me afterwards and said he was ‘teetering on the edge of tears all the way through it, mate’.”

*thewest.com.au*

Another view

2008-01-29T21:42:00.001-08:00

Barber Richard Marshall on Sweeney Todd

I can't say I'd use this film as a training video. Slitting your customers' throats isn't a good business model - you wouldn't get many repeat customers. I don't think I would employ Johnny Depp's Sweeney Todd, either. He looks like a bit of a madman.

I loved the scenes of Victorian London in Tim Burton's movie; and it was great to see the old barber shops with the traditional red and white barber's pole. The red represents blood and the white represents bandages. Years ago, barbers were also surgeons. They would pull teeth and perform bloodletting, so they were no strangers to gore. But I don't think many of them went as far as Sweeney.

Sweeney's razors look more like samurai swords than professional tools. They were obviously made to scare. I've never come across a set of razors of that scale and shape. The traditional shave using a straight razor and strop - a piece of leather used to sharpen the razor - are things of the past now. We use a disposable safety blade for hygiene reasons.

Lathering and preparation is the key to good shaving. Sweeney doesn't apply the soap properly. He brushes it across the face when what you should do is work it in to the skin, softening the stubble and bringing up the bristles. You don't often see Johnny Depp actually shaving a customer - it looked as if they might have used someone else's hands to do the work.

I wasn't sure what to make of the music. Obviously, there's a connection between singing and barber shops - think of barber shop quartets - but I suspect my clientele would be relieved that we don't serenade them while we work. They wouldn't want to hear my voice, anyway.

· Richard Marshall is the owner of Pall Mall Barbers, London. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is on general release

*Guardian Unlimited*

Hollywood Scouts Looking For Vintage Cars For Depp Movie

2008-01-28T20:07:00.000-08:00

Movie To Start Production In March

As Hollywood zeros in on Wisconsin as a location for the upcoming Johnny Depp movie, film crews are looking for some antique props.

The search is on for 100 classic cars to star as background cars in the 1930s-inspired story "Public Enemy," WISC-TV reported.

Media reports said that that director Michael Mann may choose up to 60 classic cars and will either rent or buy them. Owners of such cars are sending in pictures of their vehicles to be considered.

"We bought this back in 1964, and it just sat in the garage for probably 20 years," said vintage car owner Bill Paxson. "My wife said, 'We're either going to have to do something with that car or we're going to have to sell it.'"

The Paxsons restored the car and are now contenders for a spot in the movie.

The film will be shot in locations throughout Wisconsin and Illinois. Production starts in March and will run through June.

Anyone interested in submitting photos of their vintage cars can e-mail them to pechicago@gmail.com.

*Channel 3000*

Johnny Depp to replace Ledger in final role?

2008-01-28T20:06:00.000-08:00

Johnny Depp may be poised to replace the late Heath Ledger in the Australian's final film, according to reports.

English director Terry Gilliam is determined to finish shooting Ledger's final film, 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus', and is said to want Depp in the lead role.

Filming on the set of the fantasy movie was reportedly abandoned following Ledger's death in New York on Tuesday.

However, Gilliam now wants to complete the shoot with Depp in the role.

A studio source told The Sun: "There is a point in the film when Heath falls through a magic mirror. He could change into another character after that and that is where Johnny would come in.

"It's a weird, fantasy, time-travel movie so Heath's character could easily change appearance. It would be a poignant moment.

"Johnny's not working at the moment so everyone is praying he will do it."

Ledger was said to be less than two months away from completing filming on the movie at the time of his death.

*RTE Entertainment*

Depp sick of good looks

2008-01-28T20:05:00.000-08:00

Hollywood actor Johnny Depp breaks down in tears every time he looks in the mirror - because he is too good looking.

The 'Pirates Of The Caribbean' star is famed for choosing obscure roles - in such films as 'Edward Scissorhands', 'Ed Wood', 'Charlie And The Chocolate Factory' and 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street' - that take attention away from his handsome Hollywood image.

The 44-year-old star says: "I cry every morning when I look in the mirror.

"Every single morning, because I gotta live with this cute face."

On Tuesday Depp picked up a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his role as Sweeney Todd in Tim Burton's 2007 musical version of the classic London-based horror story.

*Ireland On-Line*

Marion Cotillard Gets a Date With Johnny Depp

2008-01-28T20:03:00.000-08:00

Cotillard Faces Enemies: What do you get for a Best Actress Oscar nomination? A free dress, a bunch of free dinners, and if you’re Marion Cotillard, a chance to make out with Johnny Depp by landing a role as the torch-singer girlfriend to his John Dillinger in Michael Mann’s period crime drama Public Enemies. [HR]

*Vulture*

Movie starring Johnny Depp may film in Madison, other parts of Wisconsin

2008-01-28T20:02:00.000-08:00

Classic cars are wanted for the filming of Johnny Depp's new film "Public Enemies," set to begin production in March.

Universal Studio representatives visited Madison Sunday in search of classic cars to use in the upcoming film “Public Enemies,” starring Johnny Depp as infamous bank robber John Dillinger.

The film is scheduled to begin production in March and will be directed by UW-Madison alumnus Michael Mann. According to Howard Bachrach, picture card captain in charge of the vehicle search for Universal, possible locations for filming include Madison, Oshkosh, Milwaukee and Chicago.

He said the choice to film in the Midwest was due largely in part to the historical context of the film, which chronicles Dillinger’s Depression-era crime spree and gang involvement that made him one of America’s most notorious criminals.

“This is where the bank robberies occurred, in Wisconsin and Illinois,” Bachrach said.

Bachrach was searching for classic vehicles from 1930-1935, particularly the Ford V-8 model that followed Ford’s classic Model A vehicle in the early 1930s.

*The Daily Cardinal*

Depp’s taking it easy!

2008-01-28T20:01:00.000-08:00

Johnny Depp is tired of living life in the fast lane. The Golden Globe-winning actor, who was famed for his wild partying in the mid 90s, has given up driving fast cars and now lives ‘calmly’ in France with partner Vanessa Paradis and their two children.

Johnny says, “I’ve have always liked speed, now I like comfort. We all go through stages of wanting fast cars and bikes. I was no different. Who wouldn’t want a Maserati? But I also wanted to ride in style, or with a bit of history. To get there and to enjoy the journey. I have learnt to grow up and still enjoy myself. I spent a lot of years living on the edge, everyone knows that. So it is good that I now live calmly and happily.”

The 44-year-old star, who spent his childhood moving around with his mother, also revealed he now finally feels settled. Johnny adds, “I have never felt more rooted anywhere. I have never been in one place, like this, where I do feel completely at home. LA was my home from the early 80s to the late 90s, but it still felt so transient compared to this.”

*The Times of India*

Marion Cotillard, Johnny Depp in 'Public Enemies'

2008-01-28T20:00:00.000-08:00

French star Marion Cotillard is in talks to star alongside Hollywood icon Johnny Depp in a Depression-era crime drama made by veteran director Michael Mann, it was reported Monday.

Cotillard, who is up for an Oscar at next month's Academy Awards for her portrayal of tragic singer Edith Piaf in "La Vie En Rose," is being tipped to play the girlfriend of bankrobber John Dillinger played by Depp, reports said.

The film is an adaptation of Bryan Burroughs' book "Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-1934."

British actor Christian Bale, star of "Batman Begins" and the upcoming "The Dark Knight," is in talks to play a detective hunting Dillinger.

Dillinger was one of the most well-known crime figures from the early 1930s, responsible for a string of daring heists before eventually being shot dead by police in a Chicago ambush in 1934 aged 31.

*AFP*

Bonham-Carter 'embarrassed' by Depp kiss

2008-01-28T19:59:00.000-08:00

Helena Bonham-Carter was left red-faced on the set of 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street' - because she had to kiss her boyfriend Tim Burton's best friend Johnny Depp.

The actress plays Mrs Lovett in the musical version of the classic horror story and performs a kissing scene with Depp in the movie - whilst her partner Burton directed them.

And the 41-year-old actress admits that even though her partner was watching - she enjoyed kissing one of Hollywood's most lusted after male stars.

She says: "I was being paid by my boyfriend to kiss his best friend."

The grisly blockbuster has been highly acclaimed by critics and fans alike - with Depp nominated for a best actor Oscar at next month's ceremony and Bonham Carter receiving a best supporting actress nod at this year's Golden Globes.

*Ireland On-Line*

Depps good looks make him cry

2008-01-23T22:18:00.000-08:00

Each time Johnny Depp looks into the mirror, he breaks down in tears, for it makes the Hollywood star feel that he is very good looking.

The Pirates Of The Caribbean star says that he often selects obscure film roles that cover up his handsome Hollywood image.

“I cry every morning when I look in the mirror, Contactmusic quoted the 44-year-old star as saying.

“Every single morning, because I gotta live with this cute face,” he added.

Depp is known for playing obscure roles in Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street.

His portrayal as Sweeney Todd in Tim Burton’s 2007 musical version of the classic London-based horror story won him a Best Actor Oscar nomination.

*Thaindian News*

Depp's a demon says our Jayne

2008-01-23T22:16:00.000-08:00

Ulster actress Jayne Wisener has told how she didn't have to act too much in a terrifying movie scene opposite Johnny Depp - because she was already genuinely afraid.

Jayne, who comes from Coleraine, makes her movie debut in Tim Burton's musical project, the macabre Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

It's a sizeable first role for the 20-year-old, who plays Todd's missing daughter Johanna.

In one scene towards the end, Johanna, disguised as a boy, comes face-to-face with her father, who is unaware of her identity. Depp, who plays Todd, is covered in blood and on a mission to kill.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, Jayne said working with Depp was a delight.

"Of course it was very exciting but I was also so nervous. These people all around me were professionals and knew what they were doing and I just felt like I didn't have a clue.

"There's only one scene that I do with Johnny Depp and to tell you the truth, I didn't have to act too much.

"I just had to look scared and shocked - and that was fine, because I was. I was acting with Johnny Depp."

Jayne was performing with Music Theatre 4 Youth in Londonderry when she landed her big break.

The group's founder Jenny Cooke invited casting agent Jeremy James Taylor to watch her solo performance, pointing out that she would be ideal for the singing role.

Jayne was invited to London auditions, including one in front of director Tim Burton.

After a long process, she finally received the telephone call that catapulted her to fame.

Last week, the willowy beauty joined Depp and other cast members such as Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman at the UK premiere of the film.

"Being on the red carpet was really strange. I'd never seen Leicester Square like that, all those people coming to look at us," she said.

"I felt so nervous but just kept smiling for the cameras."

The former Antrim Rose of Tralee said she never expected the hype and media attention that came with the role, but insisted that her family would help keep her feet on the ground.

"They're very down-to-earth. If I start to get a big head, they'll soon sort that out. But they're also proud of me and very excited for me too."

Sweeney Todd picked up two Golden Globes earlier this week, for Best Movie (Musical or Comedy), while Depp won a gong for Best Actor.

Jayne said: "We're all so pleased for Johnny and to be part of that is such an amazing feeling," she said.

After working with Depp and the rest of the cast, the young actress now hopes to land a few more movie roles.

*Belfast Telegraph*

Kate Moss’ new boyfriend models himself on Johnny Depp

2008-01-23T22:15:00.000-08:00

Kate Moss’ new boyfriend, The Kills rocker Jamie Hince has modelled himself on Kate’s former lover Johnny Depp, it has been revealed.

An old pal as revealed that Jamie was a struggling musician when he decided he wanted to be just like the Sweeney Todd star.

Author Sian Jeffreys shared a south London squat with Hince in the late 80s.

In her book Next To Ness, she recalls how he talked of his acting ambitions, saying: “Johnny Depp, that’s who I’m gonna be.”

Supermodel Kate - who celebrated her 34th birthday last week, dated Depp - who now has two children with longterm girlfriend Vanessa Paradis, for three years in the 1990s.

She started seeing Hince, 39 - guitarist with The Kills - last year after splitting from Babyshambles rocker Pete Doherty.

*showbiz spy*

Johnny Depp and Tim Burton talk about working together

2008-01-23T21:56:00.000-08:00

ACCORDING to Tim Burton, there once was a time when he would have to convince studios to let him cast Johnny Depp as the star of a musical.

‘‘We're now at the point where they'll give him the lead role in a musical and they don't even know if he can sing,'' Burton says.

‘‘Nothing gets more surreal than that. It's fantastic.''

It's no surprise Burton uses Depp's stardom as yet another punchline.

Their byplay is never-ending.

The two have been trading off each other, both professionally and privately, for years now and it's been nothing but a joy for both.

Depp plays the title character, Sweeney Todd, in Burton's film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's hit Broadway musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Despite the challenge of bringing a musical to the screen, neither saw any reason to lighten the mood or tone down the bizarre humour.

‘‘I think Tim only asked me to sing so he could get a good laugh,'' Depp says.

‘‘I was so scared that all it was going to be was me going up there to sing and him just losing it. Him just cackling.''

‘‘I nearly lost it,'' Burton says to Depp, ‘‘when you weren't singing, when you were pretending to be normal. There was one flashback where he was supposed to be a normal guy and I couldn't even be on the set.''

It was a scene in which Depp is pre-Sweeney Todd, simply a happily married barber with a new baby, all before his life is destroyed.

‘‘He just cracked,'' Depp says.

‘‘I had to leave the set. I couldn't even watch it,'' Burton says.

‘‘He was crying,'' Depp continues.

‘‘I almost had a heart attack. Because we did that near the end, after we'd been through everything else.

‘‘With that weird little yamaka wig. So you know,'' -- Burton is still laughing -- ‘‘it was very strange.''

This latest project has taken Depp and Burton's relationship into an uncharted phase -- the stage musical brought to screen.

Based on Sondheim's brilliant play, it's a huge gamble for any number of reasons.

Neither Depp nor any of his co-stars -- Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Sacha Baren Cohen and Timothy Spall -- are classically trained singers.

Also, Sondheim's scores are notoriously difficult, yet Depp reveals a remarkable voice and receives fine support from his co-stars.

Whether a real Sweeney Todd actually existed in 19th-century London is still debated, but he has long been the stuff of legend, the story mushrooming after Sondheim gave it the musical treatment in the 1970s.

Though the legend had Sweeney Todd slitting the throats of those he shaved, Sondheim introduced the evil judge who sent Todd to Australia because he secretly coveted the barber's wife, which has become the fully finished version.

The mayhem then ensues when Todd returns, with a healthy helping of blood on his mind.

‘‘It's a story about revenge and how revenge eats itself up,'' Sondheim says.

Depp, typically, leaves all other versions of Todd dead in the water.

‘‘I thought it might be a good opportunity to find a new Sweeney, a different Sweeney. Almost like in a punk rock, contemporary way,'' he says.

The success of the movie is the innate relationship between Depp and Burton, partners in a crime spree that began with Edward Scissorhands and has trekked through Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

IT'S a friendship that clicked the moment the pair met in a Los Angeles coffee shop in the late 1980s, where they discovered a shared liking for the absurd.

‘‘This kind of fascination with understanding the absurdity of what was perfectly acceptable in the 1970s . . . for example macrame owls and resin grapes,'' Depp says.

‘‘Fake fruit. No one thought twice about that.''

Such is their trust that Burton has only to call to get Depp for a role.

‘‘Anything he asks me to do, I jump at the opportunity,'' Depp says.

‘‘Except a ballet,'' Burton says.

‘‘No, I actually would. I would try,'' Depp argues.

Depp is asked if he will sing again in the future.

‘‘Never again,'' he says.

‘‘He'll be on the West End, tomorrow evening,'' Burton says, once again laughing hysterically.

‘‘I'll never do it again, not for anyone,'' Depp says, starts to laugh himself now.

‘‘You're going to get all these musicals,'' Burton says.

‘‘Not for anyone,'' Depp says, the Burton laugh track starting to get to him. ‘‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat,'' he says, in fits himself by now.

Then Burton breaks into song: ‘‘Jesus Christ, superstar . . .''

Depp: ‘‘Oh boy.''

*heraldsun*

Johnny Depp wants to play Michael Jackson on big screen

2008-01-22T21:28:00.001-08:00

Johnny Depp has revealed that he would love to play troubled pop star Michael Jackson in a movie about his life.

The 44-year-old actor was believed to have based his character Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on the former king of pop.

Though Depp maintained that any similarities to Jackson in his portrayal are purely coincidental, he would love to take on the role of the Thriller hitmaker.

"I have heard that I based Willy Wonka on Michael Jackson before, but no, that was not my plan, I wish I had thought of that though,” Contactmusic quoted him, saying.

"But there is still time to play him. He might get up to his old tricks again and maybe there will be a TV movie about him!" he added.

*Hindustan Times*

The Streets declare new Johnny Depp film an 'absolute inspiration'

2008-01-22T21:27:00.000-08:00

Mike Skinner takes his hat off to 'Sweeney Todd'

The Streets’ Mike Skinner has declared new film ’Sweeney Todd’ an “absolute inspiration” after being bowled over by the musical at the cinema.

The movie, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter, is an adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical about the mythical murderous barber in London.

Having seen the recently released film version Skinner posted on his blog about how jealous he was of its lyrics - because they are better than his.

“I sat dumbfounded by the rhyme and meter of the songs,” he declared. “It was an absolute inspiration to experience Stephen Sondheim at work. Every single line of the songs roll off Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham's tongues in the way I struggle to do night after day after morning.

”I stare at my big pink book with what I want to say in one side of my brain and all this form, rhythm, rhyme and pace swirling round the other aching side. Every time Johnny Depp ended a stanza with the sharp snap of a clipped trochee I would smile at the huge screen (we were on the front row coz we got in late).”

Urging his readers to see the film, Skinner added that after every line he would “imagine Mr Sondheim, maybe on his way home from a drink with Frank Sinatra, getting out his leathery note book to scratch in a new idea for how to end the line in a more moving and pleasingly percussive way”.

*NME*

Johnny Depp sent his chauffeur’s shoes on a trip around the worldThe Sweeney Todd star swiped the shoes on the set of the Tim Burton movie and organis

2008-01-22T21:25:00.000-08:00

The Sweeney Todd star swiped the shoes on the set of the Tim Burton movie and organised for photographs of them next to famous landmarks to be sent to his driver.

One of Depp’s co-stars 14-year-old Ed Sanders let slip about the joke during an interview on Channel 4’s Richard and Judy.

Sanders, who plays barber’s assistant Toby, said: “It was weird. One of the chauffeur’s shoes disappeared and turned up in different places around the world.”

Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street hits cinema screens this Friday.

*showbiz spy*

Sweeney Todd Cuts Oscar Nod for Johnny Depp

2008-01-22T21:24:00.000-08:00

Johnny Depp received his third Academy Award nomination for best actor for his role as the title character in Tim Burton’s gothic musical “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” though no nods went to the film, its director or co-star Helena Bonham-Carter.

The nominees for the 80th Academy Awards were announced Tuesday from Beverly Hills, California, with Johnny Depp seeing his portrayal of the psychotic criminal whom he managed to make endearing to the audiences receive a nomination in the best actor category.

Depp, previously nominated for “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” in 2004 and “Finding Neverland” in 2005, will compete against George Clooney in “Michael Clayton,” Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood,” Tommy Lee Jones in “In the Valley of Elah” and Viggo Mortensen in “Eastern Promises.”

While “Sweeney Todd” was not nominated in the best picture category, the trophy will be fought over between “Michael Clayton,” “There Will Be Blood,” “Atonement,” “Juno” and “No Country for Old Men.”

As it is, the Coen brothers' film version of Cormac McCarthy's novel that is the critically acclaimed “No Country for Old Men” leads the race with an impressive eight nominations in major categories, as does “There Will Be Blood,” Paul Thomas Anderson's big screen adaptation of the Upton Sinclair novel “Oil!.”

Following closely is “Michael Clayton,” with nominations for best picture, best director (Tony Gilroy), best actor (Clooney), best supporting actor (Tom Wilkinson), best supporting actress (Tilda Swinton) and best original screenplay (Gilroy).

Nominated in the best actress category are Cate Blanchett in “Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” Julie Christie in “Away from Her,” Marion Cotillard in “La Vie en Rose,” Laura Linney in “The Savages” and Ellen Page in “Juno.”

In the best supporting actor category, Wilkinson vies against Casey Affleck in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” Javier Bardem in “No Country for Old Men,” Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Charlie Wilson's War,” Hal Holbrook in “Into the Wild” and Tom Wilkinson in “Michael Clayton.”

Cate Blanchett receives a second nomination for best actress in a supporting role for “I'm Not There,” as do Ruby Dee in “American Gangster,” Saoirse Ronan in “Atonement,” Amy Ryan in “Gone Baby Gone” and Swinton in “Michael Clayton.”

The nominees for best director are Ethan and Joel Coen for “No Country for Old Men,” Anderson for “There Will Be Blood,” Julian Schnabel for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” Jason Reitman for “Juno” and Gilroy for “Michael Clayton.”

The organizers of the Academy Awards ceremony have been adamant that the event will take place regardless of the ongoing WGA strike, on the scheduled date of Feb. 24 at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre.

Jon Stewart is scheduled to host.

*eFluxMedia*

Casting Call: Johnny Depp Goes ‘Public’

2008-01-22T21:23:00.000-08:00

Johnny Depp has signed on to star in the drama “Public Enemies,” Variety reports.

Directed by Michael Mann, the film is set during the great crime wave of 1933-1934, when J.Edgar Hoover was hot on the tail of criminal legends like John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd.

Depp will play Dillinger, one of the most notorious gangsters of the Depression era.

Shooting will begin March 10 in Chicago.

According to Variety, Depp and Mann agreed to the project just hours before his Hollywood premier of “Sweeney Todd” on Wednesday night.

*Access Hollywood*

Johnny Depp: Nettle Kills Me

2008-01-22T21:11:00.000-08:00

JOHNNY Depp has revealed he is a fan of Midsomer Murders — and wants to make a guest appearance.

The actor, 44, got hooked on the ITV1 crime show starring John Nettles while filming Sweeney Todd at Pinewood, Bucks.

Johnny — up for an Oscar for his role as the demon barber — said: “It’s a great show. But who’d live in that place? You just get killed.”

A show source said: “We’d love to have Johnny, he’s such a gothic character.”

*The Sun*

Johnny Depp donates £1 million to a London children's hospital

2008-01-21T23:39:00.000-08:00

Johnny Depp has donated £1 million to a London children's hospital for saving his daughter's life.
The Hollywood actor secretly visited Great Ormond Street Hospital, where his eight-year-old girl Lily-Rose was treated last March after her kidneys failed, to personally hand over the sum as a thank you.

Johnny, who kept a bedside vigil with long-term partner Vanessa Paradis when their daughter was treated for E.Coli poisoning, has revealed Lily-Rose's health scare put the family through "hell".

He told Britain's The Sun newspaper: "It was the most frightening thing we have ever been through. It was hell. But the magic is that she pulled through beautifully. Great Ormond Street was terrific, a great hospital."

Filming of his movie 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street' was halted while Johnny concentrated on nursing Lily-Rose back to health.

He said: "I don't know what anyone else's feelings were at the time - whether I was coming back or not. I wasn't sure if I would be able to.

"But Tim Burton, the director, and the production were unbelievably supportive and said, 'Look we're hitting pause.'"

Last November, Johnny spent four hours at the Great Ormond Street hospital reading bedtime stories to patients dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow after having his 'Pirates of the Caribbean' costume flown over from Los Angeles.

He also invited five Great Ormond Street doctors and nurses to the London premiere of 'Sweeney Todd...' last week.

*the Bosh*

Inside The Actor's Studio: Johnny Depp - DVD Review

2008-01-21T23:38:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how many talented actors James Lipton gets in the Actor's Studio. Every major actor and actress, as well as most of the most notable directors, have all taken turns discussing their career on his television show. On September 8, 2002, Johnny Depp stepped into the Actor's studio before the first Pirates of the Caribbean film would vault into the spotlight as a mainstream star (as opposed to his cultish appeal beforehand).

Discussing his career in bits, Depp's insight into acting is something to behold. He's very candid and honest about his career to that point, which had mainly been films that never drew at the box office, and has some interesting things to say about the craft of acting. Lipton doesn't ask him many hard or engaging questions, unfortunately, as he seems to be overjoyed by the fact that Depp is there as opposed to being able to pick his brain about the craft.

It's definitely not one of the better of the Actor's Studio episodes.

A/V QUALITY CONTROL

Presented in a full screen format with a 1.33:1 aspect ratio and a Dolby Digital sound, the film sounds terrific but doesn't have the best of pictures. The picture is a bit grainy on occasion, with the colors bleeding into each other sporadically, but the audio is crisp and well-seperated.

*The DVD Lounge*