The photo at left shows Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton at the afterparty for their new film CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, which had its world premiere in Hollywood on Sunday, July 10th. The afterparty, a fundraiser for the Make-a-Wish foundation, took place at the Jim Henson Studios, which Warner Bros. transformed into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Guests could gobble up all the Wonka Bars, Laffy Taffy and Gobstoppers they desired. Most of the party took place outdoors, at game booths and candy stations, reports Variety, but “there was also an inside tent, complete with another sugar stash, an array of videogames and plush couches to unwind on.” One of our favorite photos from the party shows Tim Burton, Freddie Highmore, and Johnny Depp sitting on one of those plush couches, with Tim just about to enjoy some gourmet cuisine–a frankfurter! You can see the picture HERE.

Tim’s partner, Helena Bonham-Carter, did not attend the premiere, although she plays Charlie’s mother in the film. Burton explained that she was filming in Blackpool instead: “She had a choice of either being at a big Hollywood premiere or doing a movie where she plays the mother of seven autistic children. I think she made the right choice.” However, Johnny’s partner, Vanessa Paradis, attended the premiere and the afterparty, and made a very successful raid on the candy stations. Reports USA TODAY, “Depp and Paradis shared a sweet kiss over her Wonka Bar- and Pixy Stix-filled bucket.”

Thanks to emma for reporting the Variety story and DeepinDepp for the report from USA Today. You can read both on our News & Views forum. Thanks again to bonnie for the wonderful pictures–to see a larger version of our thumbnail, click HERE.

The Monday editions of entertainment news programs were filled with stories about the premiere of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon. ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT, ACCESS HOLLYWOOD, EXTRA!, SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, and E! NEWS LIVE all featured shots of Johnny Depp walking across the chocolate carpet to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre; most programs also showed footage of Johnny signing autographs for the eager crowd of Deppheads behind barricades across the street from the theater. ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT and EXTRA! both erroneously reported that Johnny arrived “solo;” apparently the reporters didn’t notice the discreet Vanessa Paradis gliding into the theater while Johnny greeted his fans.

ACCESS HOLLYWOOD presented Johnny with a gigantic Wonka candy bar; Johnny eyed it rather dubiously and quipped, “If I ate all this, I’d have to run all the way to Guam!” He later told a reporter from EXTRA! that he has been avoiding chocolate lately. “It’s not my favorite,” he explained, sounding more like Roux than Willy Wonka.

Johnny also denied the recent report that he had written to Nicole Kidman to say he wanted to work with her. “No,” he told EXTRA! “I’d like to work with her, but I never wrote a letter. But it’s a cool rumor.”

EXTRA asked director Tim Burton whether his version of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY was modeled on Michael Jackson and Neverland Ranch. Burton scoffed at the comparison, which he clearly sees as ludicrous. “There’s a very simple distinction,” he told EXTRA! “Michael loves children. Willy Wonka hates kids. That’s about as different as you can get.”

The Zone thanks emma for posting the EXTRA! story; you can read the transcript and download a video HERE. Thanks also to Reemi for posting the ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT video HERE. Thanks to artistatheart, jdfan, and DeepinDepp for other premiere news. The premiere photo comes from bonnie–thank you so much! To see a larger version, click HERE. There are dozens of premiere pictures of Johnny on the Zone’s Recent Pics board, and many news stories and reviews on the News & Views forum.

A lively interview with Johnny Depp aired on NBC’s TODAY show on Monday, July 11th, kicking off a week of appearances by the cast of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. Johnny was interviewed by Al Roker during the CATCF press junket at Paradise Island in Nassau last June. Did Johnny have any hesitation about accepting the role of Willy Wonka? Roker asked. No . . . Johnny’s invitation to join the cast “came in the form of a phone call from Tim, and I think he got half a sentence out before I said, ‘I’m in,'” Johnny said. As for Wonka’s distinctive pale complexion, Johnny’s idea was that Willy Wonka had cut himself off from society and had remained inside the factory for many years: “He’d look like a porcelain doll that had been kept in a box,” Johnny explained.

Asked if he is “ever satisfied” with his film performances, Johnny replied, “Never . . . no, never.” He added, “If I can avoid it, I won’t see them. I love the process, but actually having to watch myself? I flip out.” The Roker interview is the longest of the CATCF promotional appearances we have seen, and Johnny is relaxed and charming throughout the conversation. Watch for a joint interview with Johnny Depp and Freddie Highmore on the TODAY show on Thursday morning!

The Zone thanks Susanne for the beautiful photo of Johnny; you can see a larger version of her screencap HERE. For other screencaps of the Roker interview, click HERE and HERE. Susanne has posted more screencaps on the Pit, and also a video download of the interview. Thanks, Susanne! Thanks also to Reemi, who has posted a different link to the video on the News & Views forum.

The photo at left shows Johnny Depp as he arrived to walk the chocolate carpet for the world premiere of Tim Burton’s CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles a few moments ago. Johnny plays Willy Wonka in the new version of Roald Dahl’s classic tale. Johnny was greeted by a large, excited crowd of fans, including at least two dozen members of the Zone. Watch for their reports on the forums this evening! To see a larger version of the photo, click HERE. For another view of Johnny arriving, click HERE, and to see a picture of Johnny’s partner Vanessa Paradis, click HERE. To see a photo captured from the movie theater’s webcam, showing Johnny walking across the famous forecourt of the Chinese Theatre, click HERE. The Zone thanks trinni for posting the picture of Johnny arriving, GAO for the second arrival shot, DarkAngel for the lovely picture of Vanessa, and Vivi Sparrow for capturing the webcam picture.

What a wonderful surprise for the first anniversary of the Johnny Depp-Zone–brand new pictures of Johnny from his press conference in Nassau on June 26, 2005! Thanks to a-pirate’s-life-for-me for finding the pictures, and to AnaMaria who posted a series of nearly forty new shots on the Zone’s Recent Pics forum. Johnny looks relaxed and extremely animated in the pictures–there are lots of smiles flashing his Captain Jack gold teeth, and a wide variety of hand gestures punctuating his conversation. There is no sign of his customary hand-rolled cigarette, though.

To see a larger version of the thumbnail at the left, click HERE, and to see a different picture from the press conference, click HERE. For a full-length view of Johnny standing in front of a poster for CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, click HERE. The rest of the pictures are available on Recent Pics–thanks, AnaMaria.

The Johnny Depp-Zone came online one year ago today–we had new candid pictures of Johnny on that day, too, from St. Tropez. Thanks to everyone who has made this year such a success–thanks especially to the extremely hard-working Zone staff and administration–and thanks a thousand times over to Johnny Depp, who provides continual inspiration and delight to all the members of the Zone.

Variety is reporting that the Gore Verbinski film PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 3, starring Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, will begin shooting on August 1, 2005. However, the production will not be returning to Grand Bahama–at least not during the height of hurricane season! Instead, the cast and crew of PIRATES 3 will be shooting in Los Angeles. Variety also confirms that Chow Yun-Fat, star of CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON and BULLETPROOF MONK, will join the cast for the third movie. He will play Captain Sao Feng, a notorious Asian pirate. Working title for the third installment of the saga is PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: WORLD’S END.

The Zone thanks emma for the production update and sleepy for the news about Chow Yun-Fat. It’s a pleasure to have word that production on the sequels is resuming just as we celebrate the second anniversary of the release of PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL. Captain Jack Sparrow sailed into multiplexes across North America on July 9, 2003–two years ago today. By this point next year, we should have seen the second Pirates film as well. PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST is scheduled to be released on July 7, 2006.

Calling CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY “a winning, charming, very droll children’s film for the whole family,” HOLLYWOOD REPORTER critic Kirk Honeycutt published a glowing review that praised every aspect of the film’s production. Here’s a sample of Honeycutt’s rave:

“Candy and fantasy film share this in common: Each is tricky to get right. Success requires a perfect balance of flavor, richness, depth and a yummy yumminess that’s hard to pinpoint but you know it when you taste it. So when it comes to candy — and to film fantasy –CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY is the real deal. This morality tale disguised as a whimsical, magical mystery tour of the world’s greatest chocolate factory has all the gorgeousness of hard dark chocolate that melts ever-so-slowly in your mouth. What a treat coming from Tim Burton, who has recovered his imaginative touch after a few missteps, and from his frequent collaborator Johnny Depp, an actor who resolutely embodies Burton’s fanciful vision.

“Here’s a film about kids and for kids that has not lost touch with what it is like to actually be a kid. Children and adults alike will jam lines to movie houses in North America and overseas to acquire golden tickets for this audience-pleaser.”

Wow! The Zone thanks Reemi for publishing the HR review on our News & Views forum, where you can read every delicious word.

Zoners’ VCRs went into overdrive on Thursday, July 7th, as they scrambled to capture three different Johnny Depp interviews on three separate entertainment programs. Voted as the celebrity MTV viewers would most like to see on TRL, Johnny Depp made a long-awaited appearance on the video countdown program–but he didn’t come to the Times Square studio. Instead, MTV aired an interview filmed during the Nassau press junket two weeks ago. To his credit, Damien asked a few questions that weren’t standard fare: for example, which was Johnny’s most recent tattoo? Johnny pointed to the sparrow on his forearm done in celebration of his son Jack, and mentioned the tattoo artist who created the sparrow: Mark Mahoney on Sunset Strip. Asked to name the greatest gift he’d ever received, Johnny first asked if it had to be a material object, then chose the time he spent with Marlon Brando. Damien also contributed an unintentional moment of hilarity when his cell phone went off in mid-interview. Johnny instantly identified the ringtone as a song by Journey and teasingly offered to help Damien get a better ringtone. Thanks to Johnnys Grape, who started a thread about TRL in the Pit, and all the Zoners who posted their comments.

Johnny’s appearance on ACCESS HOLLYWOOD, also taken from the Nassua junket, stressed his close friendship with Tim Burton. Johnny’s comment that he and Tim scarcely need any language to communicate their thoughts was borne out by a clip of Tim directing Johnny on the CATCF set, in which Tim needed to say only two or three vague words before Johnny nodded agreement. Johnny then offered two vague words in reply, and they were ready to shoot the scene.

ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT featured Johnny in their “Before They Were Stars” segment, along with Nicole Kidman and Lindsay Lohan. ET dug into the vault and unearthed a vintage clip of Johnny shot backstage on the 21 JUMP STREET set. “Even then the publicity-shy actor was uncomfortable with the spotlight,” noted film critic Leonard Maltin. In the interview, Johnny talked about how “strange” it was to go to a restaurant and have people “gawking” at him “like an animal on display, like some kind of freak.” Johnny added, “The least important thing to me is [. . .] becoming famous and being well-known, you know, trying to be everybody’s hero. That’s not what I’m about.” His comments still hold true today. Thanks to alias4 for breaking the news and artistatheart for transcribing the interview on the News & Views forum.

The VCRs will continue to get a workout on Friday, as Johnny’s appearance on THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW is rebroadcast in the United States.

Seizing every possible opportunity to promote CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, Warner Bros. had actor Deep Roy, who plays all the Oompa Loompas in the upcoming film, dance in front of one of the CATCF billboards at Franklin and Highland in Hollywood this morning, July 7th. The Oompa Loompa danced to Danny Elfman songs from the new film, of course, and appeared as “an ambassador from Willy Wonka” to celebrate Chocolate Day. Among the crowd gathered to enjoy Deep Roy’s performance was the Zone’s johnnybloom–be sure to catch her lively account of the event which is posted on the Pit. She even shares her photos of the dancing Oompa Loompa! Thanks, johnnybloom–you make us feel as if we were there, too!

Cartoon Network aired a hilarious extended trailer for TIM BURTON’S CORPSE BRIDE tonight, July 6th. The stop-motion animated feature stars Johnny Depp as the voice of Victor, the reluctant groom, and Helena Bonham-Carter as the very frisky Corpse Bride. If you missed the trailer, you can view it online at Yahoo movies HERE. The Yahoo site also has a collection of photos. The Zone thanks DeepinDepp for breaking the story and Bunny for the link to the trailer. TIM BURTON’S CORPSE BRIDE arrives in theaters in North America on September 23, 2005.

The TONIGHT SHOW website has announced that Johnny Depp will be appearing on the show on Wednesday, July 13th! Depp fans will recall Johnny’s last appearance on the TONIGHT SHOW, during the promotion for PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: host Jay Leno presented Johnny with some Barbie dolls for Lily-Rose and persuaded Johnny to help officiate at the “weiner-dog races.” We hope this time Jay will be better prepared for the interview and will demonstrate a little more knowledge of Johnny’s work. The Zone thanks Johnny Fanatic for posting the news on the News & Views forum. You can check the guest calendar HERE.

The wire service photo at the left shows director Tim Burton and actor Freddie Highmore, who plays Charlie Bucket, arriving at a Paris theater on Monday, July 4th, for the premiere of their latest film, CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. Johnny Depp and his partner Vanessa Paradis did not attend the Paris premiere. The U.S. premiere of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY will take place on Sunday afternoon, July 10th, at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Thanks to emma for posting the Paris story and Gilbert’s Girl for posting photos on the News & Views forum.

Great news for U.S. Deppheads who missed the original airing of Johnny Depp’s appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show: Oprah will re-air her interview with Johnny on Friday, July 8th! The program originally aired on November 2, 2004, which coincided with the U.S. presidential election, and many fans had their airing of Oprah pre-empted by news coverage and never saw the program. Johnny appeared in connection with the promotion for FINDING NEVERLAND, and is joined on the show by Kate Winslet and Freddie Highmore. Despite his host’s evident lack of familiarity with his work, Johnny is gracious, modest, and unfailingly charming throughout the hour–and he doesn’t jump off the couch even once.

The Zone thanks random_victim for posting the Oprah news on the News & Views forum. Since the show is syndicated, it airs at different times in various markets; check your local listings. For another view of Johnny on Oprah, click HERE.

As part of the promotion for its upcoming release CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, Warner Brothers will celebrate Chocolate Day, July 7th, by regaling Hollywood with a dancing Oompa Loompa and gifts of Wonka candy. “Master chocolatier Willy Wonka is sending an Oompa Loompa Ambassador to Los Angeles,” declares the press release. Actor Deep Roy, who plays all the Oompa Loompas in the film, “will dance high above Hollywood on the film’s billboard to two of the Oompa Loompa songs Danny Elfman created for the film.” Fans and chocolate-lovers who would like to join the celebration are invited to come to 6817 Franklin Avenue (at Highland) early on Thursday morning. The crew will begin assembling at 7:00 a.m. and Deep Roy will dance at 7:30 a.m. Prizes for the crowd will include Wonka candy, CATCF soundtracks, and–for one lucky fan–a $250 gift certificate to Hot Topic. Thanks, DeepinDepp, for the posting the news; you can read all the details HERE.

In an interview called “Hanging with Johnny in the Bahamas,” posted by emma on the News & Views forum, the interviewer asks Johnny Depp to name his favorite candy. “He had to think about this for a minute,” the reporter writes. “Then he said, ‘Remember those little chocolate footballs?'” Dumbfounded, the reporter asks, “You mean the kind where it was impossible to peel the aluminum foil off?”

“‘Yes!!’ he said with a laugh.” If you can’t celebrate Chocolate Day with a trip to Hollywood, enjoy some chocolate footballs or the new Hostess Wonka Cakes–chocolate with a purple creme filling. Then settle back and pop CHOCOLAT into the DVD player while you’re waiting for the release of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY.

Australian Deppheads are celebrating an interview in the Sunday Herald Sun in which Johnny Depp confirms that part of the epic movie SHANTARAM will be filmed Down Under. “We’ll definitely have to film in Melbourne,” Johnny said during an interview on Paradise Island last weekend. Melbourne is the hometown of SHANTARAM author–and former “Gentleman Bandit”–Gregory David Roberts, and the site of Pentridge Prison, where Roberts was incarcerated and from which he escaped. Filming of SHANTARAM is expected to begin sometime next year, when Johnny has completed the sequels to PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN.

Johnny hasn’t been to Australia since 1988, when he visited Melbourne to promote his television series 21 JUMP STREET. “I was on ‘Hey Hey It’s Saturday’ with that puppet,” Johnny told the Herald Sun. “What was his name? Yeah, Ossie Ostrich.” SHANTARAM promises to be a very different experience–a sprawling saga of an escaped prisoner’s life on the run. Johnny is full of praise for Roberts’s book: “He’s written this absolutely beautiful, poetic, allegorical, super thick, 1000 page novel that tore the top of my head off when I read it,” Johnny said.

Roberts is writing the screenplay for the film of SHANTARAM, in which Johnny will play the leading role. “[W]e just got our first draft of the screenplay and it’s very, very exciting,” Johnny said. “It’s going to be great.”

In other SHANTARAM news, author Roberts is currently living in south Mumbai, writing another novel and hoping to obtain Indian citizenship. The author is presently outfitting a mobile clinic to aid the “downtrodden and poor who no one else wants to help,” including street children, prostitutes, and the homeless who live along the railway tracks. Roberts wants to give something back to the city that “nourished and loved him.” Current plans have SHANTARAM filming in Mumbai as well, and Roberts hopes to see many of his favorite Bollywood actors in the cast.

The Zone thanks emma for posting the interview with Johnny and DeepinDepp for the article on Gregory Roberts; you can read both on the News & Views forum.

In an honor sure to mortify its recipient, Johnny Depp was voted the #1 Hottest Hunk of the summer in a viewer poll taken by ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT. “Stay tuned for the unlikely choice for number one,” said the ET announcer at the opening of the show; no doubt conventional wisdom would have predicted one of the summer’s action heroes rather than the pale, fragile, socially inept Willy Wonka. But no matter how Johnny transforms himself onscreen, he can’t hide his appeal. After the parade of action hero-hunks had run its course, the chocolatier in the velvet coat and top hat nabbed the top spot. Thanks to Intodadepps for posting the ET results on the News & Views forum!

Although Johnny Depp loves living on his Caribbean island–“The house is [. . .]very rustic and true to the surroundings. Very simple structures and very simple life there, but it’s beautiful”–he always refers to it as “the” island. “I have difficulty saying ‘my’ before that word,” he told interviewer Ruben V. Nepales modestly. “I’ve always enjoyed the water and being on the ocean so that has been a consistent theme in my life. At the end of filming the first PIRATES movie, there was a part of me thinking, ‘God, hope I get to see this [the Caribbean] again.'”

Regarding Willy Wonka’s distinctive look, Johnny confided that once again his friend Tim Burton quashed his hopes of altering his appearance by wearing “a long prosthetic nose.” “[A]s soon as Tim and I got together, one of the first things he said to me was, ‘You’re not going to wear a prosthetic nose, right?'” As for Wonka’s extreme pallor, that comes from his isolation within the factory. “It’s almost as if he hasn’t seen the sun in many years. That’s where that pasty look came from [. . .] .” And the unusual purple eyes? “In the book, Roald Dahl mentioned twinkling eyes,” Johnny explained. “We checked out a bunch of different colors for contact lenses. I saw these lavender ones and popped them in. They were perfect.” The sparkling white teeth connect to Wonka’s family history: “[B]ecause his dad was a dentist, I thought that he would have perfect, too-white teeth.”

Asked to explain what events led to him becoming “one of the top actors around,” Johnny burst into laughter. “Someone made a mistake somewhere. After the release of PIRATES, I started meeting people on the street, 5-year-olds, 70-year-olds, who would say, ‘I really liked Captain Jack Sparrow.’ Or, ‘I really like BENNY & JOON.’ It has given new life to these other films that I did that made about $3.75 at the box office,” Johnny confided. “I really don’t know what happened but I am not going to question it.”

The Zone thanks theresa for posting the interview on the News & Views forum, and for the Showbiz Tonight screencap at left. You can see a larger version of the picture HERE. Be sure to read the full interview–don’t miss Johnny’s account of his visit to Lily-Rose’s kindergarten class!

The new issue of ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY features Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka on the cover, and an article inside by Chris Nashawaty called “The Truth about Charlie.” Nashawaty combines descriptions of on-set antics during the shooting at Pinewood with a thoughtful backstory about the making of the film, the approach taken by Tim Burton and Johnny, and the opposition from those so loyal to the 1971 Gene Wilder version of Roald Dahl’s book that they resist any thought of a different version of the material.

Nashawaty sees Johnny’s Willy Wonka as “weird” and “eccentric,” a daring acting choice from someone who could simply ride his PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN success to further box-office gold. When Nashawaty asks why Johnny elects to hide his “good looks behind strange wigs, fake teeth, and girly squeals,” Johnny replies, “I think it’s an actor’s responsibility to change every time. Not only for himself and the people he’s working with, but for the audience. If you just go out and deliver the same dish every time…it’s meatloaf again…you’d get bored. I’d get bored.”

The Zone thanks luvdepp for breaking the news and emma for posting the article on the News & Views forum.

Depp fans can get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Tim Burton’s CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY tonight, July 1st, as HBO’s FIRST LOOK features a 13-minute segment on CATCF. Expect to see footage of Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka, Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket, and Depp Roy as every Oompa Loompa in the movie, and to hear some more details about the amazing chocolate river and the incredible nutcracking squirrels. HBO’s FIRST LOOK at CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY airs at 7:45 p.m. on HBO East and 10:45 p.m. on HBO West, then repeats throughout the month of July. You can check the extended HBO schedule HERE.

The Zone thanks all the members who are posting details of TV programs on the News & Views forum, and especially DeepinDepp who has put together a TV ALERTS thread which lists all the upcoming programs.