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Johnny Depp, Amber Heard to Drink the Rum

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard will star together in The Rum Diary, which is based on a Hunter S. Thompson novel. This is the second time Depp has tackled a Thompson project; he portrayed the lead role in 1998's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, another book authored by Thompson.

Depp will executive produce the film, while Bruce Robinson will direct. Depp will play a heavily drinking writer named Paul Kemp who resides in 1950s-era Puerto Rico. Heard will play Chenault, the free-spirited girlfriend of Sanderson, one of Kemp's fellow writers, who embarks on a relationship with Kemp and eventually tries to get him to run away with her. The role of Sanderson has just been cast; Aaron Eckhart will portray the character. 2009 Best Actor Academy Award nominee Richard Jenkins has also been cast as the man who runs the newspaper where Kemp works. Depp has been long attached to the passion project, which he has been trying to get made since 2003.

—The ARTISTdirect Staff
02.10.09