Variety’s Dave McNary confirms what the Zone reported in mid-January: Johnny Depp is directing a documentary about rock legend/Rolling Stone guitarist and sometime actor Keith Richards. “A rep for Depp confirmed a recent report in the Serbian magazine Politika, in which he said he would begin work on the project next week,” reports McNary. “Depp and Richards have been friends for more than a decade.”

Unfortunately, McNary’s story was victimized by sloppy headline-writing; Variety used “Actor to begin work on the project next week” in their headline, and that information was picked up by media outlets and widely reported. But it is not correct. Had the headline-writer read more carefully, he or she would have noticed what Zone readers already know–when Johnny Depp told a Serbian reporter that he would begin the documentary “next week,” Johnny was in Serbia, speaking at the Kustendorf International Film Festival in mid-January. The headline writer failed to allow for the time it took for the Serbian magazine to get to press. Production on the documentary has been underway for some time; Johnny filmed segments at the Los Angeles Theatre (with Keith Richards, Patti Smith, and other musicians) last weekend.

The Zone thanks FANtasticJD for sharing the Variety story; you can read more about the Keith Richards documentary, called Happy, on the Zone’s Pit forum. The original story from Kustendorf is on the News & Views forum.