Johnny Depp Movies

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

2009-01-19T22:48:00.000-08:00

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 2007 musical-thriller and the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's award-winning 1979 stage musical. It re-tells the Victorian melodramatic tale of Sweeney Todd, a fictitious English barber who, driven insane by the loss of his wife and daughter, murders his customers with a cut-throat razor, and with the help of his accomplice, Mrs. Lovett, turns their remains into meat pies.

Having been struck by the cinematic qualities of Sondheim's musical while still a student, director Tim Burton had entertained the notion of a film version since the early 1980s. However, it was not until 2006 that he had the opportunity to realize this ambition, when DreamWorks announced his appointment as replacement for director Sam Mendes, who had been working on such an adaptation. Sondheim, although not directly involved, was extensively consulted during the film's production. It stars Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd and Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Nellie Lovett. Depp, not known for his singing, took lessons in preparation for his role, which producer Richard D. Zanuck acknowledged was something of a gamble. However, Depp's vocal performance, despite being criticized as lacking certain musical qualities, was generally thought by critics to suit the part.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was released in the United States on December 21, 2007, and in the United Kingdom on January 25, 2008, to largely enthusiastic reviews. However, Warner Bros.'s decision not to advertise the film as a musical led to complaints from some cinema-goers, who felt they had been deliberately misled. The film won a number of awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and the Academy Award for Best Art Direction. Although not an outstanding financial success in the United States, it performed well worldwide, and has spawned a soundtrack album and various DVD releases. The film received a "Restricted" rating from the MPAA for "graphic bloody violence".

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

2009-01-19T22:47:00.001-08:00

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is a 2007 adventure film, the third film in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. The plot follows the crew of the Black Pearl rescuing Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), from Davy Jones's Locker, and then preparing to fight the East India Trading Company, led by Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) and Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), who plan to extinguish piracy. Gore Verbinski directed the film, as he did with the previous two. It was shot in two shoots during 2005 and 2006, the former simultaneously with the preceding film, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

The film was released in English-speaking countries on May 24, 2007 after Disney decided to move the release date to a day earlier than originally planned. Critical reviews were mixed, but At World's End was a box office hit, becoming the most successful film of 2007, grossing approximately $960 million worldwide, and making it the second most successful in the series, behind Dead Man's Chest. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Makeup and the Academy Award for Visual Effects. Furthermore, at an estimated $300 million, this is the most expensive film ever produced (not adjusted for inflation).

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

2009-01-19T22:45:00.000-08:00

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is a 2006 adventure film of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, the sequel to the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and the first film from Walt Disney Pictures to feature the current logo. The film was directed by Gore Verbinski, written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. The movie received 4 Academy Award nominations for Best Art Direction, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and won the Academy Award for Visual Effects.

The story picks up from where the first film left off when Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) discovers his debt to the villainous Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) is due, while Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) are arrested by Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) for helping Jack Sparrow escape execution.

The film was shot back-to-back with the third film during 2005, and was released in Australia and the United Kingdom on July 6, 2006, and in the United States and Canada on July 7, 2006. The film received mixed reviews, with praise for its special effects and criticism for its confusing plot and lengthy running time. Despite this, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest set several records in its first three days, with an opening weekend of $136 million in the United States, and became the third movie to gross over $1 billion in the worldwide box office, behind Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and is therefore Walt Disney Pictures' most successful film.

Corpse Bride

2009-01-19T22:43:00.000-08:00

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (often abbreviated as Corpse Bride) is a 2005 stop-motion-animation fantasy film based loosely on a 19th century Russian-Jewish folktale version of an older Jewish story and set in a fictional Victorian era village. It was directed by Tim Burton and Mike Johnson, and filmed at 3 Mills Studios in London. Johnny Depp led an all-star cast as the voice of Victor and Helena Bonham Carter (for whom the project was specially created) voiced Emily, the title character. The film's initial release was two weeks prior to that of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, marking the first time that a stop-motion animated film and a claymation animated one were in simultaneous wide theatrical release.

The movie exhibits Burton's trademark style and recurring themes (the complex interaction between light and darkness, and of being caught between two irreconcilable worlds). Life is portrayed as boring and dully gray tinted while death is more fun, as evidenced by the brighter colors and jaunty music. The movie can be particularly compared to The Nightmare Before Christmas, Burton's previous stop-motion feature project and Beetlejuice, especially in the scenes depicting the underworld and its deceased denizens.

The film was nominated in the 78th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature. It lost to Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

Filming techniques

Corpse Bride is the first movie to be shot with still cameras.^{[citation needed]} Previous stop-motion movies (such as Aardman Animations' Chicken Run) were shot on modified Mitchell film cameras, the same old cameras used to shoot King Kong. As confirmed by American Cinematographer (October 2005), the camera chosen for the production of Corpse Bride was Canon EOS-1D Mark II, a digital single-lens reflex camera, which also makes it the first stop-motion feature to be shot in digital. Additional work was required to develop systems to permit precise camera positioning, the mounting of Canon optical lenses, and previewing a scene in camera.

Corpse Bride was the first stop-motion animated film to use Apple's Final Cut Pro as well. To give the film the traditional look of movie film stock, each image was processed with a color profile based on a type of film used in feature length movies.

The film was the first stop-motion animated movie to use the new "gear and paddle" technique for the maquette's heads. This new system involved the maquettes being built with a complex gear system inside of the main character's heads. The various gears were attached to external paddles. A soft skin-like material, mainly made of silicone and foam, was placed over these paddles to create the head and then painted. By adjusting the gears, done by inserting an allen wrench into small holes located on the maquette's head and in the ears, the paddles would move, therefore adjusting the facial expression of the character. This allowed for a much more smooth system of emotion change and lip-sync than the old style of replacing heads. The soft "skin" also gave the characters a much more natural look.

The puppets were made in Altrincham, near Manchester, England, by the leading puppet manufacturers Mackinnon and Saunders. They were also responsible for a major contribution to another Tim Burton film (Mars Attacks!), as well as numerous British animated series like Bob the Builder (Hit Entertainment), Andy Pandy (Cosgrove Hall) and Pingu (Hit Entertainment).

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

2009-01-19T22:42:00.000-08:00

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 2005 fantasy film directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. Based on the 1964 Roald Dahl children's novel of the same name, the film also stars Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket and is the second film adaptation of the book. It is also the second film based on a Roald Dahl novel worked on by Tim Burton after producing James and the Giant Peach (1996). It became a box office success and received positive critical reaction, receiving an Academy Award nomination at the 78th Academy Awards for Best Costume Design. The film was released in North America on July 15, 2005 by Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures.

Production

Warner Bros. bought the rights to a film adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 1999, with Gary Ross attached to direct and Scott Frank writing. Ross left in 2001, and Rob Minkoff, Robert Zemeckis, Barry Levinson and Martin Scorsese were considered for directing, or attached to the project, while Gwyn Lurie began rewriting the script in February 2002. On May 26, 2003, Tim Burton was hired to direct, and was annoyed by the previous drafts which portrayed Wonka as a father figure to Charlie Bucket. He commissioned Pamela Pettler and then John August, with whom he had worked on Corpse Bride and Big Fish respectively, to pen new drafts to his satisfaction.

In 2003, young British actor Freddie Highmore was cast in the role as Charlie Bucket at the same time Johnny Depp was cast as Willy Wonka. The two had previously acted together in Finding Neverland, and Depp liked working with Highmore so much that he recommended the young actor be chosen to portray Charlie. According to Burton, Depp modeled the character's hair on Anna Wintour. Filming completed in late 2004.

The Libertine

2009-01-19T22:41:00.000-08:00

The Libertine is a 2004 movie that was widely released in the United Kingdom on 25 November 2005, and on 10 March 2006 in the United States. (Having first been shown on 16 September 2004 at the Toronto Film Festival, and then opening in New York and Los Angeles on 25 November 2005, for a one-week award-qualifying run.)

It stars Johnny Depp, John Malkovich, Samantha Morton, and Rosamund Pike. It is directed by Laurence Dunmore (his debut film) from Stephen Jeffreys' adaptation of his play of the same name. Johnny Depp plays the main character, John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, a notorious rake and libertine poet in the court of King Charles II of England. Samantha Morton plays Elizabeth Barry, an actress who becomes brilliant when coached by Rochester, who is her lover. John Malkovich plays the King, who cares about John dearly, but cannot have him ruin his reputation as King. A prevalent aspect of the film is the use of sex as a form of common escapism. The film was rated R by the US MPAA. In the UK, it has been rated 18.

Lord Rochester's suspected bisexuality is only hinted at in most of the film (besides the prologue, in which he makes a fairly blunt warning to the audience that his sexual appetite extends further than heterosexual limitations). Tabloids had Johnny Depp (Rochester) sharing a steamy kiss with Rupert Friend (Downs), but their relationship has been reduced to two brief, ambiguous scenes.

Tagline: He didn't resist temptation. He pursued it.

Secret Window

2009-01-19T22:40:00.000-08:00

Secret Window (2004) is a psychological thriller movie, starring Johnny Depp and John Turturro. It was written and directed by David Koepp, based on the novella Secret Window, Secret Garden by Stephen King, featuring a musical score by Philip Glass. The story appeared in King's collection Four Past Midnight. The film's studio is Columbia Pictures along with Sony Pictures.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a rating of 46% based on 157 reviews. On Metacritic, the movie has a score of 46(Mixed or average reviews) out of 100.

Finding Neverland

2009-01-19T22:38:00.000-08:00

Finding Neverland is a 2004 British/American semi-biographical film directed by Marc Forster. The screenplay by David Magee is based on the play The Man Who Was Peter Pan by Allan Knee.

Production notes

Finding Neverland originally was scheduled to be released in the fall of 2003. Columbia Pictures, which owned the film rights to Barrie's play and was adapting it for theatrical release the same year, refused to allow Miramax to use scenes from the play in Finding Neverland if it were released at the same time. Miramax agreed to delay the release in exchange for the rights to reproduce scenes from the stage production within the film.

Although the opening credits state the film was inspired by true events, various liberties with the historical facts and the timing of events were taken as follows:

Arthur Llewelyn Davies was still alive when Barrie befriended Sylvia and their sons, the youngest of whom (Nico) was omitted from the film.
Michael had not been born and Peter was still an infant when Barrie met the family.
The Davies household had a nanny, Mary Hodgson; much of the role of Sylvia's mother in the film was based on her.
Barrie was a consistently successful playwright prior to Peter Pan, and Frohman had no qualms about producing it, although Barrie himself was uncertain of its commercial potential.
The play's opening performance had few children in the audience; the only precaution against a staid reaction was that the musicians were to clap to revive Tinker Bell, which proved unnecessary.
Sylvia was still healthy at the time of the play's 1904 premiere and did not die until nearly six years later. Her husband also survived to see the play's debut.
The improvised home production of the play was presented for five-year-old Michael, who was suffering from a stubborn childhood illness during the play's revival in 1905.
The Barries' marriage ended shortly before Sylvia's death, but years later than depicted in the film.

Richmond Theatre in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames doubled as the Duke of York's Theatre - the venue in which Peter Pan was first presented. Exterior scenes were filmed in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. According to commentary on the DVD release, the structure used as Barrie's summer cottage was located near Kent. Interiors were filmed in the Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire and the Shepperton Studios in Surrey.

The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival. It was shown at the Telluride Film Festival, the Haifa Film Festival, the Athens Panorama European Film Festival, the Mill Valley Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival, and the Leeds International Film Festival before opening in the UK on October 29, 2004.

The film was budgeted at $25 million. It grossed $51,676,606 in the US and $67 million in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $118,676,606.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

2009-01-19T22:37:00.000-08:00

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is a 2003 adventure film, based on the the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney theme parks. The story follows pirate Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and blacksmith Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) as they rescue the kidnapped Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) from the cursed crew of the Black Pearl, captained by Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush). The film was directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and became the first Walt Disney Pictures release to earn a PG-13 rating by the MPAA (all previous WDP releases were rated G or PG).

The world premiere was held at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, on June 28, 2003. The Curse of the Black Pearl was an unexpected success, with mostly positive reviews and grossing over $654 million worldwide. The film became the first in a series, with two back-to-back sequels, Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, released. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Depp.

Once Upon a Time in Mexico

2009-01-19T22:33:00.000-08:00

Once Upon a Time in Mexico is a 2003 action film written, edited and directed by Robert Rodriguez. It is the final film in the "Mariachi Trilogy", which also includes El Mariachi and Desperado. Antonio Banderas reprises his role as El Mariachi. The film also stars Johnny Depp, Salma Hayek, Willem Dafoe, Enrique Iglesias, Mickey Rourke, Eva Mendes and Rubén Blades.

The film received positive reviews but was criticized for reducing El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) to an almost secondary character in his own trilogy, and also for having a convoluted plot. In the special features of the film's DVD, Robert Rodriguez has explained that this was intended, as he wanted this to be the The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the trilogy.

The film holds the box office record for being the most improved second sequel of all-time grossing 122% more than Desperado. This film was shot before Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over in order to avoid a potential Screen Actors Guild strike. It was the first film Rodriguez ever shot in HD.

Reception

Once Upon A Time in Mexico was released on September 12, 2003 in 3,282 theaters with an opening weekend gross of USD $23.4 million. It would go on to make $56.4 million in North America and $41.8 in the rest of the world for a combined total of $98.2 million, well above its $29 million budget.

The film received a generally positive reception with a 69% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 56 metascore on Metacritic. Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "Like Leone's movie, the Rodriguez epic is more interested in the moment, in great shots, in surprises and ironic reversals and closeups of sweaty faces, than in a coherent story". A.O. Scott, in his review for the New York Times, wrote, "But in the end, the punched-up editing and vibrant color schemes start to grow tiresome, and Mr. Rodriguez, bored with his own gimmickry and completely out of ideas, responds by pushing the violence to needlessly grotesque extremes". In her review for USA Today, Claudia Puig wrote, "In Mexico, Rodriguez has fashioned a swaggering fantasy that pays homage to spaghetti Westerns such as Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Plenty of blood is shed, lots of powerful artillery is fired, and action sequences provide astounding car crashes and fiery explosions". Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B" rating and praised Johnny Depp's performance with its "winking grace notes of Brandoesque flakery ... is as minimal and laid-back as his Pirates of the Caribbean turn was deep-dish theatrical".

Blow

2009-01-19T22:32:00.000-08:00

Blow is a 2001 drama/biopic film about the American cocaine smuggler George Jung, directed by Ted Demme. David McKenna and Nick Cassavetes adapted Bruce Porter's 1993 book Blow: How a Small Town Boy Made $100 Million with the Medellin Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All for the screenplay. It is based on the real life stories of George Jung, Pablo Escobar, Carlos Lehder, and the Medellín Cartel. The film's title comes from a slang term for cocaine.

Reception

Blow was a minor box office success. With a budget of roughly $53 million, it managed to rake in just under $53 million domestically, but raised just over $30 million internationally for a grand worldwide total of $83,282,296. It gained a greater fan base when released on DVD in late 2001.

Reviews for Blow were decidedly mixed. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the film has received a rating of 55%, which is rotten. Many critics were quick to compare Blow to previous films such as Scarface, Goodfellas, and Boogie Nights, which contained similar plot lines and took place in approximately the same time period (i.e. late '70s, early '80s). Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film a glowing review, praising the directing of Ted Demme, the bold performance by Johnny Depp, and the screenplay that tells a story without placing any sort of moral judgment on Jung.

Roger Ebert noted the film for its good acting and direction as well, but questioned the value about making Jung the subject of this film: "That's the thing about George [Jung]. He thinks it's all about him. His life, his story, his success, his fortune, his lost fortune, his good luck, his bad luck. Actually, all he did was operate a toll gate between suppliers and addicts. You wonder, but you never find out, if the reality of those destroyed lives ever occurred to him."

The Man Who Cried

2009-01-19T22:30:00.000-08:00

The Man Who Cried is an Anglo-French film released in 2000, written and directed by Sally Potter.

The film stars Christina Ricci, Cate Blanchett, Johnny Depp, Harry Dean Stanton, and John Turturro.

The film tells the story of a young Jewish girl who after being separated from her father in Soviet Russia, grows up in England. As a young adult, she moves to Paris (shortly before the beginning of World War II), and then flees to the United States when the Nazis move into the French capital.

The picture is the last film of the French cinematographer Sacha Vierny.

Exhibition

The film was first presented at the Venice Film Festival on September 2, 2000.

The film screened at various film festivals, including: the London Film Festival, London; the Mar del Plata Film Festival, Argentina; the Tokyo International Film Festival, Japan; the Reykjavik Film Festival, Iceland; and others.

From Hell

2009-01-19T22:28:00.000-08:00

From Hell is a 2001 film based on the graphic novel of the same name by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. It was directed by the Hughes Brothers, and first released on October 19, 2001.

Reception

The film had mixed reviews from critics. Ebert and Roeper gave the film a "two-thumbs up" (Roger Ebert alone gave it 3 out of 4 stars). E! Online stated it is "two hours of gory murders, non-sequitur scenes, and an undeveloped romance" and gave the film a C-. The New York Post called it a "gripping and stylish thriller".

Differences from comic

In the film Abberline is a young opium addicted psychic. In the book, and historically, Abberline is a gruff middle aged married detective with a strong sense of intuition. Towards the end of the book he is assisted by a professed psychic who, despite being fraudulent, eventually leads them to the killer.

In the film, Mary Kelly and Abberline have extensive dealings and an actual relationship. In the book their relationship is far smaller in scale, with the two being portrayed as having a coincidental friendship under false pretenses (Abberline claiming to be a saddle-maker and Kelly going by the name of "Emma"), completely unrelated to their respective involvements with the Ripper case, and with neither ever learning the truth about the other.

The film condenses or ignores much of the book's discussion of the supernatural and occult.

The book makes no mystery of Jack's identity, concentrating instead on the psychology of the character and of the era, while the film is a whodunit mystery.

Before Night Falls

2009-01-19T22:27:00.000-08:00

Before Night Falls is a 2000 movie directed by Julian Schnabel. The screenplay is based on the autobiography of Reinaldo Arenas, which was published in English in 1993. The screenplay was written by Schnabel, Cunningham O'Keefe and Lázaro Gómez Carriles.

It stars Javier Bardem, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, Olivier Martinez, Andrea Di Stefano, Santiago Magill, Johnny Depp and Michael Wincott.

This was the second film of director Julian Schnabel, after Basquiat (1996). Schnabel got the idea of making Before Night Falls immediately after making Basquiat , however it took four years to actually produce the film. It had its world premiere at the 2000 Venice International Film Festival and its North American premiere at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival.

Chocolat

2009-01-19T22:25:00.000-08:00

Chocolat is a 2000 film based on the novel of the same name by Joanne Harris, directed by Lasse Hallström. Adapted by screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs, Chocolat tells the story of a young mother, played by Juliette Binoche, who arrives at the fictional, repressed French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes with her six-year-old daughter and opens La Chocolaterie Maya, a small chocolaterie. Her chocolate quickly begins to change the lives of the townspeople.

The film was shot in the village of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain in Burgundy, France, and on the Rue De L'ancienne Poste in Beynac on the Dordogne River in Dordogne, France. The river scenes were filmed at Fonthill Lake at Fonthill Bishop in Wiltshire, England and interior scenes at Shepperton Studios, Surrey, England.

The film was nominated for Academy Awards, BAFTAs, and Golden Globes. It won a SAG Award.

Reception

The film grossed some US$152,699,946 worldwide, on a production budget of US$25 million.

The film was nominated for many awards, including Academy Awards in several categories including Best Picture. Among significant awards won for work on this picture were the Art Directors Guild award, 2001, for Excellence in Production Design, the Bogey Award given by the German journal "Blickpunkt: Film", based on audience numbers in a certain time, the Audience Award, 2001, of the European Film Awards, for Juliette Binoche, and the Screen Actors Guild award 2001, to Judi Dench for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role. The film also attracted numerous BAFTA nominations and Rachel Portman's score was nominated for a Grammy Award.

The Ninth Gate

2009-01-19T22:20:00.000-08:00

The Ninth Gate is a 1999 film based on the novel The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. Spanning several genres, The Ninth Gate is a mix of mystery, horror thriller, and neo-noir, and additionally portrays facets of the rare book business. The film was co-written and directed by Roman Polanski, and stars Johnny Depp as Dean Corso, a rare-book dealer hired by a book collector (Frank Langella) to validate a copy of The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows, a book by 17th century author Aristide Torchia.

The film premiered in San Sebastián, Spain on August 25, 1999, a month before the 47th San Sebastian International Film Festival and was a critical and commercial failure in North America as most critics felt that it fell short of Polanski's best known supernatural thriller, Rosemary's Baby. The Ninth Gate managed to turn a profit with a worldwide box office gross of $58,401,898, well above its $38 million budget. It has since enjoyed a small cult following.

Production

Roman Polanski received the screenplay by Enrique Urbizu that adapted the book, El Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. The filmmaker was so taken by Urbizu's script that he read the novel. He liked the novel because, "I saw so many elements that seemed good for a movie. It was suspenseful, funny, and there were a great number of secondary characters that are tremendously cinematic." Pérez-Reverte's book featured several intertwined plots and so Polanski decided to write his own draft with long-time screenwriting partner, John Brownjohn (they had collaborated previously on Tess, Pirates and Bitter Moon). The source novel contains numerous literary references and a subplot concerning Corso’s investigation into the original manuscript for a chapter of The Three Musketeers. Polanski and Brownjohn jettisoned these elements and focused on one particular plot line: Corso’s pursuit of the authentic copy of The Nine Gates.

Polanski approached the subject matter with a certain amount of skepticism as he said in an interview, "I don't believe in the occult. I don't believe. Period." He wanted to have fun with the genre. "There is a great number of cliches of this type in The Ninth Gate which I tried to turn around a bit. You can make them appear serious on the surface, but you cannot help but laugh at them." For Polanski, the appeal of the film was that it featured "a mystery in which a book is the leading character" and its illustrations "are also essential clues."

While reading the book, Polanski thought of Johnny Depp as Corso. The actor became attached to the project as early as 1997 when he met Polanski at the Cannes Film Festival promoting his directorial debut The Brave that was in competition. Initially, the veteran filmmaker did not think that Depp was right for the role of Corso because the character was 40-years-old. Polanski was thinking of casting an older actor but Depp was persistent and wanted to work with him. Hints of friction between Depp and Polanski while working on the film surfaced in the press around the time of its North American release. The actor said, "It's the director's job to push, to provoke things out of an actor". Polanski told one interviewer, "He [Depp] decided to play it rather flat which wasn't how I envisioned it. And I didn't tell him it wasn't how I saw it." Corso's dishevelled look was modelled after Raymond Chandler's famous sleuth, Philip Marlowe according to the director.

Polanski cast Frank Langella as Balkan after seeing him in Adrian Lyne’s version of Lolita. Barbara Jefford was a last minute casting decision because the German actress originally cast was struck with pneumonia and another actress couldn't learn the lines. Jefford came in with only a few days notice, learned her lines, and affected a German accent.

Filming took place in France, Portugal and Spain during the summer of 1998.

The Astronaut's Wife

2009-01-19T22:19:00.000-08:00

The Astronaut's Wife is a 1999 science fiction/thriller film directed and written by Rand Ravich. It stars Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron. The original music score is composed by George S. Clinton.

The film's taglines are Imagine the face of terror is the one you love. and Witness the birth of pure evil.

Influences

It has been noted that the plot of The Astronaut's Wife is apparently influenced by The Quatermass Experiment (1953) and its feature film adaptation (1955), the plot of which revolves around an astronaut who returns to Earth possessed by an alien organism.^[1]^[2] The plot also bears a certain resemblance to the cult-classic 50's sci-fi film I Married a Monster from Outer Space, which is also about aliens posing as husbands in order to impregnate Earth women. Another movie and book cited as an influence was Rosemary's Baby, in which a woman becomes pregnant, only to become suspicious of her husband and neighbor's motives, as it becomes apparent a supernatural force may be at work. Charlize Theron's costumes and hairstyle also mimic Mia Farrow's from that movie. Also, actor Nick Cassavetes is the son of director/actor John Cassavetes (who appears in the film Rosemary's Baby), and actress Gena Rowlands.

"Alternate" Ending

An "alternate" ending exists where Jillian is not possessed by the alien, but her children are and in some way controlling her. This was the original ending intended by the director.

Sleepy Hollow

2009-01-19T22:17:00.000-08:00

Sleepy Hollow is a 1999 period horror film directed by Tim Burton, interpreting the legend of The Headless Horseman and based upon the Washington Irving story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The third film collaboration between Johnny Depp and Burton, the film also features Christina Ricci, Sir Michael Gambon, Miranda Richardson, Casper Van Dien, Jeffrey Jones, Ian McDiarmid, Michael Gough, Richard Griffiths and Christopher Walken. The story centers on police constable Ichabod Crane sent from New York City to investigate a series of murders in the village Sleepy Hollow by a mysterious Headless Horseman. The style and themes of the story take inspirations from the late Hammer Film Productions.

Sleepy Hollow had been in development since 1994 and was originally intended to be directed by Kevin Yagher. The film labored into development far enough for Burton, who had unsuccessfully worked on Superman Lives, to direct. Filming took place entirely on location in England where the crew built an entire soundstage. Sleepy Hollow would be released with box office success and critical acclaim, grossing roughly $206 million worldwide and scoring a 73 percent approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

2009-01-19T22:15:00.000-08:00

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a 1998 film adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's 1971 novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream. The film, directed by Terry Gilliam, stars Johnny Depp as Raoul Duke and Benicio del Toro as Dr. Gonzo.

Previous attempts to adapt the book into a film included Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando as Duke and Gonzo. At one point, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi were considered for the duo; John Cusack was also almost cast. Animator/filmmaker Ralph Bakshi, Martin Scorsese, and Oliver Stone all tried unsuccessfully to direct an adaptation. Thompson met Depp and was convinced no one else could play him. Filmmaker Alex Cox was eventually hired to direct with Depp and Del Toro committed to starring in the film, but the filmmaker had "creative differences" with Thompson over the script treatment as documented in the documentary Breakfast with Hunter. Gilliam was subsequently hired and made the film with the writer's approval.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was a box office failure, grossing USD $10.6 million at the North American box office, well below its $18.5 million budget. It has since become a cult classic due in large part to its release on DVD, including a Special Edition released by The Criterion Collection.

The Brave

2009-01-19T22:13:00.000-08:00

The Brave (1997) is a film adapted from the Gregory McDonald novel of the same title directed by and starring Johnny Depp.

This film was Depp's directorial debut. He co-wrote the screenplay with his brother, directed and acted in it. The film was first shown at the 1997 Cannes film festival where it received mixed reviews. Since then, Depp has not released the film and the DVD is only distributed outside of the United States of America.

Donnie Brasco

2009-01-19T22:12:00.000-08:00

Donnie Brasco is an Academy Award–nominated 1997 film by Mike Newell, starring Al Pacino, Michael Madsen and Johnny Depp. It is loosely based on the real-life events of Joseph D. Pistone, a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent who successfully infiltrated the Bonanno crime family, one of the Mafia's Five Families based in New York City during the 1970s, under the alias "Donnie Brasco". Depp met with Pistone several times while preparing for his role.

Historical inaccuracies

The loanshark collection scene at the strip club really did happen, except that Joe Pistone was with the notorious Anthony Mirra who worked for the Bonanno family. Tony almost did this after Joe got into an argument with a drunken patron at a nightclub.

Joe Pistone was never involved in the murders of Alphonse Indelicato and his two capos, Phillip Giaccone and Dominick Trinchera. Pistone only found out afterwards.

Nicholas Santora, portrayed as "Nicky" by Bruno Kirby, was never murdered by Benjamin Ruggiero, as he is still alive and is a high ranking member of the Bonanno crime family as of 2008.

Bonnano soldier John "Boobie" Cerasani (whose character was called Paulie in the movie) played by James Russo, filed a libel suit against Sony Corporations, TriStar Pictures, the film director Mike Newell and other corporations that were involved in producing the film. Cersani had dealings with Donnie Brasco from back in 1972 and was actually brought up on racketeering charges in 1982 that were brought on by the Donnie Brasco investigation.

King's Court was located in Holiday, Florida on U.S. 19. Since the 1980s, the building was moved to house a church on Darlington Road in Holiday.

It is implied that the character Lefty was killed by fellow Family members for allowing Pistone to infiltrate the Family; in reality, Ruggiero died of lung cancer, in prison, on Thanksgiving in 1993, after being picked up by the FBI. And in real life, Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano, Lefty's boss, was the one murdered for having allowed Pistone's infiltration, allegedly on the orders of then-current imprisoned boss Philip Rastelli, whose nickname "Rusty" is only mentioned once by Michael Madsen in the film, after his character "Sonny Black" is promoted to capo of Brooklyn.

Over the closing credits the film states that at the time of its release "there is still a $500,000 open contract on [Pistone's] head". Following separate sitdowns FBI officials had with the Bonanno crime family and Paul Castellano, the head of the The Commission and boss of the Gambino crime family at that time, ordered all Mafia bounties on Pistone to be rescinded. Subsequent wiretaps and intelligence reports confirm that this was indeed ordered throughout the Mafia.

In one scene, the Electric Light Orchestra song "Don't Bring Me Down" is played at a disco. This scene takes place some months before the song was released on record in June 1979.

Don Juan DeMarco

2009-01-19T22:10:00.001-08:00

Don Juan DeMarco is a 1995 film starring Johnny Depp as John R. DeMarco, a man who believes himself to be Don Juan, the greatest lover in the world. Clad in a cape and domino mask, DeMarco undergoes psychiatric treatment with Marlon Brando's character, Dr. Jack Mickler, to cure him of his apparent delusion. But the psychiatric sessions have an unexpected effect on the psychiatric staff, some of whom find themselves inspired by DeMarco's delusion; the most profoundly affected is Dr. Mickler himself, who rekindles the romance in his complacent marriage.

The movie is based on two different sources; the modern-day story is based on director/screenwriter Jeremy Leven's short story Don Juan DeMarco and the Centerfold (the movie's original title before the studio changed it shortly before release), while the flashbacks depicting DeMarco's back-story are based on the more familiar legend of Don Juan, especially as told by Lord Byron in his version of the legend.

The film and soundtrack feature the original Bryan Adams song "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?"; the lyrics incorporate quotes from Depp's character, and the melody is used as a musical motif throughout the film. In addition, the song itself is performed three times, once by a mariachi band serenading the characters (in Spanish), once by Jose Hernandez and Nydia, as background music (again in Spanish), and once by Bryan Adams during the closing credits.

Dead Man

2009-01-19T22:07:00.000-08:00

Dead Man is a 1995 film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. It stars Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Billy Bob Thornton, Iggy Pop, Crispin Glover, John Hurt, Michael Wincott, Lance Henriksen, and Robert Mitchum (in his final role). The movie is something of a Modern Western, dubbed a "psychedelic Western" by director Jarmusch, which includes twisted elements of the Western Genre. The film is shot entirely in black-and-white. Some consider it the ultimate postmodern Western, and related to postmodern literature such as Cormac McCarthy's novel, Blood Meridian.

Reception

In its theatrical release, Dead Man earned about $1 million for a budget of $9 million. It is the most expensive of Jarmusch's films, due to the expense of black-and-white film processing, and the costs of ensuring accurate period detail.

Critical responses were mixed. Roger Ebert gave the film one-and-a-half stars (out of four stars maximum), noting "Jim Jarmusch is trying to get at something here, and I don't have a clue what it is". Desson Howe and Rita Kempley, both writing for the Washington Post, offered largely negative appraisals. Greil Marcus, however, mounted a spirited defense of the film, titling his review "Dead Again: Here are 10 reasons why 'Dead Man' is the best movie of the end of the 20th century." Film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum dubbed the film an acid western, calling it "as exciting and as important as any new American movie I've seen in the 90s" and went on to write a book on the film, entitled Dead Man (ISBN 0-85170-806-4) published by the British Film Institute. The film scored a 'Fresh' 71% rating on website Rotten Tomatoes.

The film also was placed 398th in "They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?"'s list of the 1,000 Greatest Films of All Time.

Nick of Time

2009-01-19T22:05:00.000-08:00

Nick of Time, starring Johnny Depp, Christopher Walken, Charles S. Dutton and Courtney Chase, is a 1995 thriller movie. It was directed by John Badham. The film is rated R for "Violence and Language" by the MPAA. It is noteworthy for taking place in real time.

Reception

The film received generally poor reviews from critics and grossed only $8 million at the box office. However, it currently maintains a moderate rating of 6.2 at The Internet Movie Database.

Ed Wood

2009-01-19T22:04:00.000-08:00

Ed Wood is a 1994 comedy-drama biopic directed by Tim Burton, and starring Johnny Depp as cult filmmaker Edward D. Wood, Jr. The film concerns the period in Wood's life when he made his best-known films as well as his relationship with actor Béla Lugosi, played by Martin Landau. Sarah Jessica Parker, Patricia Arquette, Jeffrey Jones, Lisa Marie and Bill Murray were among the supporting cast.

The film was conceived by writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski when they were students at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Irritated at being thought of solely as writers for family films with their work on Problem Child and Problem Child 2, Alexander and Karaszewski struck a deal with Burton and Denise Di Novi to produce the Ed Wood biopic, and Michael Lehmann as director. Due to scheduling conflicts with Airheads, Lehmann had to vacate the director's position, which was taken over by Burton.

Ed Wood was originally in development at Columbia Pictures, but the studio put the film in turnaround over Burton's decision to shoot the film in black-and-white. Ed Wood was taken to Walt Disney Pictures, who released the film under their Touchstone Pictures banner. The film was released to critical acclaim, but was a box office bomb. Landau and Rick Baker, who designed Landau's prosthetic makeup, won Academy Awards for their work on the film.

Arizona Dream

2009-01-19T22:01:00.000-08:00

Arizona Dream is a 1993 film directed by Emir Kusturica and starring Johnny Depp, Jerry Lewis and Faye Dunaway.

Production

Many of the Arizona scenes were filmed in Douglas, Arizona.

Trivia

It features a recreation of the Sherman & Sherman song, "Doll On A Music Box" originally from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
In an angry February 2006 voice mail message to the producer of a documentary of her life, which was widely circulated on the Internet, Faye Dunaway complained that she "was brilliant in" Arizona Dream (which in the message she refers to as "the Kusturica film") and that the film was "not well sold in this country" despite that it was "the hit of all Europe and Cannes." She was unhappy that the documentary made no mention of her work in this film or in Don Juan DeMarco, which also co-starred Johnny Depp.

Benny & Joon

2009-01-19T21:58:00.000-08:00

Benny & Joon is a 1993 romantic comedy about how two misfits, Sam (Johnny Depp) and Juniper/Joon (Mary Stuart Masterson), find each other and fall in love. The film is perhaps best known for Depp's humorous physical comedy routines and for popularizing in the U.S. the song "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by The Proclaimers. The film was shot entirely on location in Spokane, Washington though many of the places filmed, such as the hospital, used fictitious names.

Reception

The film holds an 80 percent positive review rating from Rotten Tomatoes

What's Eating Gilbert Grape

2009-01-19T21:56:00.000-08:00

What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a 1993 drama film directed by Lasse Hallström and starring Johnny Depp, Juliette Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio. Peter Hedges wrote the screenplay adapted from his 1991 novel of the same name. It was filmed in Manor, Texas.

Reception

The film received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, 32 out of 36 reviewers marked the film as "fresh", thus giving it a mark of 89%. New York Times film critic Janet Maslin praised DiCaprio's performance, writing "the film's real show-stopping turn comes from Mr. DiCaprio, who makes Arnie's many tics so startling and vivid that at first he is difficult to watch.... The performance has a sharp, desperate intensity from beginning to end." Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times described it as "..one of the most enchanting films of the year" and said that DiCaprio deserves the Academy Award nomination he received. Todd McCarthy of Variety found the film a "bemused view on life" and remarked that "Depp manages to command center screen with a greatly affable, appealing characterization." Washington Post's Desson Howe thought the film was an earnest but highly predictable effort.

Edward Scissorhands

2009-01-19T21:52:00.001-08:00

Edward Scissorhands is a 1990 comedy-drama fantasy film directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. The film tells the story of a man named Edward, an unfinished creation, who has scissors for hands. Edward is taken in by a suburban family and falls in love with their teenage daughter. Supporting roles are portrayed by Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall, Kathy Baker, Alan Arkin and Vincent Price.

Burton conceived the idea for Edward Scissorhands from his childhood upbringing in suburban Burbank, California. During pre-production of Beetlejuice, Caroline Thompson was hired to adapt Burton's story into a screenplay, and the film began development at 20th Century Fox, after Warner Bros. passed on the project. Edward Scissorhands was then fast tracked after Burton's success with Batman. Before Depp's casting, the leading role of Edward had been connected to Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Robert Downey, Jr. and William Hurt, while the role of The Inventor was written specifically for Vincent Price.

The majority of filming took place in the Tampa Bay Area of Florida, which constituted in generating over $6 million into the local economy. Edward's scissor hands were created and designed by Stan Winston. The film is also the fourth feature collaboration between Burton and film score composer Danny Elfman. Edward Scissorhands was released with positive feedback from critics, and was a financial success. The film received numerous nominations at the Academy Awards, British Academy Film Awards, Saturn Awards, as well as winning the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. Both Burton and Elfman consider Edward Scissorhands to epitomize their most personal and favorite work.

Cry-Baby

2009-01-19T21:49:00.000-08:00

Cry-Baby (1990) is a teen-musical film directed by John Waters. It stars Johnny Depp as 1950s teen rebel "Cry-Baby" Wade Walker, and also features an expansive ensemble cast that includes Iggy Pop, Traci Lords, Ricki Lake, David Nelson, Susan Tyrrell and Patty Hearst. This film did not achieve high audience numbers in its initial release but has subsequently become a cult classic and spawned a hit Broadway musical of the same name that was nominated for some Tony Awards.

The second mainstream feature by John Waters, following Hairspray, the film is a parody of teen musicals such as Grease, of Elvis Presley movies, and of 1950s 'juvenile delinquent' movies such as The Wild One and (specifically) Rebel Without a Cause. (Johnny Depp has said more than once that he took the role to poke fun at the teen-idol hysteria surrounding him during his days on the TV show 21 Jump Street). It centers on a group of delinquents named the Drapes and their interaction with the rest of the town and its other subculture, the Squares, in 1950s Baltimore, Maryland.

"Cry-Baby" Walker, a Drape, and Allison, a Square, create upheaval and turmoil in their little town of Baltimore by breaking the subculture taboos and falling in love. The movie shows what the young couple have to overcome to be together and how their actions affect the rest of the town.

Part of the film takes place at the now-closed Enchanted Forest amusement park in Ellicott City, Maryland.

The film is rated PG-13 in the United States. It was Waters' second mainstream Hollywood picture, after his earlier R- and X-rated independent films. (His first mainstream movie was the PG-rated Hairspray.)

Platoon

2009-01-19T21:45:00.000-08:00

Platoon is a 1986 war film written and directed by Oliver Stone and starring Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Forest Whitaker, Kevin Dillon, Keith David, John C. McGinley, and Johnny Depp. It is the first of Stone's Vietnam War trilogy, followed by Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and Heaven & Earth (1993).

The story is drawn from Stone's experiences as a U.S. Infantryman in Vietnam and was written by him upon his return as a counter to the vision of the war portrayed in John Wayne's The Green Berets. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1986. In 2007, the American Film Institute placed Platoon at #86 in their "100 Years...100 Movies" poll. British television channel Channel 4 voted Platoon as the 6th greatest war film ever made, behind Full Metal Jacket and ahead of A Bridge Too Far.

Reception

Critics both praised and criticized Platoon for its presentation of the violence seen in the war and the moral ambiguity created by the realities of guerrilla warfare, when unit leaders have to make a choice between saving the lives of their own men and taking those of suspected guerrilla sympathizers.

It shows some U.S. soldiers as violent and indiscriminate killers. Fueled by rage at seeing their friends killed and maimed by booby traps, they take their anger out on villagers who were found hiding a cache of firearms, killing and torturing Vietnamese villagers and setting their village on fire. The film has been banned in Vietnam.

The film currently has an 88% rating at Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic score of 86%.

Platoon's release was timely. During the mid-1980s there was a softening of attitudes towards Vietnam veterans (which had taken over ten years, since the last American soldiers pulled out of Vietnam in 1973). Sparked by the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial in Washington, D.C., in 1982, Hollywood suddenly saw a small surge in films related to the war.

Private Resort

2009-01-19T21:36:00.000-08:00

Private Resort is a 1985 comedy film, directed by George Bowers and written by Gordon Mitchell, Ken Segall, and Alan Wenkus. The film starred the then-unknown Rob Morrow (his first appearance), Johnny Depp and Andrew Dice Clay.

Trivia

Leslie Easterbrook shot a sex scene that was later removed for time.
First comedy film starred by Johnny Depp.
Film debut for Rob Morrow.

A Nightmare on Elm Street

2009-01-19T21:33:00.000-08:00

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American horror film directed and written by Wes Craven, and the first film in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The film features John Saxon, Heather Langenkamp, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Robert Englund and Johnny Depp in his feature film debut. Set in the fictional Midwestern town of Springwood, Ohio, the plot revolves around several teenagers being terrorized in their nightmares by the ghost of a serial child murderer named Freddy Krueger.

Craven produced Nightmare on Elm Street on an estimated budget of just $1.8 million, a sum the film earned back during its first week. Grossing $25.5 million at the United States box office, Nightmare on Elm Street has become one of the most popular entries in the horror genre and the film's villain "Freddy Krueger" has become one of the most well recognized villains in cinema history. Both critics and Craven have mentioned that the film owes some of its success to John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), which was hugely influential in spawning a long line of slasher films and originating many clichés found in low-budget horror films of the 1980s and 1990s.

The film's premise is the question of where the line between dreams and reality lies. The villain, Freddy Krueger (addressed as Fred Krueger in the movie), thus exists in the "dream world" yet can kill in the "real world". Sequels to the original would continue to blur the distinction between dream and reality before finally challenging the line between art and reality by showing Heather Langenkamp, playing a fictionalized version of herself, haunted by the villain of a series of films she has starred in. Critics encouraged and praised the film's ability to rupture "the boundaries between the imaginary and real", toying with audience perceptions. Some movie historians interpreted this overriding theme as a social subtext, "the struggles of adolescents in American society", and their overwhelming need to confront "the harsh realities of life"