JohnnyDepp-Zone.com

The 2009 Licensing Show in Las Vegas brings the following update from Disney regarding scheduling of two highly-anticipated films starring Johnny Depp. Pirates of the Caribbean 4, a new adventure with Captain Jack Sparrow, was originally planned to be the Summer 2011 tentpole release for Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films. That date has proved to be too ambitious; now Pirates 4 is “tentatively slated for release in the Summer of 2012,” reports Jim Hill Media, which closely monitors Disney news. So we’ll have to wait an additional year to see Captain Jack on the big screen again.

As for the other Disney/Bruckheimer/Depp collaboration, The Lone Ranger, we can expect to see the western as a Summer 2011 tentpole, with Mike Newell directing. Newell helmed Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and the upcoming Bruckheimer production Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, as well as the Johnny Depp-Al Pacino gangster classic Donnie Brasco. The Lone Ranger has yet to be cast, but Johnny Depp will be playing Tonto. That’s a natural fit: JD is part Cherokee, and as he told Douglas Brinkley in the new Vanity Fair interview, “You know I’m always for the Indian in the cowboy movie. Always.”

In The Lone Ranger saga, the Texas Ranger and Tonto are friends, not enemies–a rather radical, optimistic vision of universal brotherhood for a western which began on radio in the 1930s, when positive portrayals of Native Americans were few and far between. Johnny’s vision of Tonto is even more radical: “Tonto needs to be in charge,” he told Douglas Brinkley. “The Lone Ranger should be a fool, a lovable one, but a fool nonetheless.” Brinkley qualifies the remark by saying it was made “half in jest,” but even so, it suggests a new and intriguing approach to Tonto . . . .

The Zone thanks FANtastic JD for the Disney update; you can read more on the Zone’s News & Views forum. –Part-Time Poet

In a recent interview with Lisa Harvey of Gulf News, Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard talks about her life as an actress since La Vie en Rose and her experiences filming Michael Mann’s Public Enemies, in which she plays Billie Frechette, the woman who captures John Dillinger’s heart.

Q: What was it about Public Enemies that made you think–I have to do it?

MARION: I didn’t know anything about the Dillinger case [. . . ]. I read the script and I started to do some research about American history–this tough period of the Depression and the creation of the FBI and I thought it was so interesting.

I think that what I love in this story, in the movie, is that you can feel in each character the failure and the violence, the pain of this period. You can see it in Dillinger, you can see it in Melvin Purvis, you can see it in Billie Frechette. You can see it in all the characters and I think it’s beautiful to make you feel what was this period was like.

Q: How was it to star alongside Johnny Depp?

MARION: I was very, very nervous [. . .] because it was my first movie after La Vie en Rose, [. . . and] more because I hadn’t worked for two years [. . .] being on a set with someone else, giving life to someone [. . .]. I was very nervous about the accent because I had to nail a mid western American accent which I think was impossible [. . .] . But he was so nice to me. He saw right away that I was very nervous and he reassured me, he was very nice, he has a huge respect of people and things. He is a real gentleman. He is an amazing actor, so I knew that when you work with an amazing actor, it makes you be better than if you work with someone who is totally out of it.

The Zone thanks Emma for posting the interview with Marion Cotillard; you can read more of Marion’s observations on the Zone’s Porch forum. –Part-Time Poet