Australian Peter Weir to direct Johnny Depp in SHANTARAM

Warner Bros. has picked Australian Peter Weir to direct SHANTARAM, their adaptation of the Gregory David Roberts novel that will star Johnny Depp. Weir, who received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of GREEN CARD, will work with Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth to develop the script, VARIETY’s Michael Fleming reports. Weir also has four Oscar nominations as Best Director–for WITNESS, DEAD POETS SOCIETY, THE TRUMAN SHOW, and most recently for MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD.

In SHANTARAM, Johnny Depp will play an Australian heroin addict who escapes a maximum-security prison and flees to India. In the slums of Bombay, he reinvents himself as a doctor. His attempt to find medicine for his destitute patients leads him into counterfeiting, gunrunning and smuggling. SHANTARAM is an epic adventure story, brimming with passion and danger; similar in tone, VARIETY notes, to Weir’s early, much-lauded films with Mel Gibson, GALLIPOLI and THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY.

Warner Bros. hopes to begin production on SHANTARAM late next year.

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