The Hollywood Reporter announced on Monday that Johnny Depp will direct and co-produce a film about painter Amedeo Modigliani with film producer Barry Navidi (The Merchant of Venice (2004), Salomé (2013)) and fellow actor Al Pacino.
The film is based on the 1980 play Modigliani: A Play in Three Acts by Dennis McIntyre, which describes two days in Modigliani's life in 1916 when the artist, in an existential crisis, is about to leave Paris and give up painting. In addition to the eponymous main character, Modigliani's partner at the time, Beatrice Hastings, his painter friends Chaim Soutine and Maurice Utrillo, his agent Leopold Zborowski and the art dealer Georges Chéron also appear in the play.
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This isn't the first time Johnny Depp has directed a film. He made his debut in the role behind the camera in 1997's The Brave , in which he also starred opposite Marlon Brando (for the second time since Don Juan DeMarco in 1995). After The Brave received overwhelmingly negative reviews, Depp took on no more directing projects.
Al Pacino told The Hollywood Reporter in an email that Modigliani is set to begin filming in spring 2023.
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Johnny Depp has recently come to the attention of the media mainly through the sensational trial with his ex-wife Amber Heard, but also as an artist with his Friends & Heroes series art prints. The entire 780-print collection sold for a total of around $4 million in July 2022. The prints feature Depp's friends and inspirational role models, including Keith Richards, Al Pacino, Elizabeth Taylor and Bob Dylan. For Castle Fine Art gallery in London, which organized the sale, it was the fastest collection sell-out in its history.
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Depp is currently shooting La Favorite, a film about Jeanne du Barry, the last mistress of King Louis XV of France, in which he plays the role of the monarch. The film is set to be released by Netflix next year.
