JohnnyDepp-Zone.com

Apparently Johnny Depp doesn’t have enough to keep him busy, because his production company, Infinitum Nihil, is teaming up with Disney on two new feature film projects: a drama about Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride of 1775 (somewhere Longfellow is smiling) and a big-screen version of the 70s TV series The Night Stalker. “Depp is the potential star of both films and he and his Infinitum Nihil partner Christi Dembrowski will produce,” reports Mike Fleming of Deadline.com today.

The Night Stalker was a TV-movie and series about a sardonic tabloid reporter, Carl Kolchak (played by Darren McGavin), whose investigations invariably involved the paranormal and supernatural — vampires, zombies, werewolves and aliens. The series was produced by Dan Curtis, who also produced Dark Shadows, and featured his trademark blend of horror, suspense, and dark comedy.

The historical drama about Paul Revere “will focus on the Boston silversmith and that 24-hour period in which he made the risky ‘midnight ride’ from Charlestown to Lexington, Massachusetts, becoming a seminal figure in the American Revolutionary War,” writes Fleming. Lee and Janet Batchler, who wrote Batman Forever, will write the screenplay; Jon Brown and Margaret French-Isaac of Infinitum Nihil will be executive producers.

These new projects will keep Johnny Depp working with Disney for some time to come; his next project, after he wraps Dark Shadows for Tim Burton, will be the Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer Lone Ranger, directed by Gore Verbinski, in which Johnny is set to play Tonto. However, “insiders have denied a story in The Wrap [. . .] that Depp is set for a fifth Pirates of the Caribbean,” writes Fleming.

The Zone thanks FANtasticJD for breaking the news; you can read more about the Paul Revere and Night Stalker projects on the Zone’s News & Views forum. You can read the Fleming article HERE.